Fans of the Olympics can stand in the cold looking at their breath and watching a sled rocket down a track. Or they could watch a boxing match in a crowded stadium. Is the winter or summer fan part of a larger group? The Summer Olympics has been a consistent sporting event for athletes worldwide since 1896 for the Athens Games. The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. They both have been a staple in most sports fans’ lives.
The Summer Olympics has averaged a 3 billion worldwide TV viewership since the Beijing 2008 games. The recent peak was 3.6 billion at the 2012 London Games. It’s been a much different story for the Winter Games. The past four winter games have averaged around 1.9 billion total viewers worldwide. The recent peak was in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games with 2.1 billion viewers.
There is a reason for this difference in TV viewership. The Summer Olympics has more sports at 32 sports including 329 different events. In contrast, the next Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy, will only have 15, with 116 different events. The summer Olympics have an easier chance of captivating a larger audience.
Students say they prefer the Summer Olympics. Senior Daksh Gautam said he likes the Summer Olympics because the sports included in the Summer Games are more interesting. Junior Ojas Tare said he likes the Summer Olympics for a similar reason.
The Summer Olympics has been consistently adding sports to its roster. For the 2024 Paris Games, they added breakdancing with skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing.
As for the 2028 Los Angeles games they are adding beloved team sports including baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash. The new sports being added to the 2028 Olympics’ biggest leagues on average bring in a combined yearly revenue of about $30 billion including the NFL, MLB, Premiere Lacrosse League, Bangladesh Premier League (Cricket) and the Premiere Squash League.
The last time a sport was added to the Winter Olympics was the 2002 Salt Lake Games. They added skeleton, a sliding sport where you lay on your stomach back to the roster. The last time a completely new sport was added was freestyle snowboarding in 1998. A new winter Olympic sport that was approved in 2021 and will appear at the 2026 Milano Cortina games is ski mountaineering.
The sports in the Winter Olympics are less than popular outside of the Olympics. The most popular winter sport is hockey with leagues that encompass the world. The NHL, the largest hockey league, with a yearly revenue of $5.93 billion. While the summer Olympics have generated more popularity, junior Aiden Feng enjoys the Winter Olympics because he “loves ice hockey and ski jumping,” he said.
Bobsled is a sport that people may not have heard of. It has strong traditions in Germany, Canada, Italy, Austria and the United States. The new sports being added to the Olympics as well as longtime favorites make the upcoming summer and winter Olympics exciting and full of anticipation.
