For years, traditional sports and esports developed along separate paths. While one evolved in stadiums, tracks, and training centers, the other grew in digital environments driven by technology. However, that divide has begun to disappear thanks to the development of new platforms, analytical tools, and competitive formats that demonstrate how both worlds can complement each other to expand participation opportunities, enhance performance, and promote more active lifestyles.
In this context, rowing has become one of the disciplines that has adapted most successfully to this transformation. Thanks to decades of collaboration with its technology partner Concept2 and the development of indoor and virtual rowing competitions, the World Rowing Federation (World Rowing) has built an ecosystem that combines innovation, physical activity, and global competition. That journey is now gaining new momentum with the creation of the HPSC ESPORTS LAB in Tokyo, a laboratory that aims to redefine the future of virtual sports through scientific research.
A laboratory to understand the future of sport
The Japan Sport Council (JSC) created the HPSC ESPORTS LAB at the High Performance Sport Center of Japan (HPSC) with an ambitious goal: to understand how technology can strengthen sports participation without replacing the physical experience. To achieve this, it will bring together experts in sports science, medicine, technology, and innovation to study the interaction between esports, virtual sports, and athlete well-being.
As an international research partner, World Rowing will play a key role in this project by contributing its expertise in virtual rowing. For more than four decades, the discipline has demonstrated that technology can be a tool to bring sport to more people, connect communities across countries, and create meaningful competitive experiences beyond traditional venues. For its president, Jean-Christophe Rolland, the new laboratory represents an opportunity to build on that legacy through research that ensures virtual sports are grounded in science, inclusion, and the values of sport.
Science, innovation, and collaboration to advance virtual sports
The laboratory’s work will focus on three main areas: esports, virtual sports—with a particular emphasis on virtual rowing—and the overall well-being of athletes. Researchers will use technologies such as eye-tracking systems, heart rate monitors, electroencephalograms (EEG), and thermal imaging cameras to analyze performance, recovery, and athlete health. Based on these findings, they will also develop support programs aimed at both elite performance and everyday sports participation.
This initiative is built on a collaboration that began strengthening in 2024 between World Rowing and the Japan Sport Council. Since then, the organizations have jointly promoted initiatives such as the Annual Virtual Sports Forum and the recent Virtual Sports Forum Plus, held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. With the opening of the HPSC ESPORTS LAB, that partnership now has a permanent home where it will generate scientific knowledge, encourage new forms of sports participation, and explore how the integration of traditional sport, technology, and esports can expand access to physical activity for people around the world.
Last related articles
