Many of us have wondered what is going on with the Olympics adding numbers of sports the last couple decades that don't fit with traditional core sports. I would prefer they leave out most of the subjectively judged sports and major professional team sports. And as some have mentioned, some sports have way too many competition categories. So many sports now and competitions it is so diluted no one is able to watch but a tiny fraction of what is occurring. Today I couldn't believe reading how some are pushing to have video games in like e-games in the Olympics. In any case, nothing that affects my life at all just a peon spectator on this planet. Of course this is about increasing the audience for TV money. If the whole bloated Olympic governing structure and IOC collapsed and had to be rebuilt, I'd clap.
While the Summer Olympics are considered the most-watched sporting spectacle in the world, the numbers of young viewers have been declining for decades. The median age of the US TV audience for the 2016 Rio Games was 53...
Aware of this, the IOC has tried to attract younger audiences by incorporating newer action sports in both the summer (windsurfing, mountain biking, BMX racing) and winter (ski cross, big air) Olympic programs...
In 2015, the IOC worked with the Tokyo Organising Committee to shortlist five new sports – karate, baseball/softball, surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing – for possible inclusion in the 2020 games. When all five were confirmed for Tokyo, Bach proclaimed:
We want to take sport to the youth […] With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us — we have to go to them.
Alt goes mainstream: how surfing, skateboarding, BMX and sport climbing became Olympic events
The inclusion of new action sports can offend Olympic traditionalists and outsiders alike. But it’s part of a long-term strategy to keep the games relevant and appealing to younger fans.
theconversation.com
While the Summer Olympics are considered the most-watched sporting spectacle in the world, the numbers of young viewers have been declining for decades. The median age of the US TV audience for the 2016 Rio Games was 53...
Aware of this, the IOC has tried to attract younger audiences by incorporating newer action sports in both the summer (windsurfing, mountain biking, BMX racing) and winter (ski cross, big air) Olympic programs...
In 2015, the IOC worked with the Tokyo Organising Committee to shortlist five new sports – karate, baseball/softball, surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing – for possible inclusion in the 2020 games. When all five were confirmed for Tokyo, Bach proclaimed:
We want to take sport to the youth […] With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us — we have to go to them.