The Olympics are just about to wrap up. Actually, maybe they did wrap up and I missed it.
It wouldn’t shock me because I’ve missed most of it. And judging by the ratings for the Olympics, most of you have missed it, too. These Olympics are well on their way to set record lows for viewership and that’s never a good thing for the people who televise this stuff.
For whatever reason, these Olympics haven’t resonated with viewers. There is very little buzz about the Games and even the controversy-type stuff hasn’t drawn the usual outrage and nonstop discussion.
The Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance but was still allowed to compete. I just can’t really get worked up about that, and most people don’t seem to care about it. It is a figure skater in a contrived competition that takes place every four years, and Russian athlete doping scandals became boring about the mid-1980s.
I have heard a lot of reasons why these Olympics are happening almost anonymously in this country, and many of them on their own are a reach. Perhaps all of them stacked together have had a cumulative effect on the ratings, but let me offer this:
The reason we in America aren’t watching is because the Olympics have outlived their usefulness. They are somewhat obsolete and involve too many sports that we just don’t play or watch here.
That’s especially true with respect to the Winter Olympics. Most of the sports — like skiing, sled riding (called luge or bobsledding) and even shuffleboard on ice (curling) — are mostly done as recreational activities in this country and most are enjoyed with a group of friends and a few (OK, more than a few) adult beverages.
And remember when we were told by old heads that pro athletes have ruined the Olympics? Those days were fun, when people believed adding NHL and NBA players was a bad thing and that most people wanted to see the amateurs.
I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in watching Olympic hockey with a bunch of random guys. I want to watch the best of the best compete. I want to watch Sidney Crosby play against Evgeni Malkin.
And the whole thing about country pride is just not enough any more. We don’t have that same nationalistic pride we used to have, and we don’t have a Cold War going on to conjure up all kinds of anger in order to develop a rivalry.
The over saturation of sports on TV has to be a factor and a big one. It used to be the Olympics were an opportunity to watch sports nonstop for two or three weeks, and that was the only time you got to do that. Now that we have seemingly dozens of sports channels, we have the chance to watch sports every day of every year for as much as we want.
In other words, it isn’t a unique experience to be able to watch sports in the middle of the afternoon or at night any more. We do it all the time to the point where the law of diminishing returns on sports viewing has to kick in.
One reason for the low ratings that I just don’t think is a factor is that they are in China and people are angry about it. China is a country that has well-documented human rights violations and the theory is many people think we should have boycotted them. I don’t buy that at all. I don’t think there is some large movement of people so bent out of shape about the human rights violations in China that they are tuning out.
That is an excuse and a convenient one that doesn’t hold a lot of water.
It is important to note that the U.S. probably should have boycotted the Olympics as a statement against Chinese human rights violations. But that doesn’t mean there is some huge undercurrent of anger among Americans.
I believe the Olympics and all of the scandals that come with the Games should go away forever. We can hold international competitions without all the bells and whistles and the corruption of the IOC.
The World Cup in soccer and the four majors in both tennis and golf are great examples of far better and far more compelling events than the Olympics have been. I’m sure they could put together a World Cup-like tournament in basketball that would blow away the Olympics.
The Olympics used to be something special and used to be must-see TV. They aren’t any longer and instead are an overhyped and overpriced three-week dog and pony show. It is time to find a better and more interesting way to hold international competitions because this model is obviously broken beyond repair.
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com or Twitter: @paulzeise
First Published: February 18, 2022, 8:17 p.m.
