Ho-Hum, Winter Olympics Finish Up

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy are now over. The funny thing is that most people don't even know that. A lot of people might not know that the Olympics ever started. It seems to me that the Winter Olympics don't draw much talk or attention. The reasons behind this are probably the fact that most of the Olympic sports are events that most people can't relate to. In most events it doesn't even seem like there is much "competition." Bobsledding, the skeleton, downhill skiing, moguls, figure skating, even snowboarding, all those events occur with one person (or team in the case of the bobsled) competing at a time. Quite frankly, that is not the most interesting thing for people to watch, and therefore a lot of people don't tune in. And because of that, most people don't talk much about the Winter Games.

Compare this to the Summer Olympics, in which many people tune in. They have several events in which people are competing at the same time: all of the track events, all of the swimming events, basketball, and baseball too. The biggest events in the summer games are the swimming and track events, because you can actually see the people competing. They are fighting it out with the person next to them. It isn't like the Winter Games where one bobsled team goes down the shoot and then is off to the side when another team beats their time.

The only events the Winter Olympics have that involve this type of live, on-screen competition that I am talking about are the speed skating events, cross-country skiing, hockey, and curling. All of which I watched during the Olympics. I think that in order to improve the Winter Olympics, they need to institute more events where you can see the competition on the television screen. Really it wouldn't be that difficult for some events. Downhill skiing it seems like could be run with a couple of competitors in it, as well as many other skiing events. Bobsledding and skeleton would not work. Neither would half-pipe snowboarding, but in the case of snowboarding, many people watch that anyway. All in all the Winter Olympics needs to start copying a little bit off of its sister, the Summer Olympics.

Publish Date: February 27 in the Missourian.