It's funny that this article is about Ted Owen, operator of the Global Gaming League, and his campaign to have video games added to the Olympics, yet presents a much stronger argument for why that's a dumb idea.

Owen's side of it is basically "gaming is fun and requires skill, plus young people like it and the Olympics has been losing younger viewers so this is a way to get them back."

But what's against him is basically everything else.

Even if you can look past the lack of physical skills necessary to play video games, the Olympics haven't had any sort of demonstration sport since 1992 - and Olympic experts say there has been no movement to bring them back.

And further:

But financial and network interest don't earn a sport an Olympic berth; Just ask fans of golf, motorcycle racing and bowling - or, for that matter, baseball, which (along with softball) will be dropped from the Olympics in 2012. And the fact that video gaming is so technology dependent could be particularly damaging.

"There's a big campaign in the [International Olympic Committee] to get kids away from computer terminals," said Ed Hula, editor and founder of Around the Rings, an Olympic newsletter. "[Lobbying for] video gaming would be like asking the IOC to approve power smoking."

But that's not all!

Hula said the reason behind the elimination of demonstration (or exhibition) sports was they were hurting the integrity of the Games. Further, organizers were unable to agree upon replacement medal sports for baseball and softball in 2012 and under Olympic rules will not be able to add any more until 2016.

"If they can't figure out sports to give real medals to, then you can forget about them adding 'let's pretend' sports," said Hula.

I love gaming as much as the next person, and I've even expressed interest in watching competitive gaming. But come on. They can't manage to keep baseball in the Olympics, but you want them to add in video games? Maybe they could all play Track and Field for the irony factor.

Owen's one and only card to play is China. Competitive gaming is a huge deal in China, as well as Korea, much bigger than in North America or Europe. If he can get China's weight behind his idea, he hopes to push gaming into the Olympics by force. But given the odds against them, the fact that much more "real" sports have been fighting to get into the Games for years, and the sheer contradiction of having a sport about sitting in front of a computer and not moving in a competition that's trying to promote physical activity, I'd say the possibility of this coming to fruition any time soon is effectively nil.