Why have the Olympics lost their appeal, or have they?

[Flash of power]

I am interested to hear views on the upcoming Olympics and if there is a sense of excitement about them. I remember in the past in the lead up to the games being really excited for two weeks of high quality sport, even bought a big screen TV once just to revel in the event.

This year for some reason I have basically no interest, and it seems there is very little interest in them from people around me either.

I am curious as to why this is the case, drugs in sport, RIO seems underdone, bigger sporting events of greater interest?


Or am I wrong, is there still a lot of interest.

 

[GreyCrow]

Interested through habit.

I think a lot of things have caused a lack of genuine interest. The taint of drug performances , the loss of amateurism , tv making it more than it is and less than it should be. The loss of amateurism isn't a big deal in and of itself but a Medal was a good stepping stone into Professional ranks. Nowadays professionals use a Medal as a negotiating tool for increased sponsor/contracts.

I recall when TV was about ALL the sports , channel 7 won an international award 20/30 years ago for having a fair and balanced coverage of the Olympics. Our own athletes must have been rubbish for them to switch to other sports. Now the jingoism is sickening at times.

But for me the biggest turn off is seeing convicted drug cheats given an opportunity to compete. I recognize most athletes are drug dependent getting caught should carry a heavy suspension

 

[NotAMagpieBogan]

I couldn't give less of a stuff about the Olympics this year, I'm sure I might a little more interested once it arrives though.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Just a guess:

I think a lot of it just age.

When younger, the hype of an Olympics sucks people in. As we get older, we know which sports we prefer. The Olympics then appeal more to people who aren't usually sportswatchers, watching for an event as much as for the sport. There's a reason why the opening ceremony is among the most watched parts of the games.

 

[Gough]

I lost interest after 1992, there was something not quite right about seeing the US basketball team there, and as further rules surrounding amateur athletes has been relaxed it's all become a bit of a w***fest for already high profile athletes, the inclusion of golf jumped the shark completely. The games used to be about athletes that didn't get a lot of exposure outside of the Olympic years, and that's before we even consider that every Olympics is so drug tainted that you don't know what's real, and what isn't.

 

[M Malice]

i have one simple philosophy on the olympics and what sports should be invited.

the olympics should be the pinnacle of the sport. ie. athletics, swimming etc. no way in the world should sports like golf, tennis, scoccer be in the olympics, it dilutes the whole concept for me.

i am a fan of soccer but hate it in the olympics, i play futsal so i may be biased but i would love to see it at the olympics instead, great action in a 5 a side format, indoor on about a basketball sized court.

 

[GreyCrow]

i have one simple philosophy on the olympics and what sports should be invited.

the olympics should be the pinnacle of the sport. ie. athletics, swimming etc. no way in the world should sports like golf, tennis, scoccer be in the olympics, it dilutes the whole concept for me.

i am a fan of soccer but hate it in the olympics, i play futsal so i may be biased but i would love to see it at the olympics instead, great action in a 5 a side format, indoor on about a basketball sized court.

I actually wouldn't have any team sports

 

[M Malice]

I actually wouldn't have any team sports

i don't mind hockey, water polo in there. basketball not so much, to the players the pinnacle would be an NBA title.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Think there's a few reasons,

1) The Socceroos became World Cup regulars, which alerted everyone to the fact the Olympics are not the biggest sports event in the world

2) You can now watch and read about professional sport every day of the year. In 1996 I probably wouldn't have the internet and if I did I wouldn't be streaming stuff. Pay TV was less present and what it offered was less. Basically you watched the sport free-to-air decided you will watch or you didn't watch anything.

3) Ubiquitous doping

TLDR; Watching horses, swimmers and gymnasts dance simply can't have the same allure in 2016.

 

[Shell]

The last Olympics I was interested in and watched was Sydney. Since then I have cared very little and the last one I completely missed cause I was travelling.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Think there's a few reasons,

1) The Socceroos became World Cup regulars, which alerted everyone to the fact the Olympics are not the biggest sports event in the world

2) You can now watch and read about professional sport every day of the year. In 1996 I probably wouldn't have the internet and if I did I wouldn't be streaming stuff. Pay TV was less present and what it offered was less. Basically you watched the sport free-to-air decided you will watch or you didn't watch anything.

3) Ubiquitous doping

TLDR; Watching horses, swimmers and gymnasts dance simply can't have the same allure in 2016.

 

[BALKAN]

I like watching the gymnastics.

Otherwise the olympics is a bit of a bore.

And there's too much rowing ffs I swear last olympics everytime I switched on it was rowing. PISS OFF ROWING//

 

[The Passenger]

Lets not discount the fact that people are frontrunners. Australian's are no different, and whilst we do well for a country of our population, there is not the avalanche of gold that there was during the Australian sporting boom of ~1995 to ~2005. And most of the sports we won gold in 2012 were not particularly high profile sports, i.e. 3 in sailing, 1 in canoeing. Jared Tallent also got his gold 4 years after the fact, and even he is not of a particularly high profile nature anyway. The only two who won individual gold that are high profile athletes were Anna Meares and Sally Pearson. And Pearson is not competing this time around.

As an example of building profiles, no one knew the Oarsome Foursome or Michael Diamond before they won gold but they quickly became household names (even though most don't know the members of the Oarsome foursome. I certainly don't).... Virtually everyone would have to go to Wikipedia to remember the names of the guys who won gold in the sailing last time around.

Really, the general public have no idea who our big gold chances are coming into these ones.

 

[swingdog]

Interesting that it's still big in the US - always think it appeals to countries that don't compete against others on a regular basis in their prime sports.

Will watch 100m men's final but couldn't give a toss about the rest. Agree with above statements that there are so many alternatives to watch whether pay TV or streaming.

 

[Doss]

I really got into 1996 and 2000. Since then I've lost interest, in fact I took very little interest in the 2012 games.

 

[M Malice]

Interesting that it's still big in the US - always think it appeals to countries that don't compete against others on a regular basis in their prime sports.

Will watch 100m men's final but couldn't give a toss about the rest. Agree with above statements that there are so many alternatives to watch whether pay TV or streaming.

yep, i love the track events particularly the mid distance ie. 800m/1500m, not the field. anything else would invoke levels of interest between a flicker and mild.

 

[Scotland]

I think a big factor is that some competing athletes themselves don't take it seriously.

If you are a runner, swimmer etc. then the Olympics are your pinnacle. Even team sports like hockey which have no profile you really strive to make the Olympic team.

But sports like basketball, football, tennis, golf... why are they in the Olympics?

 

[Plugger35]

I still like the Athletics, Rowing (about the only thing NZ can win gold medals in) and some of the new Xtreme sports like BMX racing.

Most of it is pretty boring though and the time difference can make it difficult to watch some of the better events.

Not sure what it will be like with Rio but with London most of the best events were on at night there which meant they were on here at about 3am.

 

[Punchy Bassett]

Never liked the Olympics find them incredibly boring, also the Australian swim team have to be some of the most arrogant people I've seen.

 

[HBF]

Will probably watch some of it when i'm home and if I can be bothered. But its certainly not something i'm counting down the days to.

 

[peppy la pew]

It was once about amatuer boxers who won medals then signed pro, now they are trying to inject full pro's into the event to mix it with the amatuers. Apart from that being totally unfair it's dangerous.

Who wants to see Serena Williams win a gold medal against an unknown battler, or the worlds best professional golfers. We get to see them all year round.

I enjoyed the non mainstream sports and track and field events of yesteryear, but commercialism has taken over

 

[Lester Burnham]

Maybe people have lost interest as Australia's performance has declined.

Gold medal count

2000 - 16
2004 - 17
2008 - 14
2012 - 8

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

I've really gone off swimming the last few Olympiads for whatever reason (seems to coincide with my total lack of interest in cricket these days too)

Love the track and field, velodrome, handball, boxing, diving, archery, badminton, canoeing, artistic gymnastics, rowing, shooting, table tennis, triathlon, weightlifting.

Highlighted are the standouts for me.

Love the Olympics, will be spending plenty of time with my two young daughters watching them.

 

[JoseMourinho]

No Roy and HG.

 

[swiftdog]

i have one simple philosophy on the olympics and what sports should be invited.

the olympics should be the pinnacle of the sport. ie. athletics, swimming etc. no way in the world should sports like golf, tennis, scoccer be in the olympics, it dilutes the whole concept for me.

i am a fan of soccer but hate it in the olympics, i play futsal so i may be biased but i would love to see it at the olympics instead, great action in a 5 a side format, indoor on about a basketball sized court.

I have the same philosophy, the Olympics should be the most important competition for all sports involved. Always seems a bit harder to determine for team sports but don't mind basketball and hockey being Olympic sports as, as far as I can tell, the Olympics is the most important international competition for those sports. The World Cup for soccer, Grand Slam events for tennis etc seem more important than an Olympic win from what I can tell so wouldn't have them in.