photo credit: Carter Shilling
At a time when global sporting events are drawing huge crowds, the Winter Olympics, with its high-stakes competitions, has had its viewership drop by millions, according to Sports Illustrated. The decline isn’t reflected by the quality of the games, but by the people not giving the Winter Olympics as much attention as the Summer Olympics.
The Beijing Olympics in 2022 saw the smallest viewership ever with only 11.4 million viewers across platforms. That shows a 42 percent decrease compared to the 2018 Winter Games and a 26 percent decrease from the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021 according to Sports Illustrated.
All over my Instagram, I always see so many updates on the Summer Olympics no matter the location or event, so it is only right that the Winter Games get as much support not only on T.V. but also on social media networks.
The Winter Olympics is full of pure adrenaline that many fans are missing out on because they are still stuck two years ago in Paris. According to the National Olympic Committee, there were five billion viewers tuning in every day to experience the Summer Games in 2024.
In 2020, the Winter Olympics only accumulated two billion viewers for the games held in Beijing, China. The Games attract billions of viewers’ attention, but the event’s mix of competition with cultural celebration warrants even greater public attention and less comparison with the Summer Games.
People all around the world focus so much on comparing the difference between the two Games and commenting on which is better when both are equally fascinating. The Winter Olympics should be celebrated and followed just as much as the Summer Games.
One of the best parts of the Games is the fact that they are held in snowy climates with sports that viewers don’t get to see year round. The Summer Olympics, while amazing to experience, doesn’t give the same rush of adrenaline as the Winter Games.
There’s nothing more exciting than watching figure skaters twist in the air and bobsledders fly through their tunnels and this is the year that the Winter Olympics is back.
The Games will take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy on Feb. 6 – 22. According to the International Olympic Committee, ski mountaineering along with five more events will be added to this upcoming Games.
Every four years when the Summer Olympics comes around, there is so much chatter on who the major athletes on Team USA are going to be, but when the Winter Olympics makes an appearance the excitement seems to die down for no apparent reason.
This year I am looking forward to seeing what the Winter Olympics has in store for viewers this year. By giving the Games more attention, it will not only lead to more celebration of the event itself, but to the athletes who dedicate their lives to their sports.
Athletes like Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky are so popular during the Summer Games that sometimes athletes like Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen don’t get recognition since they are involved in less popular American sports.
During this upcoming Olympics, I hope that athletes all around the world are noticed and talked about for the less popular sports because no matter the popularity, all the athletes participating in the Olympics have worked their whole life in order to get where they are.
So, in February don’t forget to grab the remote or pick up the phone and tune into the Winter Olympics in Italy. The Olympics, no matter the season, never fail to bring countries all around the world together to appreciate the sports that define society.
