Media About The Olympics Hurts Athletes, Decreases Enjoyment
True goal of the Olympics, unity and peace, lost through hyper-competitive and intense pressure from media.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was the first time I was able to watch the Olympic Games on television. NBC made it easy to access events and results and I was able to watch certain events like fencing which are not usually shown on television. However, the Olympics were ruined for me by the immense pressure from the news that was placed on the athletes to succeed and the disparagements they faced when they did not live up to expectations. For the broadcasting companies like NBC, the main focus above all else is on American success which creates unnecessary pressure on athletes who are already performing at the highest level. Prime examples of this happened in both Tokyo and Beijing as Simone Biles dropped out of many of her competitions because of the pressure she was facing and as Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic participation was labeled a failure because she did not win any medals. ESPN mentioned that “While [Shiffrin] was able to participate in every event, not much else went to plan. Shiffrin recorded uncharacteristic “did not finish” results in the giant slalom, slalom and Alpine combined races, and she finished ninth in the super-G and 18th in the downhill. As viewers, we expect athletes like Biles and Shiffrin to win medals because of how hyped up they are by television. Obviously, they are incredible athletes but the focus shifts to winning rather than the actual competition and hard work that these athletes have done to get to this stage.
The spirit of the Olympics is lost through television. The Olympics are meant to show sports to the world in the spirit of unity and cooperation. As every nation from around the world comes together in one place to compete, we are able to have a moment of peace while we all support each other. However, the televisation of the Olympics have placed all the attention on the United States and its athletes. While we live in America and it’s good to want to support American athletes, ultimately we lose so much when TV highlights only the successes or extreme failures of American athletes while disregarding any other athlete from another country. Vox Media explains, “Frequently, the only non-Americans we see compete in events like gymnastics are those who have direct bearing on NBC’s US-centric narrative.” So, while we watch Mikaela Shiffrin slide off the course in slalom, we could be missing out on Norway’s record-breaking gold medal numbers. This extremely nationalistic approach to the Olympics can deprive viewers of interesting competition that is more engaging than disrespecting American athletes for their failures.
We all need to take a moment to consider what the importance of the Olympics are. They are not to assert the United States’ dominance over every other country so we don’t need to watch them that way. Televising the Olympics is a wonderful way of bringing sport to people all around the world but broadcasting companies should think about the way they portray the Games. Not only are viewers potentially missing out on success from other countries, but the pressure on the American athletes defeats the purpose of competing and it can turn ugly when TV companies don’t get the results they want.
Hi, my name is Evan Vezmar, and I'm a senior. I began writing for Spectrum in my freshman year as a staff writer and became an editor in 10th grade. Last...
