Over the first five days of the Olympic games, NBC recorded that an average of 28.6 million people had tuned into the games. Though this is down from the London 2012 Olympic Games, the viewership trumps that of traditional sports, such as baseball and hockey. It is unfair to sports media, and sport fans alike that the coverage of the Olympic Games becomes priority number one for the two-and-a-half week Games. Looking at the numbers last year’s World Series generated an average of 14.7 million people, the full Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 3.9 million, and the NBA Finals averaged 20.2 million views. The only bigger sporting event was Super Bowl, where an average of 111.9 million people watched.
Now this could be because the Olympics come every two years and the different events are more entertaining than preseason football, but many of the sports journalists aren’t experts in many of these Olympic Games. Most sports journalists, who know everything they need to know about the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc, have to drop everything and learn about water polo or gymnastics.
Not to say that the more popular sports are better, but besides the Olympic Games, gymnastic and swimming events only make national television if the athletes are competing in the Olympic trials, or National Championships. Way more attention is put towards the regular season of traditional sports, like basketball or football. Plus, most of these athletes are not house hold names. If you ask the average person: “Who was on the US Women’s Gymnastics team in the 2012 Olympics,” most answers would be Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglass, but the rest of the “fab five” would go unremembered. This is most likely because these athletes only compete for 17 days every four years.
Another thing that is interesting about the Olympics is that countries are allowed to let professionals compete. Ever wonder why the US Basketball Team is so good? Because they are professional athletes making millions of dollars, who's season ended just three weeks before. Even gymnasts Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglass are considered professionals of their sport.
So how is this unfair to sports journalists and fans? Just as the Olympics are ending, the NFL will open its season and the MLB will be starting its postseason. With the priority of coverage going to the Olympic Games, fans of football and baseball miss out on the coverage of their favorite sport. After the Olympics are over, the athletes start their training for the 2020 Olympics, but sports media will turn its focus back to traditional sports. This makes all the information they had to learn at the beginning of the month worthless for another four years.
The Olympics are a time when people are encouraged to show their pride for the country they live for. Some athletes may become national heroes, but it is not worth it for sports journalists to invest all their research and knowledge in a series of games that last three weeks. No matter we win, or lose, the Olympics is like a trend, it's over as fast as it started.
