The 2022 Winter Beijing Games had the lowest US viewership in their history with 11.4 million Americans tuning in. And those ratings were down 40% from the previous Winter Games held in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018. At the time those were the lowest rated Games to date. 

The Tokyo Games, which were postponed from 2020 until 2021 because of the pandemic, averaged above 20 million viewers in only one night, and produced the nine smallest Summer Games primetime audiences dating back to the 1992 Barcelona Games. For the first time in history the preceding Winter Games (in South Korea) drew a higher audience than the Tokyo event.

Some of the decline, of both editions of the Winter Games, can be attributed to the time difference between Asia and the US. Another reason cited by Olympic organizers was a “hangover” from the pandemic, which resulted in Chinese authorities severely limiting attendees and officials.

The fact of the matter is the Olympic movement has become less popular and less relevant since it reached its peak with the 2008 Summer Games held, coincidentally, in Beijing. The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the 4.7B people who tuned in globally as the largest audience to ever watch the Olympic Games. Since then viewership has trended downward for both Summer and Winter Games.

In recent years the IOC has taken several measures to streamline the Games, bring down costs for staging one of the world’s largest events and encourage more cities and regions to bid. One of the most important and potentially impactful things it has done is adding new sports to the Games, in hopes of broadening the appeal and attracting a younger audience.

New Sports Aim To Revitalize Olympic Popularity

Adding sports to the Games is not a new phenomenon. From 1924 until 1992, Game organizers were able to add what were called demonstration sports. They were part of the Games programming, but teams and athletes did not compete for medals. Demonstration sports were typically added for one of two reasons; they were either popular in the host country (full-contact American football was added to the 1932 Los Angeles Games) or to see if the sport should be added to the medal sports (for example, badminton was a demonstration sport in 1988 before becoming a medal sport in 1992). In the case of baseball it was both. It was a demonstration sport in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 before being added as a medal sport in 1992.

Once the IOC ended the practice of having demonstration sports, new sports now must go through a process to be considered for inclusion. The criteria include things like how widely popular the sport is, what impact it will have on the cost and number of athletes it will add to the Games, and others.

Snowboarding, the first sport that appealed to the action sports fan, was added in 1998. That year four medals were awarded in Nagano. In the 2022 Beijing Games boarders competed for a total of eleven medals showing the growing popularity of the sport.

For much the same reason snowboarding was added, BMX Racing was included for the first time at the 2008 Beijing Games. At the time action sports events like the Dew Games and the X Games were at the height of their popularity. Adding BMX, it was believed, would attract more millennial fans.

In 2016 3x3 basketball was added to the Rio Games. This version of the sport is played on half court with games lasting no more than 10 minutes. This fits the audience’s shorter attention spans and allows for more buzzworthy content. In the case of 3x3 the IOC took an existing Olympic sport and adapted it for a new generation of fans.

The Paris Olympics have had their fair share of new and recently added sports. Surfing, which debuted in 2021 is being contested again. However, in an interesting twist the event is held in French Polynesia. Skateboarding, which also began during the Tokyo Games, is back as well. Sport climbing also returns, with some tweaks to the format.

What’s totally new is something that many people don’t even consider a sport. Breaking, commonly known as break dancing, began in the Bronx in the 1970s. Groups of dancers would vie for accolades and “street cred” but didn’t compete formally. Breaking made its debut at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games and proved popular enough to be added for Paris. Interestingly, it will not be on the schedule in Los Angeles in 2028.

Looking ahead to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, lacrosse returns to the Games for the first time since 1948 but will be played in a 7 v 7 format. Cricket, baseball and softball will all be returning. Flag football and squash will be competed for the first time.

The Paris Olympics Reach New Heights 

In addition to new sports being added in Paris, we are seeing a surge in interest for the Olympics in general, with the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics drawing nearly 29 million viewers, the highest viewership since the 2012 Games. 

With athletes like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese increasing visibility for women’s basketball, that intrigue has crossed over to the Paris Olympics. The US women’s basketball opening win drew an average of 3 million viewers across the USA Network and Peacock streaming platforms, which was more than any basketball game (men’s or women’s) from the 2021 Tokyo Games. 

Additionally, while Olympic shooting events have been included at nearly every Summer Games since the 1896 Summer Olympics, this year they have a whole new spotlight. Thanks to Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec going viral due to Gen Z’s memes about his nonchalant hand-in-pocket shooting stance, marksman events are being put on the map for a new audience that previously may have not known they existed. 

Not only is Gen Z meme-ifing the way we consume the Olympics in real-time, but the next generation of young athletes themselves are resonating with young fans through their online presence. Team USA rugby player Ilona Maher has rightfully earned a spot on NBC’s ‘Top 6 Olympic Athletes to Follow on TikTok Right Now’ list, utilizing social media as a tool to drive awareness towards rugby as a whole.

Her authentic and candid content has captivated millions of fans and views on TikTok, providing real-time behind-the-scenes updates throughout her time in Paris. This year, a new record women’s rugby attendance was set as 66,000 fans packed Stade de France for the first day of the women’s rugby sevens competition. 

Sponsors Adapt to Uncertain Sports Lineup

The addition and elimination of sports each Olympic cycle causes issues for sponsors. Most Olympic sponsors, at the IOC, NOC (national organizing committee) and Games level also sponsor NGBs (national governing bodies). This allows brands to align themselves with individual sports that will resonate with their audiences. With the established sports this isn’t an issue, since the company can be virtually assured the sport they partner with will be included in upcoming Games. When a marketer doesn’t know with any degree of certainty that a sport they are considering supporting will continue to compete in upcoming Olympic Games, they must make strategic decisions.  

Sometimes the company can achieve its objectives during the finite life cycle of the sport and then shift its focus in upcoming cycles to other sports. In other cases, when a brand is trying to build equity in that partnership over time, they aren’t afforded that luxury and must start anew when the sport is dropped from the Olympic calendar. Another option is to continue supporting the sport, despite it not being in the Games, but that precludes a brand from using the halo effect of the rings.

With continued globalization it’s difficult to find a sport that isn’t popular in several countries and/or regions. This makes it somewhat easier for the IOC to add sports that will have broad appeal, at least geographically. But broad reach does not ensure that a sport added to the Games will appeal to a younger audience, which is critical for the Olympic movement if it is to remain relevant and - more importantly - profitable for organizers. At the same time, the IOC must take into consideration the needs and objectives of their sponsors and provide them opportunities to associate with sports that are relevant to their audiences.