Motorsport at the Olympics

The idea of motorsport at the Olympics is not new, but it’s surely something Kirsty Coventry, President of the International Olympic Committee, and her colleagues at the IOC should now be thinking about seriously for the future.

The potential for entertainment could be endless if the world’s best pedallers could be coaxed into competing against one another across a variety of motorised events. If the right formats for said events could be nailed it could prove to be commercial gold and if the right kinds of vehicles could be chosen for the best drivers and riders – ones that appeal to younger generations – maybe the notion of transport itself could benefit. Yet for the last 125 years, the idea of motorsport at the Olympics has not gone down well with the IOC. But it wasn’t always that way.

At the 1900 Paris Summer games, 14 motorsport events took place with categories for delivery vans and fire engines, among others. Yes, really. The main race – from Paris to Toulouse and back – was split into two categories, that for small cars being won by Louis Renault in a Renault. There is some dispute as to whether any of these were ‘official’ races, but come what may, immediately thereafter the Olympic charter banned ‘all sports dependent on mechanical propulsion’.