Will Muay Thai Be Destroyed By Becoming An Olympic Sport?

In 2021, Muay Thai was finally granted Olympic recognition by the IOC. In layman’s terms, this means that after 30 years of campaigning, Muay Thai is now on a shortlist of sports (alongside cheerleading) that may appear at future Olympics. The IOC has been looking to shake things up since the viewership figures for the Olympic games have been steadily falling since the start of the new millennium. It is not too much of a surprise then, to see that a gamble has been taken by accepting Muay Thai as a legitimate Olympic sport.

Whether this will be a good or bad thing for Muay Thai remains to be seen. However, based on the history of other Olympic sports, it would be a safe bet to assume that the popularity of the sport will increase.

Good For Thailand As A Nation

The obvious beneficiary of Muay Thai becoming an Olympic sport is the nation of Thailand. As Thailand has the best Muay Thai fighters in the world at a huge variety of weight classes – there is no doubt that this would bring the country several gold medals. Thailand is not a country that has had too much success at the Olympic games, with only 10 gold medals in the nation’s history. If Muay Thai does get the IOC seal of approval, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Thailand double this medal tally within a decade.

As we all know, Muay Thai fighters are generally quite poor, so the prospect of fighting for a gold medal (with government incentivized prize money) is a great opportunity. The sponsorships within Thailand after winning a gold medal might also be quite lucrative for a fighter that is marketable and add another way of making money after their career in the ring is finished.

Lastly, in terms of tourism and money entering Thailand, winning gold medals is certainly not a bad thing. Putting Muay Thai in the Olympic games will certainly draw some eyes to the sport which previously would have never considered watching. This may result in long-term benefits for Thailand, such as increased travel to the country, as well as Muay Thai becoming globally more popular in general.

Very Bad News For Muay Thai Enthusiasts

It goes without saying that there is currently nothing like Muay Thai in the Olympic games. By far the closest relative of Muay Thai within the Olympics is traditional boxing. Under current rules, there are 3 x 3-minute rounds, with very questionable scoring, often favoring the home nation fighter. As of modern-day, headgear is not used, but it was a requirement for the previous 40 years.

Obviously, if this translates directly to Muay Thai, genuine fans of the sport are not going to be happy. Anyone who has trained Muay Thai understands that it is a brutal and tough sport. Headgear is not going to help fighters and may in fact make headshots worse since the peripheral vision of the fighter is restricted. Not only this, but Muay Thai fights becoming shorter would not really be a welcomed move. It may appeal to casual Olympic fans and lazy judges, but is not good for those who want to see a real competition.

However, by far the biggest threat to Muay Thai is the watering down that comes with almost every other Olympic sport.

Both Taekwondo and Judo have been the main combat sport victims of the IOC. Whilst judo did once contain some legitimately dangerous techniques, double leg takedowns, reverse seoi-nage and other questionable throws have all been outlawed from competition. Restricting the legal moves within a sport is almost never a good thing for growth as a whole and makes people fight within a narrow style.

The state of Taekwondo is even worse. Less than 60 years ago, Taekwondo was on a par with Muay Thai in terms of brutality and effectiveness. Since then it has become a point-scoring mess, with athletes literally tapping each other with high kicks in order to score maximum points. This was displayed best in the Tokyo 75kg final in which the true gold medalist was disqualified for “excessive contact” which resulted in a knockout. God forbid using a head kick in a sport that is literally a kickboxing style.

Who knows what Muay Thai would look like under these rules? It certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see elbows and knees being heavily censored, if not outlawed completely.

Media Response

Not surprisingly, the mainstream media response to Muay Thai becoming an Olympic sport has been overwhelmingly positive. Only the good factors have been considered since people seem to be stuck in the mindset of the Olympics being a huge international event – bigger than anything else. Whilst this may be true for the likes of track and field events. For anything with a large fanbase that has had monetized leagues, events, or pay-per-views – this is simply not true. The NBA displays a much higher level of basketball than the Olympics, as do professional boxing events.

Overall, the Olympic games is perceived by the media to be the largest event, which it simply isn’t. Winning a gold medal in muay Thai sounds like a good thing on the surface, but in reality people will not care. This is especially true if the rules are watered down to a point where “Muay Thai” is no longer actually Muay Thai.

We would expect more of the same storyline to continue, with the media championing Muay Thai every step of the way until it is in the Olympics. Then they will likely forget it exists again until every 4 years there is a competition they care about.

A Divided Sport

Perhaps the most likely outcome of Muay Thai being accepted into the Olympic games is the division of the sport. If knockouts for excessive force are banned, this will not sit well with any serious Muay Thai fan or fighter.

A situation would likely arise where aspiring point fighters who could not reach the level of professional Muay Thai enter into the Olympics in order to salvage a career. This is understandable for the fighters since it is a second chance opportunity at making money within Muay Thai.

However, true fans of the sport will not accept Muay Thai with watered-down rules. Even if the Olympics were to become popular with casual fans, all-time greats such as Saenchai and Banchamek would continue to put on pay-per-view show matches. These fights are very high quality in terms of technique and also have viewership figures that allow fighters to be paid a lot of money compared to an Olympic bout.

In summary, we may see something similar to Olympic boxing. Amateur young fighters may take part in the competition, but nobody who has had a successful career and makes a lot of money from fighting Muay Thai will consider entering.

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