The Beckie Scott thread got something going in my head I;ve thought about for some time: The Olympics needs to look at their image and it is time for a tasteful overhaul. here’s what I mean:
Drug scandals have obscurred the credibility and honor of the event.
Judging scandals (figure skating) have done the same.
The mix of events has ignored a growing demographic in sports. The Olympics have paid lip service to Gen-X and “extreme” sports by letting snowboarding in but, guess what- it produced another drug scandal! (positive marijuana test).
The X-Games and other competeing events like the ESPN Gravity Games are stealing more thunder from the Olympics than they realize. Today’s X-Games viewers are not tomorrow’s Olympics viewers. Clearly, they should not have back-yard wrestling and fringe events in the Olympics, but when are they going to have an Olympic big-air competition or something with half a pulse? The promise of a half-second up-skirt from a 90 pound figure skater set to Barry Manilow or Michael Jackson can’t hold a candle to a Superman Can-Can on a 125cc motocross bike 60 feet above the L.A. Colliseum set to Metallica. The emerging Mountain-Dew, Red Bull fueled sports spectator will give the yawn to the Olympics in favor of Nintendo-replicated antics performed at 90 m.p.h. or 60 feet off the ground.
It’s all about the emerging demographic I fear. Ask any 18 year old who Beckie Scott is and you’ll have a head scratcher. Ask them who Tony Hawk is and BINGO!.
“4. The X-Games and other competeing events like the ESPN Gravity Games are stealing more thunder from the Olympics than they realize.”
1,2,3 you’re OK but I think you’re WAY off base with #4. Eventually the 15 yr olds get a bit older and their interests change as do the kids doing these sports. I see it in my own gen-x kids. Also the problem with most of these “big air baggy pants” sports is that they are usually decided by judges and not who crosses the finish line first. If you think there are figure skating judging scandels now then imagine what would happen if any of these sports actually had a broad base appeal. The events in the Olympics are time proven and not likely to be displaced by a few activities that only teenagers are willing to do or watch.
A lot of the top Olympic athletes peek in their late 20’s or early 30’s after spending many years in their sports. Not the same with upside down skate boarding, etc. Plus the 15 yr olds ten years from now might be into something totally different.
“4. The X-Games and other competeing events like the ESPN Gravity Games are stealing more thunder from the Olympics than they realize.”
Another point:
The Olympics come once every four years and are the most watched event on the planet for those two weeks. Now would they lose viewing audience against ESPN. I don’t think so.
One thing I wonder about though is revenue stream. The Olympics is (I think?) pretty behind the curve in generated creative new revenue streams. X-Games has developed some pretty interesing, “in the trenches” methods of generating licensing fees and selling product. Also, the demographic of your average X-Games viewer has almost 100% discretionary income and are rampant consumers: Personal music devices such as MP3s, gaming, apparel, cosemetics, media, media services, cellular phones, beverages and food, and they are transitioning into the car buying age. X-Games marketers are conditioning the consumers of tomorrow. Ten years ago would you have thought Cadillac would be featured in “The Matrix, Reloaded” and be marketed on TV with Led Zeppelin music in the background of their commercials? That is an example of a shifting demographic I think.
Anyway, my point is: The Olympics needs to pay attention to what X-Games is doing.
I don’t think that the Olympics is out of touch. The Olympic gold is THE medal to win if you are a track and field athlete and probably for swimmers too if you want to raise your profile and get some endorsements. Track has always been the centrepiece of the games and although there have been drug scandals (in my opinion they should just forget about any drug testing since the chemists always seem to be ahead of the testers but that is a discussion for another thread) the scandals reflect more on society and the importance placed on winning at the games and the individual sport governing bodies rather than the games themselves. I don’t think that Olympic events are really designed to be marketed as Playstation games and some of the fringe sports (hopefully triathlon is not one of them!) won’t have the staying power of the “major” sports. I do think that it is insane for them to try to add in more judged sports (ie. weren’t they trying to get ballroom dancing included a while back … is that even a sport?) but the Olympics have the cachet and drawing power to be relevant for another 100+ years.
I agree with everyone else, your spot on for 1, 2, 3. I have to disagree with number 4 though.
Youth are naturally rebellious, the problem is that you let those “fringe” sports into the olympics, then the kids will find something else to do, what kid wants to do the same thing their parents do? Five years later they’ve found something else to do, what do you do then, let in the other sports? The are still plenty of people trying to get into the Olympic sports, the X-games is just providing those that favor other sports an area to shine.
If you asked people around town, even at high and middle schools as well as college, which they would rather win, the Olympics or X-games gold medals, I think 90% would rather win the Olympics. In schools there is still a majority of students that compete in olympic sports as opposed to the “fringe” sports that the X-games caters too.
So is the olympics slightly misguided right now, yes. Does the IOC need to retool and add a whole mess of youth sports, No, they are still the premier event for the majority of athletes in the world.
The olympics is the gold standard for many sports. Its the premier sporting event in the world every 4 years. Who won last years or this years IMH and recent ITU world championships male and female? I don’t remember but I do remember the olympic winners. I remember watching it and feeling the excitement. It is the premier triathlon event.
X-games are" superstock" with none of that silly drug testing stuff to get in the way too. Yea well it sells but so does pro wrestling instead of that sissy Olympic Style where you can’t bash people with chairs and jump off the 3rd rope. Call me a purist but the crosscountry ski events, rowing, canoe and kayak and track cycling are my faves to watch. All grunt sports. G
i’m 23, i skate, snowboard, and also do triathlons. i work for vans as a tech rep, so i am very involved in these “fringe” (lame word) sports. when i’m watching the olympics and i see figure skating for 4 hours or some curling…i gladly change the channel. the olympics needs an update for sure. i know danny kass and jj thomas (silver and bronze medal winners at the olympics) they were stoked to win cause it was the olympics…but numerous people said the competition wasn’t as strong as it would be at and x-games or triple crown event. and the olympic commitee made them only wear USA clothing and all kinds of other stupid stuff. if the olympics put some slopestyle or big-air competitions in that would help big time. i know tons of pro-athletes that could care less if skateboarding or snowboarding is in the olympics, cause thats not what it’s about. an CERVELOGUY needs to grow up (or get hip, i mean) these athletes are just as dedicated as any pro from any sport. the amount of time they practice is insane. and “baggy pants” aren’t even popular any more! i also don’t care if someone wears baggy pants, cause i wear speedos and sports bras during races!!! right now it is just as hard if not harder for an up and coming kid to make as a pro in skating or snowboarding, than major league baseball. and way harder than making it as a pro-cyclist or triathlete! baseball is hurting right now, x-type sports are a driving industry and is growing so fast. these sports are here to stay, and are so much more fun to watch! just wait till your kid makes $300,000 a year riding a skateboard. enough said.
To some degree the Olympics are in need of repair but I gotta ask you this…chose one of the following:
The Olympic gold medal for triathlons (and be the champion for the next four years)
or
The X Games (whatever) champion and have to defend it annually.
I won’t knock the X Games…they have their niche…but comparing the two…well, there is no comparisson. I’d just like to see if they are still holding X Games in, say, another hundred years. It could happen but probably not too likely.
Good point. I’d take the Oly Gold in triathlon. Although an X-Games Moto-X Big Air Competition Medal would be pretty choice. -It would take a Superman seat-grab backflip (doable) or a Lazy boy, can-can, can-can.
Okay Tom…ya got me there. If only I had the cajones to even attempt such things. Crusty Demons of dirt over Olympic recaps…totally the way to go. I’d still go with the Olympic gold though. As a sidebar, I read an issue of Bicycling that says Ricky Charmichael uses CTS and cycling to improve his on moto prowess.
Naw, I re-read this thread, the whole thing. I still think I am right about number 4 in the first post.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Olympics. But I’m 42. I am approaching the down slope of my usefulness to our economy as a consumer. Once I buy my last house and car, I’m done with the big stuff and then its just gadgets and toys. I am not a “super marketable” demographic. Also, like many 42 year olds, I do have half a brain and don’t blindly follow every single trend (only some of them, and I do own baggy pants and I like girls in low jeans)so I am not as susceptible to marketing. I do watch the X-Games and go, “Whoa, full 720!” but I don’t go out the next day and buy an X-Box or start drinking Mountain Dew. The X-Games target audience does (or wants to).
As I mentioned, the kids X-Games are marketing to have a greater amount of discretionary income than any previous generation at their age category. They are a sale waiting to happen in many product categories that didn’t even exist four years ago, like LG brand picture phones. They are also forming their opinions about what their next decade of purchases will be based on.
Picture this, you are a marketing exec. placing ads at an agency. Maybe you’re hired by Nissan- lots of “hip” vehicles at entry to mid price ranges. You can get mucho ad bang for the buck EVERY YEAR at X-Games or you can wait every four years and shell out millions (literally) to be an “Official Olympic Sponsor” then get your wings clipped by a drug scandal or judging fracas. Then consumers have three more years to forget you were the “Official SUV of the blah-blah Olympics.”
If I were that exec I would have three questions: “Can you get these kids to buy my stuff? Can you get them to grow up and KEEP buying my stuff? Can you do it cheaper and more often than the Olympics?” If the answers to all three are “Yes” it is a no brainer.
You guys make some good points, but if I were a part of the IOC marketing commitee (if there is such a thing, I don’t know for sure) I would be watching the X-Games very, very closely.
The Beckie Scott thread got something going in my head I;ve thought about for some time: The Olympics needs to look at their image and it is time for a tasteful overhaul. here’s what I mean:
Drug scandals have obscurred the credibility and honor of the event.
Judging scandals (figure skating) have done the same.
The mix of events has ignored a growing demographic in sports. The Olympics have paid lip service to Gen-X and “extreme” sports by letting snowboarding in but, guess what- it produced another drug scandal! (positive marijuana test).
The X-Games and other competeing events like the ESPN Gravity Games are stealing more thunder from the Olympics than they realize. Today’s X-Games viewers are not tomorrow’s Olympics viewers. Clearly, they should not have back-yard wrestling and fringe events in the Olympics, but when are they going to have an Olympic big-air competition or something with half a pulse? The promise of a half-second up-skirt from a 90 pound figure skater set to Barry Manilow or Michael Jackson can’t hold a candle to a Superman Can-Can on a 125cc motocross bike 60 feet above the L.A. Colliseum set to Metallica. The emerging Mountain-Dew, Red Bull fueled sports spectator will give the yawn to the Olympics in favor of Nintendo-replicated antics performed at 90 m.p.h. or 60 feet off the ground.
It’s all about the emerging demographic I fear. Ask any 18 year old who Beckie Scott is and you’ll have a head scratcher. Ask them who Tony Hawk is and BINGO!.
Tom
I stopped watching the Olympics years ago due to all the politics
I’m no gen x’er at 47 but I know who Tony Hawk is and I have no clue who Beckie Scott is
I’m an adrenalin junkie that happens to like triathlon for the competiton against the clock but I do prefer freeriding and DH mtb and rock climbing for my daily rush
and as far as TV goes give me a vert competition over T&F anyday
Ask any 18 year old who Beckie Scott is and you’ll have a head scratcher. Ask them who Tony Hawk is and BINGO!.
Actually, today teens think Tony Hawk is “Gaaay” (i.e., lame). “He’s old dude”. Tony Hawk is now “too corporate” for real X-Game fans to dig. (But, they do know who he is)
Judge the X-Games in 10 years once the newness has worn off. When the X-Games first hit the scene it was big and attracted a large audience of kids that weren’t good at baseball, basketball, and football. Now, that has seemed to fade a bit, and has become more “suburban”. The appeal broadened but watered down the “meaning” of X-Games. Once something is accepted and routine, it’s no longer “eXtreme”. That’s why i say wait 10 years and then compare the Olympics and X-Games.
X-Games may fade out in 10 years, the Olympics will always be there.
I think things like Sportscenter has killed the TV coverage of the Olynpics. You can watch an hour (or less) of sportscenter, and see the best moments of the Olympics without sitting through all the Yawn other stuff.
The X-Games may get to a point where there’s “nothing new to do”. Ironically, X-Games target audience is probably ages 6-10, b/c in HS the skateboard get replaced by cars and friends that drive (from what I see as a teacher and uncle of a “sketer dude”). Kids trade in their skateboard for a tricked out Acura Legend (Did I just say “tricked out”?)
The Olympics will always have appeal for some b/c it has traditional, and “us against them”.
Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Tony Alva, Jake Burton (Burton Snowboards), Tom Sims (Sims skateboards), and I think Stacy Peralta (Powell/Peralta). There’s six skaters with net worth doing laps around a million dollars. Problem is, a million bucks don’t get you much these days.