The Olympics aren’t cool. They have been cool, from time to time. There have been cool moments that fall under the banner of being ‘in the Olympics’. But the Olympics are not themselves cool.
To go out on a limb and say what’s metaphorically written between the lines of that opening paragraph, the vast majority of the Olympics are boring as fuck.
And the International Olympic Committee know this. They know that the Olympics are boring as fuck, and they know that’s there’s only so many people they can convince with a quick-cutting highlight montage set to ‘Hall of Fame’ by will.i.am and The Script before people actually watch Dressage and realise it’s largely an international pissing contest competed by rich folk on horseback.
Or at least, the IOC know that a large amount of the younger demographic will see their competition like this. That’s why they introduced freestyle snowboarding and skiing into the Winter Olympics, why they brought skateboarding and climbing into the Summer Olympics – and why they’ve just announced BMX Freestyle Park will be an Olympic sport for Tokyo 2020 as well.
Currently there are too many sports that require a prior interest or understanding of the rules to enjoy, and far, far too many hours of coverage of sports which are, as previously mentioned, boring as fuck.
