A vision of sport in 2050: robot leagues, chips in brains and players in their 50s | Sean Ingle
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Many experts’ predictions for the next 25 years may seem outlandish but so did much of what has happened since 1999. Back in 1997, artificial intelligence and robotics experts in Japan came up with an intriguing challenge. Could anyone, they asked, build a humanoid football team capable of beating the World Cup winners by the middle of the 21st century? It sounded more than a little out there. In truth, it still does. Yet when it comes to forecasting the future of sport, it serves as a useful lodestar. Before we know it the outlandish will become the new normal.
![[Sean Ingle]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/09/Sean-Ingle,-L.png?width=180&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Why am I so confident? Well, over the past few days I’ve been speaking to experts about how sport may look in 2050. And given that I recently wrote about how accurate – or not – predictions made at the dawn of the millennium turned out to be, I felt it was only fair to put my money where my mouth is too.
![[James Anderson celebrates dismissing West Indies wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva in his final Test, at Lord’s]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8ea0ae5b2cd0797da2cd2ea0a98d63d6731a91c/0_90_2700_1620/master/2700.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
So what can we expect when we wake up in the first week of January 2050? “Predicting 25 years into the future is a fool’s game,” says Lewis Wiltshire, whose job as senior vice-president of digital at IMG involves assessing how technology will transform sport. “But by the middle part of the century, our bodies will interact with tech in ways that are still quite space age to us today.”.
![[Spurs fans at the Etihad Stadium in 2016]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cbd8e46fb1c5c43cb8096fe93329b44b810c2299/0_39_2674_1605/master/2674.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
This includes having chips in our brains to directly interact with sports technology. “Neural implants, or so-called brain computer interfaces, will be pretty common by 2050,” says Wiltshire. “And one consequence will be the greater detection of potential injuries to athletes before they happen.”.
