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Will Olympic gold medals ever be handed out in darts?

Should darts be in the Olympics and will it ever be considered for inclusion?

By Paul Nicholson

19:03 · MON August 05, 2024

Would you like to see darts become an Olympic sport?

In this week’s column, Paul Nicholson discusses the arguments for and against the sport’s future inclusion and whether he can ever realistically see it happening.

Why should darts be in the Olympics?

Darts wouldn’t obviously be considered an ‘athletic’ event but it certainly ticks the box of being a ‘target’ sport such as archery and shooting – and their inclusion in the games is never questioned.

Not everything has to be a test of speed and physical endurance.

Also, it’s unique to the other target sports in the sense that there is no equipment used to project the object being ‘fired’. In archery and shooting you’ve got the bow and the gun, whereas in darts its just the human hand.

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So, from this perspective you can argue that darts is actually a purer form of target shooting than those already in the games.

From a logistical point of view, darts is also a sport that wouldn’t take a great deal of organising due to the space that’s needed and wouldn’t need a separate purpose-built arena built for it.

There’s also two different types of the sport when you think about soft tip and steel tip darts. So, there are options for the IOC to consider.

More importantly the sport has become far more globalised in recent times than many years ago when it would be mainly considered a ‘British sport’.

Just look at the World Cup of Darts – there are 40 nations in that now and they can all pretty much hold their own against anyone, especially in pairs and other team formats.

In the Olympics, the net could be cast even wider to more South American and Asian countries as well as Oceanic islands.

I also believe darts is much easier for those watching Olympics at home – especially children – to get involved in than the other target sports and many other disciplines we see in the games.

The sport is growing in popularity with the younger generation, as we’ve seen with the likes of Luke Littler’s age group, and it doesn’t start with pub culture anymore.

Due to the ticketing structure of the Olympics, the crowd atmosphere would obviously end up having a completely different atmosphere to anything you’d see at Ally Pally or on Premier League darts, so organisers wouldn’t have to be worried about that!

What format of darts would you want to see in the Olympics?

Like we see in many other sports in the Olympics, there could be individual and team medals available.

Just like with tennis, you could have singles, pairs and possibly even mixed pairs. You could even have a team format which involves four players per nation – there are lots of possibilities that could be considered.

Would it be for professionals or amateurs?

If it was down to me, I’d want to make the Olympics for either the under 23s age group so it focuses on the future of the sport, or just the amateur game rather than those in the PDC ranks.

It would be a bit like boxing where amateurs are battling out for Olympic glory and then decide whether to turn professional.

There’s another key reason for darts adopting this approach if it’s ever to be considered for Olympic inclusion – and that’s because the PDC probably wouldn’t be interested in pushing darts into the Games.

They are a professional promotional company and this wouldn’t be in their remit. They have enough on their plate and I just don’t think they’re interested.

We’d probably be looking at this as an opportunity for emerging amateur talent around the world to win the medals rather than the likes of Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson.

If this is ever to be done, you’d think it would have to be down to the WDF who are the world governing body of darts and organise non-PDC tournaments.

The Junior Darts Corporation and Amateur Darts Circuits are other organisations who could make a push for this in the future due to how forward-thinking they are.

Unlike the WDF – who don’t really seem to do anything new – the ADC and JDC are on an upward trend. They have people at the helm who are ambitious and want to keep improving.

They’d have to get a meeting with the IOC and say: “Look, this sport is a target sport played by millions of kids and amateur players worldwide. We have a global circuit going on so is there any reason why this can't be in the Olympics?” And then we’ll go from there.

Why won’t it be in the Olympics for many years?

From a reputation standpoint it would be exceptional for the sports image moving forward. As to whether it will happen, I am very sceptical.

And that’s because of its image.

Darts is still regarded by the greater public as a pub sport and its link with alcohol and cigarettes from decades gone by.

Now if darts was hypothetically to be given a chance in the Olympics, the reputation would change immeasurably.

Maybe this is the kind of move that needs to be made for this sport to get the kind of recognition it deserves.

Why shouldn’t it be an Olympic sport?

I’m from a generation of players where darts was never even talked about as a potential Olympic sport.

Growing up the only motivation and dream was to become a world champion or a major winner. That’s the pinnacle of the sport and nobody in darts ever dreams about being an Olympic champion!

The sport is growing so fast and wide without being in the Games, so you could argue it doesn’t need any Olympic boost.

The Olympics should really just be for athletes who have grown up dreaming of winning medals on this stage. It should be the pinnacle of their sports.

That said, the Olympics isn’t the pinnacle of tennis but you could see how much it meant to Novak Djokovic to complete the ‘golden slam’ and for Andy Murray to win gold medals in previous Games.

Times change and perhaps in future, kids playing darts will begin to think: “Maybe one day darts will be in the Olympics and I could be an Olympic champion.”

For now, it’s just a pipedream.