Federer91

Wrong (again). Estimated viewership for Beijing 2022 was 2 billion, while for Tokyo it was 3 billion, which isn't a considerable difference for "only 30 countries care for the Winter Olympics." Add the February slot when everyone is at work and all the football leagues are in full force, compared to July/August vacations and the numbers are even more impressive for an event, which allegedly few people care about.

General public interest is one thing and country depth of participants is another. All of the traditional sports you mentioned, with the exception of synchro swimming and maybe diving have a much wider pool of competing nations. Sport interest isn't only about how many primetime viewers it gets.

Е, аз го казах къде на шега, къде на сериозно след последните събития. Мисля, че е време да вземем някой китаец за тенис на маса или бразилец за сърф. То иначе по другия начин няма да стане.

Катеренето е супер интересен спорт и там имаме сериозно име за бъдещето, но е жена - Александра Тоткова. Към ЛА очаквам да в топ 10 на света. В София нали отвориха нова модерна зала миналата година. Не знам как се ползва, ама това е спорт където имаме шанс за развитие на млади хора. Изабела Янкова доколкото знам участва само в една дисциплина в планинското колоездене, която е не-Олимпийска. Според мен няма никакъв шанс да участва. Стрелбата с лък също е много приятен спорт. И не ми изглежда много скъп, че да кажеш, че е непрактичен за България. Във всеки среден град може да се направи стрелбище, трябва ти само една поляна и отстояние с мишени. Да, професионален лък ще струва пари, ама не е като тенис ракета дето трябва да я сменяш постоянно. Колко често ще трябва да сменяш лъкът. Бих казал, че много по-лесно би накарал някое дете да отиде да стреля с лък, отколкото да се бъхти да гребе с лодката. Просто този спорт не е популярен тука и не знам федерацията каква дейност извърва въобще.

Изчакайте да излезе бюджета за натурализиране на спортисти преди да правим сметките.

Yes it bothers me, because it violates the fundamental principals of what is classified as a Winter sport and thus eligible to be included in a Winter Olympics. The same way "snow and ice" is ludicrous for you... If they wanted to include cc running at the Summer Games, where it belongs, then there would be no discussion. Because we all know, that Coe, IAAF just want another piece of the pie and a place at the table at the WOG for their own personal benefits. It makes no difference if your event is being held in December, January or February, when you can have it without an ounce on snow and in the bright sunny day with 25+ degrees. That is not a winter event. And yes, i too detest ice hockey, curling being played in late May, June, August, even September. Real winter sports season should be from October to early-mid May.

Agree on the basis of this. But let's take a look at the recently added sports. For how many of them you could absolutely say they have gained interest and are trending positively. I can for only rugby and climbing. Of course rugby has been popular for decades, they only needed to figure out the perfect format for the OG. Sport climbing on the other hand is the only new sport, which has seen a rapid expansion in the past 10 years. No one was taking it seriously as a real sport a decade ago, but now it has grown in different parts of the World, the fan and media interesting is rising. And it gets more popular and popular. I wouldn't say the same for skateboarding and surfing. I think their popularity isn't at all that high compared to the 90s and early 2000s. In that period they were much more popular in the American / Canadian zeitgeist from what i recall. Many of the other sports are just host fodder and/or are basically a 3-5 country sports. Flag football, cricket, lacrosse, baseball, breaking have limited appeal. What is the justifiable reason for adding them, beside the host jerking for throwing a ton of money for organizing the Games. And here lies the IOC's flow. Instead of firstly help growing and popularizing these sports before adding them, they first bring them on the OG in the hope that will automatically make these sports more trendy. It doesn't... If you want to include lacrosse, then the IOC should work with the Governing body and all the National Associations in making a campaign to familiarize it around the World. Say you are including lacrosse, but in 3 Games time, so there is time to make an International footprint. After 8 years if you can make a Lacrosse World Championship with 24-32 teams, then including it at the OG makes it a much, much bigger factor. Now they beat their drum "We are including new sports, look how modern and urban we are", when the truth is they are a joke event with 6 teams, which gives absolutely nothing for growing said sport and is just another statistic.

Everything is open to everyone. There are no "insiders" and "outsiders". If people from Ireland, for example, don't want to partake in ski-jumping and luge, that is their problem. Why should the countries, that do compete in these sports be blamed, that others don't. Also, there are 25 out of 35 sports at the SOG, that could be played anytime in the year. By this logic there shouldn't be any "summer" or "winter" OG. You should just call it the February Olympic Games and the July Olympic Games, or Part 1 and Part 2, if they are not going to be distinguished. It will never cease to a amaze me, how much it bothers people from particular regions, that Winter Olympics exist. If they were called the Winter Sports Games, probably no one will bath an eye, but because it has the word "Olympics", it tears their soul, that there are OG for sports they don't watch, care, like or participate in, even though it's their own fault. But the sad truth is that in 20 years (or sooner, because glimpses are starting to appear) they would transfer 10 indoor sports, because the Winter Games need to be more "marketable and inclusive" and not because the never ending pure greed for money.

Paging any moderator to come and clean the spam @Sindo @hckošice

Okey, Paris 2024 is officially over, so it's time to check my now regular statistic about the activity on the forum. As previously, only the official sports topics are counted, with replies until last nights Closing Ceremony, as i was adding them while watching We have another slight improvement compared with Tokyo. The first week was cooking, but i noticed maybe a slight fatigue in the second week of the Games, as especially during the day sessions there weren't as much comments, as in the first 7-8 days. Swimming returning finals to the evening propelled them to the biggest increase. Plus i think the swimming events in Paris were more interesting than those in Tokyo. But athletics was still king, though a bit lower number, than 3 years ago. Rugby also made a big jump, but that was expected since it had 2 days without competition. Biggest ones in red were Equestrian without the presence of @dcro , Track cycling and Rowing. Now for Rowing i figured, because in Tokyo it was early in the morning and practically for 2 hours we were watching only that . In Paris we had more sports surrounding it, so people were choosing something else. For track cycling i'm not sure about the big drop, as it had the same position as in Tokyo. Maybe the hourly schedule wasn't the best, as it overlapped a couple of days with athletics by the end of the session. Maybe that second week fatigue played a factor. If anyone finds some interesting patterns or observations, share through

Excuse me? For what exactly and who is paying him?

Wasn't Baywatch based in Malibu

I wanted Pamela Anderson running on the beach, damn it.

People better start preparing for LA to be the Entertainment Olympics, instead of the Sports Olympics

Here he is, the man, the legend, the Greatest Movie star of our time, mister Tom Cruise

London 3 times hosts, Paris 3 times hosts, Los Angeles 3 times hosts We running out of cities or what. It would have been more fun if the US made the Games in Chicago or Dallas.

If someone mentions once more "Full gender equality" I'll probably masaccre myself. I've heard it a billion times by now...

I'm getting sleepy, where is Tom Cruise

It's always fun to see new people around the Olympics. The real trick however is making those people watch and enjoy sports in the long run, without the home country factor. Many users are more active during the Olympics season, because they want their country and athletes to do good and follow how they perform. But after they end, so does their desire to follow sports (at least for a while). And i hope more people will stick around and have fun watching sports regularly, because they like the sports themselves and the different athletes that compete in them, regardless which country they represent.

Can people stop talking about E-sports? Let them have their own version of the "Olympics" in Riyadh or somewhere else and be it. Bach or the next President can go and open it with pleasure. Just keep it separate from the real sports ones..

Damn, Hassan is only 31, we won't get rid of her for another 2 Olympics probably

I remember you actually quit watching the Olympics about 5 times in the past 10 days

Lot's of prominent shots in the mash of nations Where is Tom Cruise, i came to see Tom Cruise.

Ah yes, beach rowing, one more of the stupid, stupid things, that will be happening for 2028. Who needs actual rowing, when you can have a knock off version to appease whoever..

About this. You would think this a good news. But i have seen in the past years, that anytime i say "After X and X are gone it will be better" it's the complete opposite. I thought Bach will be much better than Rogge at that time and it backfired spectacularly. Now you think anyone after Bach can't do a worse job, but i'm not holding my breath.