Why Go-Kart Racing Deserves a Spot in the Olympics
The Olympics just wrapped up. Over the last few weeks, you probably saw a lot of breakdancing, racewalking, and trampoline in your feeds. Shoutout to Raygun, by the way. But for all the weird and wacky events at this year’s Olympics, one thing you didn’t see in Paris was auto racing.
Auto racing has never caught on at the Olympics, not that they haven’t tried. At the 1900 Summer Olympics, Renault founder Louis Renault and a dozen or so other drivers raced around France in two-seat Citroens and Peugeots. Renault took home the gold and a lofty ₣4,000 cash prize. A second “Olympic Rally” took place during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, with British racing driver Betty Haig in a Singer Le Mans and Swiss driver Paul Abt in a Riley Falcon both taking home golds.
Unfortunately though, while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) acknowledges these races took place, the IOC doesn’t recognize either of them as official events. And there hasn’t been another attempt to bring motorsports to the Olympics in the 88 years since.
In 2001, it seemed all hope was lost. The IOC all but banned motor racing in its updated charter. In chapter 5, a single line stated: “Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not acceptable.” Thankfully, the IOC removed that rule in 2016 and the amended charter from 2023 makes no mention of it.
Initially, I wanted to examine why Formula 1-style racing isn’t in the Olympics. Take the world’s best drivers, put them in a single-seat race car, and let them loose on a track. But top-end motorsports would be insanely expensive at the Olympic level, hard to regulate, and not every country would be able to field a spec vehicle (even the ones with some of the world’s best drivers).
So what’s the next-best solution? Go-karts.
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