The three-time darts world champion Michael van Gerwen can well imagine that his sport will eventually make it to the Olympic Games – if it is a promotion at all.
The 2024 Darts World Cup starts on Friday in the famous “Ally Pally” in London. The sport is enjoying increasing popularity year after year – and so a big question arises in the medium term: Does darts have what it takes to become an Olympic sport?
The three-time darts world champion Michael van Gerwen can basically imagine this. “If shooting is an Olympic sport, then why not darts too?” asks the Dutchman in an interview with “Sport Bild”.
The 34-year-old knows that “the physical aspect is missing”. But he doesn’t necessarily see that as an exclusion criterion. “Mentally,” emphasized van Gerwen, “darts is harder than any other sport. It’s a one-on-one fight, match for match.”
However, “MvG” could not and did not want to give a serious assessment of the Olympic question. “Maybe it will be an issue in ten years, but I think we still have to develop more,” said the world number two and added: “But of course: of course I have the dream of winning gold for Holland.”
Darts: PDC Europe boss rails against the Olympics
The Olympic debate surrounding arrow sports is not new. “I really want that. I started talking last year about wanting darts to be an Olympic sport,” said reigning darts world champion Michael Smith to “news.com.au” in the summer.
On the other hand, Werner von Moltke, the managing director of the Professional Darts Corporation in German-speaking countries (PDC Europe), believes that a possible entry into the Olympics is not a good idea.
“It would be nice for athletes like Gabriel Clemens, but the Olympics are a crime against athletes,” denounced the founder of the German Darts Corporation. Despite billions in revenue, there is no prize money for the athletes at the Olympic Games, criticized von Moltke.
“If you look at the highest-earning athletes on the Forbes list: There are no track and field athletes, no swimmers, no gymnasts,” said von Moltke: “The classic Olympic sports are the losers of the last 30 or 40 years.”