The 2024 Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in Paris later this summer. Darts is still not part of the Olympic programme, but isn’t it time to add the sport to a future edition of the world’s biggest sporting event?
During the recent Polish Darts Championships, Michael van Gerwen was asked about this possibility. All three replied: “I can imagine it happening because I see other sports that are not as professional or not as big as us. But it's not up to me. It's up to the Olympic Committee, the matchroom sports, the Games Development Committee…” The world champion of the time. “It's out of my control. I wish I could influence it, but unfortunately I can't.”
If darts were part of the current Olympic cycle, current world champion and world number one Luke Humphries would be one of the favourites to add an Olympic gold medal to his growing list of achievements. “I really do think so, to be honest,” Humphries answered the question during a press conference at the Poland Darts Masters. “At the moment in the UK it’s probably the second or third most popular sport, and it’s growing and growing in a lot of other countries. So yeah, it’s probably the biggest sport not in the Olympics, and maybe it should be.”
Humphries and Van Gerwen are not the only ones who would like to compete for Olympic gold one day. Former world champion Michael Smith has previously said he would like to see the sport added to a future Olympics. “Yes, of course I would! I started talking about it more last year and wanting to get it there,” he previously told Fox Sports. “Darts is not just a sport you can learn and do. There is race walking (in the Olympics). Everyone can run. It’s something everyone can do. I can swim 50 metres in 70 seconds. Not everyone can do it. It’s exercise.
“We have a bigger crowd than football and soccer at the Olympics. Our attendance figures are higher than that – and that would generate a lot of money for the IOC. I think it would be a great addition,” Smith continued. “I really think it should happen. If we keep pushing, maybe it will happen. There are different sports coming up now and hopefully one day we can get there.”
