Dubai wants to host robot Olympics every 2 years from 2017

After the Olympics, and many other human sports, have become mired in cheating allegations, you might be excited to hear that from 2017, we may no longer need people to compete for gold at all.

Following the World Drone Prix in Dubai this weekend, which saw a 15-year-old British kid take home the top $250,000 prize, the gulf state has unveiled plans to hold a futuristic Olympics every two years starting in 2017.

It is billed to feature nine competitions, including driverless car racing, robotic soccer, robotic running, manned drones racing, robotic swimming, robotic table tennis, robotic wrestling, drone races and a cybathlon event for bionic athletes.

This means humans could, at the very least, be confined to the sidelines of future sport, with the brains of developers in relevant countries replacing the physical power of the sports teams of old.

Dubai is also creating a new World Federation of Future Sports, whose first head will be UAE government minister Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, which doesn’t exactly signal a democratic new beginning for future world sport.

But the Government of Dubai says the organization will work with existing global sports bodies to push for international standards and regulatory frameworks around this emerging area.

ICYMI, here’s the final race of the World Drone Prix.

Expect more where this came from.

➤ Dubai announces World Future Sports Games in December 2017 [Government of Dubai]