Will Poker Be an Olympic Sport?

If poker becomes an Olympic sport this could be the face of an Olympic gold medalist. (Bodog Beat Image)"]

The 2008 Beijing Olympics is in full swing and people are buzzing about what should and should not be designated as worthy of being an Olympic sport. With the next Summer Olympics set for 2012 in London an English card manufacturer, Waddington’s, did a survey asking 1,000 people if they thought poker should be an Olympic sport. Surprisingly, over a third (36%) thought it was a good idea.

Now before you go rage in the comments section about how crazy it would be for poker players to be considered Olympic athletes you might want to compare it to some of the other “sports” that the IOC considers Olympic worthy.

Let’s start with Equestrian – pony riding if you will. Here we have a well-trained horse running around, jumping over things and trotting nicely. Well that’s great but is the rider really doing something particularly physical? Is it on par with something like wrestling? Obviously not, so we can assume that pure physicality isn’t a major criterion, correct?

And how about something like skeet shooting? Hand-eye coordination is great but should we then also be awarding a gold medal to the world’s best video game player?

While I tend to be more of the opinion that we need less Olympic sports and not more, it has become difficult to draw the line on what exactly deserves the IOC’s stamp of approval.

There is currently an active online petition to make poker an Olympic sport. As of the writing of this there are only 163 signatures so you probably won’t have to worry about hearing someone like Doyle Brunson or Greg Raymer being described as an athlete any time soon.

Here's an idea: what if you took a cue from the biathlon and combined poker with another sport? Something like mixed martial arts. I know at least a couple poker players who might be interested.

And if you’re looking for one more reason to make poker an Olympic sport, just head over to Bodog. You can bet on poker in the sportsbook, so it has got to be a sport, right? Oh wait, golf is in there too. Nevermind.