Well, now that the Summer Olympics are over it got me thinking about how these games stacked up against the 2010 ones. I know it’s a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but I can’t help but compare the two. Definitely my interest in the summer Olympics this year was higher because I had felt so directly involved in the 2010 ones (which Canadian didn’t? Not to mention I was in Vancouver for the games). So I feel like I paid more attention this year, and consequently I noticed the athletes and achievements a lot more. For instance—BMX is an Olympic sport? I had no idea!
Sure, we could talk about the events themselves and the achievements of athletes overall, but there’s a lot of that out there. Instead, here’s what a thinking man like myself noticed about these games.
One thing I noticed this games over the last is the focus on the individual athlete. Maybe it’s the nature of the sports involved but the summer games seems to be way more about the one athlete doing their one thing really well. The winter games, by contrast, is definitely more about teams, it seems. There are for sure individual athletes in winter sports (duh) and vice versa for summer games and teams, but the individuals in winter sports don’t seem to get the same media focus as the summer athletes do.
I also noticed that interest in the games was very US-centric—not a shock, but interesting anyway. I tried to watch the games on Canadian TV as much as possible, but it was educational to see what the US was into and what the Canadians were into. The peak of this, of course, was that crazy women’s soccer game. Flipping between channels produced VERY different results in terms of what the announcers were saying and what was being shown on the field and in the players’ faces. Man oh man. No comment!
Finally, I have to be honest and say that you definitely notice the athlete’s bodies way more in the summer games. The uniforms are one thing, but it’s also the types of people that play these types of sports. Runners and swimmers have incredible physiques. And yes, it’s attractive, but more so it’s amazing. A friend of mine called Olympic athletes our closest thing to superheroes. When you see people without legs racing against people with legs, it’s hard to argue with that one.
Overall, a great Olympics, I think. Except for some refereeing issues…I mean, no comment! What did you think?
