We hear the argument every single Olympic season, the Summer Olympics are better than the winter Olympics. A matter of heated debate, this is a battle that has waged for a long time and it is commonly believed that the summer games outdo the winter ones. But as with anything else in life, it is a matter of opinion.
Examining the obvious advantages that the summer games hold over the winter games, we find that the summer games have more sports, which are more popular overall and individually. While figure skating and curling are not widely popular amongst the general population, most of my friends in college go to the slopes to ski and snowboard every other weekend in wintertime. People like to snowboard and ski; combine that with an A-list snowboard champion, Shaun White (the Tony Hawk of snowboarding), and you get a sport that is more popular than greco-roman wrestling or archery in the summer Olympics.
Summer games cannot be contended in sports like swimming, track, and gymnastics, where their popularity far outweighs any sport in the winter games and the super-stars like Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, or Shawn Johnson. However, it cannot be denied that the battle-emulating scenario presented by the US hockey team against our major world competitors (such as the USSR in 1980) gives us a spectacle worth watching.
Why the Summer Olympics are Better than the Winter Olympics
Everybody has a right to their own opinion, but I will tell you why the Summer Olympics are better than the Winter Olympics. The biggest reason I like the Summer Olympics more than the Winter Olympics is because the sports are more competitive. What I mean by that is there are a lot more events in the Summer Olympics where there are two teams or two competitors opposing each other. There’s basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, table tennis, wrestling, boxing, field hockey, badminton, baseball, softball, etc. The Winter Olympics are full of sports where the competitors are not being defended in any way.
I’m not a big fan of track and swimming, but at least in track and swimming, when they race, they are all going at once. In some of the events in the Winter Olympics, the competitors are taking turns. There is no suspense when they are taking turns. There is suspense in the Summer Olympics when the competitors come down to the wire, and you can actually see how close it is.
Another reason I like the Summer Olympics is because I know how to play sports. Does that make me biased? I guess, but I don’t care. I know how to play volleyball, tennis, basketball, table tennis and others. Do I know how to snowboard? Not really. Do I know how to ski? I’ve attempted it before, but I’m not sure that means I know how to do it. I’ve actually been watching ice hockey semi-regularly recently, and I still don’t know all the rules.
One of the reasons the Summer Olympics events are sports I know how to play is because they are a lot more accessible. Basketball goals, volleyball nets, a track, a swimming pool, a ping pong table, a baseball field or even a backyard. These things are easy to come across. Maybe you live up north, or in Canada, or Sweden or Greenland or somewhere like that and you can easily find ice and snowy mountains, but we don’t have those in Alabama.
Softball is one of the Summer Olympics I enjoy watching. Unfortunately, in 2012, there will be no Softball at the Summer Olympics. One of the reasons given was that softball was not competitive enough. In the USA, Women dominated it too much. Well, if that’s the case, then we need to get rid of some of the Winter Olympics events too. Sure, curling, ice skating, and some of the more traditional events are competitive, but some of the more popular X-games-type events were basically created just for the Americans. Take snowboarding, for example. In the men’s halfpipe, Americans came in first, second, and fourth. In the women’s halfpipe, Americans came in first, second, fourth, and sixth. About one-third of the United States medals came from that one event. Clearly, it was created just because the USA sucks at the Winter Olympics.
Which brings me to my next point. The United States does suck at Winter Olympics. Forget about all the stupid events that have been added. Look at some of the more traditional Winter Olympics events. The highest an American finished in the biathlon? 14th! The American Ice Hockey team finished in 8th. The Americans did manage 2 silver medals in figure skating, so I guess that is something. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t necessarily want the United States to kick every country’s butt. But it is nice that in the Summer Olympics, there are some competitive Americans in every important event or event that I like watching.
There is also a lot less competition on television for the Summer Olympics. During the Winter Olympics there is pro and men and women’s college basketball, softball, tennis and everybody’s favorite prime time television shows are returning from Christmas break. During the Summer Olympics there is baseball. I love baseball, but I can miss it for parts of two weeks in August.
There are two events in particular I want to talk about. One of the Summer Olympics I enjoy is gymnastics. A lot of the Winter Olympics enthusiasts will say that Figure Skating is the same thing, so I should like it as much. No, Figure Skating is not like Gymnastics. Figure Skating is like one event in Gymnastics. Figure Skating is like the Floor Exercise. However, Figure Skaters don’t go on a horizontal bar, Figure Skaters don’t go on the parallel bars, Figure Skaters don’t go on the Pommel horse, and Figure Skaters don’t vault.
Lastly, this is the final point I’m going to make, and it will top any argument that the Winter Olympics fans can make. The Summer Olympics has archery. You can’t get any cooler than archery! If archery is good enough for Robin Hood, then it’s good enough for me.
Winter Vs Summer Olympics: Separate or One in the Same?
The thing is people, discounting the Winter Olympic Games as not worth watching or as less than the Summer Olympic Games is an insult to the skill and hard work of our American athletes who have put in years of intense training for their chance to represent the American public on the world stage. Instead of refusing to watch them because you think there is no entertainment value, support our fellow Americans and praise their skill and dedication.
The Winter Games are not separate and distinct from the Winter Games, but in fact, they are more like parts 1 and 2 of the overall Olympics. The athletes that represent our great nation are all part of our American Olympic team, not the 2nd class team that is beneath the summer team. Take the time and watch the Winter Games, and you might just learn what curling is all about, the danger of bobsledding, or the skill and grace necessary for figure skating. Besides, these world-class athletes will leave you speechless and give you a show you will never forget.
