2014 Winter Olympics

[David S.]

Nice thread, Walter.

I really enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics. Both the Winter and Summer Olympics are among my favorite sporting events (along with the Incredible Dog Challenge, which is like a multi-sport Olympics for dogs, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and of course, the Puppy Bowl!)

In many ways, I've always liked the Winter Games more than the Summer. Part of this is because I've been into roller-coasters and high speed thrills since I was little, and many events in the Winter Olympics have that thrill factor - the sliding sports like bobsled, luge, and skeleton, the Alpine skiing events (especially the downhill), the AMAZING airtime of ski jumping, and the newer sports of freestyle skiing and snowboarding, which also have a lot of speed and airtime.

I can also appreciate the rest of the sports, ranging from the artistry of figure skating (which usually has excellent classical, opera, filmscore, or showtune musical accompaniment), to the cerebral "chess on ice" of curling.

Another reason I've always loved the Winter Games is, I'm from the south, and hate hot weather. I've had enough heat to last a lifetime, and since I've never had to shovel snow in my life, I have a romanticized view of winter, snow, and ice. This extends to the Winter Olympics, which are often set in a charming, Alpine, mountain hamlet (although that wasn't really the case in Sochi). This is the same reason Blizzard Beach is my favorite waterpark, as it is themed to a snowy, icy, winter sports park, (complete with Christmas tunes and Bavarian polka/yodeling music!) as opposed to the usual southern hot, tropical "paradise" that water parks are typically themed to.

One thing I love about both Winter and Summer Olympics is the diversity - not only in the sense of diversity of countries and cultures competing, but also the diversity of the sports themselves - most of the Olympic sports are outside the mainstream (at least in America), so they are a refreshing change of pace in a culture where the "Big 4" pro team sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) get the vast majority of national attention.

I think the fact that each Olympics occurs every four years makes them feel more special also, and mean more than if they were once a year like other major sporting events.

And there is something to be said for the "Olympic Spirit". Not to bash the major North American pro sports leagues, which I do enjoy, but they are clearly a business first. Millionaire athletes holding out and switching teams for more money, while billionaire owners break up championship teams instead of keeping them together, to avoid paying all their players what they are "worth" to keep the team together.

In the Olympics, by contrast, the majority of Olympic sports consists of althetes training in obscurity for 4 years, often with limited funding, just for the love of the sport and the one shot at major triumph every 4 years.

And I also like the medal system, which rewards 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. It is refreshing to see athletes overwhelmed with happiness, often overcome with tears of joy - for finishing second or third. In the landscape of major pro American sports, finishing second is sadly all too often viewed as "failure".

I also like the fairness of gender eqality in the Olympics, as the vast majority of the events in both the Winter and Summer Games have a women's version.

As for the discussion about why the Winter Olympics are less popular than the Summer Olympics in America with ratings and such, I have a few theories.

Perhaps many people snowed in up north have a much less romanticized view of Winter than I have, and aren't as excited about seeing ice and snow.

But I think a bigger reason is that the Summer Games have more "mainstream" sports than the Winter Games. Americans seem to prefer team sports to individual sports, and the summer games have more of those - including basketball (featuring NBA superstars), soccer, and indoor voleyball - whereas the only major, mainstream team sport in the Winter Games is ice hockey.

Also, the individual sports in the summer games tend to be more mainstream than most of the individual sports in the winter games - including track, swimming, gymnastics, diving, tennis, and cycling, to name a few. (Being an animal lover, I'm a big fan of the Equstrian sports in the Summer Games like show jumping, which seems more humane in the way the horses are treated than a sport like horse racing).

Lastly, I've noticed that as thrilling as many individual winter sports are regarding speed, jumps, etc (skiing, ski jumping, bobsled, luge, snowboard, etc) - most of these events feature one competitor at a time, racing against the clock, or doing their run for the judging panel. Whereas in the summer games, more of the individual sports (like track, swimming, tennis, cycling, etc) feature head to head competition, which can make the actual competitive aspects of these sports more exciting.

So perhaps some combination of all of the above factors contributes to the greater popularity of the Summer Games than the Winter Games in the states.

PS. Another thing I LOVE about both Winter and Summer Olympics is that the Opening and Closing Ceremonies never fail to impress me on an artistic, visual, and musical level. I've seen every one of these since I was little, and I've never seen a Super Bowl halftime show that even came close!