Olympics.

Don’t you just love the Olympics? Every four years, athletes who have been training for years come together to compete and give the performance of their lifetime. And the spectators – they cry tears of joy for the winners, hug strangers in excitement, and scream from the top of their lungs. It is not so different for the folks watching from home. They are on the edge of their seat, cursing at the TV, and throwing random objects in frustration. All these things make the Olympics the magical mystery that we love.
The Olympics is an international sports festival held every four years. The major objective of this festival is to harbor world peace through sports. Winter and summer games are held during the festival at different periods. There are over 30 sports that people compete in during the Olympics. Some of them are obvious sports you would expect like archery, gymnastics, and cycling. Others are, well, not so obvious like skateboarding.

However, the question remains unanswered – is Rock Paper Scissors an Olympic sport? The simple answer is no, it is not. Queue the sad trombone, sorry guys. But why is one of the greatest psychologically tasking games not a part of something as grand as the Olympics? Surely it deserves a spot. After all, it has its society with a handbook. Well, you will find out in the rest of this article.

Why is Rock Paper Scissors not in the Olympics?

The road to becoming a recognized sport in the Olympics is filled with several hurdles. In other words, it is a very difficult position to get to. Here is a summary of what it takes to become a recognized Olympic sport.

The first step in becoming an Olympic sport is getting recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

After that, it moves to the International Sports Federation Status (IF).
It is important to note that a sport may be IOC recognized without being competed at the Olympic games. An example of such a sport would be Chess. However, we are not looking at half greatness – no offense to Chess. We want to go all the way and that means competing in the games.

For a sport to become part of the games, their IF has to apply by filling a petition form. After this, any one of these three things will happen. You will be admitted either as –
a) a sport, for example, the triathlon which debuted in Sydney 2000;
b) a discipline, such as women’s wrestling under wrestling in Athens; or
c) an event, like women’s pole vaulting under track and field events.

It is no surprise that after submitting your petition, a lot of rules come into play in determining whether you will be admitted or not.
The most important rule states that before a sport gains acceptance into the Games, it must be “widely practiced.” This means that its participants should consist of men on not less than four continents and in 75 countries, as well as women on at least three continents and in 40 countries. Besides the measure of participation, the sport has to increase the Olympics Games’ appeal and value. Again, the sport ought to retain and reflect the modern traditions of the Games.
There is also a ban placed on sports that completely rely on your mental capacity. It is rules like these that have kept games like Chess away from the Olympics sphere.

Is there hope for RPS?

Not to be the bearer of bad news but there seems to be no hope of Rock Paper Scissors becoming an Olympic sport in sight. The only way it would be possible is for the Olympics to review their rules and remove their ban on purely “mind games” such as Rock Paper Scissors. Unfortunately, we might not be expecting such a change anytime soon.

What Now?

We might not be part of the Olympics but that does not stop us from hosting our own. Starting in 2022 we will have the very first Rock Paper Scissors Olympiad, it will be run every second year to show that Rock Paper Scissors can be played in either the Summer or the Winter Olympics. We arent Picky.

If that is too long for you to wait you can always compete in our Professional Tournaments all over the World.

Wrapping Up

It is the dream of any sport to be a part of the Olympic games. After all, it is the largest sports festival in the world. And your ability to qualify as an event in the festival proves your value as a sport that is worth playing across the world, fostering world peace. Hopefully, one day, the committee will have a change of dimension and review their criteria for games. Only then can Rock Paper Scissors be a part of something as great as the Olympics.