You wont need to wait a lot for e-sports get over usual sports, it is growing really hard, about 300% (2011).
I see no reason to not promote e-sports players as athletes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz--Ct0ltSA
Internet porn is ridiculously popular and could possibly make someone sweat, but that doesn't make it a sport. Half the earths population can play video games competitively but that doesn't mean they can call it whatever they want and everyone else should acknowledge it. Birdkiller was right, this is just so people can validate spending half their life playing games on a screen. If the next SOCOM game became extremely popular and everyone that played it started going around calling themselves Navy SEALs they would just look like fucking morons, having a majority doesn't mean you can define something whatever you want to. This is just the result of a worldwide politically correct society trying to sugar coat things so everyone can feel good about themselves.