I have a confession: I never really care about the Olympics until they begin, and then I am absolutely locked in. I don’t watch the opening ceremony, but I spend weeks putting some baffling sport on my second screen. In 2024, that meant mountain biking, kayaking, and an equestrian event where Germany won gold for a reason I still cannot explain. That, to me, is the best part of the Games: obscure sports with tiny rulebooks and ravenous fans. So when the Paris opening ceremony slipped in an Assassin’s Creed parkour reference, my brain did the obvious thing. It’s 2026 now, and I’m still wondering: which video games would make genuinely great Olympic sports? I’m not talking about esports or straightforward sports games. I want the weird crossover ideas.
Mirror’s Edge – Parkour, finally
Why hasn’t parkour been added to the Olympics yet? Many host nations add their own sports: the USA gave us roque in 1904, Britain added BMX in 2012, and Paris chose breaking in 2024. Parkour would be a natural fit. It could be judged like gymnastics or freestyle skateboarding, with points for complexity and execution, or run as a time trial through increasingly difficult routes, like kayaking. Mirror’s Edge already gives us the visual language: fluid leaps, rolls, wall climbs, and risky descents. Am I alone in wanting to see an athlete turn a city block into a racecourse? Probably not.
Titanfall 2 – Wallrunning as a field event
If parkour isn’t enough, how about competitive wallrunning? Titanfall 2 has that perfect Gauntlet aesthetic. We could set up a wallrun track in the middle of the stadium and judge it like the long jump: longest wallrun wins. Honestly, watching someone sprint horizontally along a vertical wall for ten meters would be more exciting than half the track events I’ve ignored. Do the Titans have to be there? No. But maybe a giant robot as a commentator would boost ratings.
Splatoon – Competitive team painting
Let’s get weird. Art used to be an Olympic event from 1912 to 1948, but it was dropped because too many artists were considered professionals. The Olympics has never had team-versus-team competitive painting. Splatoon changes that. Instead of shooting opponents, two teams could race to cover a large arena with fast-drying, non-toxic paint. Let’s be honest: watching teams paint over each other’s colour would be chaos, but the exciting kind. You’d need special paint that doesn’t turn into brown sludge when mixed, but that’s an engineering problem, not a reason to say no.
Fortnite – A builder’s pentathlon
Hear me out: I don’t want Olympic athletes shooting each other. But an IRL Fortnite event could look like the modern pentathlon or biathlon, combining target shooting with building. Competitors would have to complete practical construction tasks—maybe a dry stone wall, a wooden fence, or a small steel frame—and then shoot at targets before moving to the next build. It’s the sort of event farmers and tradespeople would absolutely dominate. Is it absurd? Yes. Would I watch every second? Also yes.
Pokemon – Humane creature wrangling
After Olympic Fortnite, Pokémon feels almost normal. This isn’t about making animals fight. Instead, competitors would need to capture animals safely, like a cowboy competition crossed with a nature documentary. You might start with a rat, move to a bird, and finish with a turtle—dragons are, unfortunately, off the table. It would be judged by time, with instant disqualification for harming or distressing the animal. The real question is whether “the power of friendship” counts as a legal capture method. I’d allow it.
Metal Gear Solid – Competitive hide and seek
Competitive tag is already a big deal, and competitive hide and seek could be either brilliant or incredibly boring. My version takes cues from Metal Gear Solid: give athletes an unfamiliar indoor environment, a time limit, and a very quiet audience. One competitor hides, the other searches. Reverse the roles, then break ties with best-of-three or total evasion time. It sounds simple, but stealth under pressure is a genuine skill. Maybe the message of Metal Gear was actually about Olympic hide and seek all along.
Would any of these appear in Los Angeles 2028? Probably not, but a person can dream. For now, I’ll keep watching sport climbing, BMX freestyle, and whatever strange event the host city decides to invent. Still, if a future Olympic programme includes parkour, wallrunning, competitive painting, or stealth hide and seek, remember where you heard it first.