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true. They obviously care much more about speed skating and skiing than the rest of the world. What about the majors - Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Britain? I'd guess citizens of Britain and Germany have a higher interest level due to their country's relative success at the Olympics.
Britain is not particularly successful in the Olympics.
Here in The Netherlands, we definitely care. Every major media outlet covers the Olympics on the front page. Speed skating in particular is very popular here and people watch these events as if they were watching a WC final. To give you an illustration, here are the Dutch TV ratings of yesterday:
1 SCHAATSEN OS 10KM HEREN HUL 4.326.000
2 SCHAATSEN OS NB 3.138.000
3 SCHAATSEN OS 10KM HEREN 2.891.000
4 SCHAATSEN OS 10KM HEREN VB 2.455.000
5 BOBSLEEËN OS TWEEMANSBOB SV 2.343.000
6 IJSHOCKEY OS HEREN SV 2.203.000
7 GOEDE TIJDEN SLECHTE TIJDEN 2.078.000 8 STUDIO SPORTWINTER 1.906.000
9 SOTSJI VANDAAG 1.853.000
10 JOURNAAL 20 UUR 1.832.000
The ones in bold are related to the Olympics (in case you're wondering, "schaatsen" means speed skating ). Take into account that yesterday was a regular working day. If you look at the ratings on Sunday, the interest in the Olympics becomes even more obvious. Even a random sport like curling drew 1.7 million viewers. Out of the 25 most watched programs on Sunday, 16 were related to the Olympics.
Still, I would say the Summer Olympics are more popular here. There are far more sports we compete in and we are much more successful (although this WO has been great for us). We have won 2.5 times more summer medals than winter medals. Besides, the summer sports we traditionally win a lot of medals in (the water sports, cycling, equestrian, field hockey, judo) are much more global than speed skating which gives it more prestige. Make no mistake though, we take a lot of pride in our speed skating domination
You guys are lucky, the time difference between here and Sochi is so annoying with all the spoiler alerts.
Didn't get to watch one hockey game yet.
Winter olympics should only be hosted in the Western Hemisphere
Do you have an iPad or iPhone and do you get cable? If so, you can watch all the events live on an NBC app called Live Extra. That's how I've watched most events this Olympics.
I think it's selfish to say the Olympics should only be in the Western Hemisphere, just because you happen to live there. The Olympics are international games. They should be hosted all over the world. I think a lot of the excitement of the Olympics for me is the fact that these games take place in sometimes far off places. It's fun to get up at 5am to watch hockey to me.
Well its certainly not one of the big boys for sure! Didn't Britain finish 3rd in the medal table at the last Olympics? Not bad for a country of only 60 million, certainly doesn't warrant the comment made about Britain 'not being very good at the Olympics' anyway.
Make no mistake though, we take a lot of pride in our speed skating domination
And you should. The Dutch domination in schaatsen has been given quite some media attention in Norway as well. We're an old powerhouse in skating, but have lost much ground in recent years. It's been frustrating to see the Oranje racers decorate the podium again and again during these weeks, with our racers reduced to lane fillers.
Unfortunately skating has struggled with recruitment since becoming an indoor sport. Norwegian talents are channeled into various types of skiing instead. Years ago, speed skating was the number one winter sport here - at least on par with cross-country skiing. I miss the the heydays of outdoor skating competitions with standing spectators like at a packed Bislett stadium.
I think you mean 'couldn't care less', if they could care less it means they care. In Britain there is absolutely zero interest in the Winter Olympics (where I live and work anyway), it could be because Britons tend not to have many winter Olympians (lack of snow makes it hard to train compared to countries blessed with snowy mountains), the only famous British winter Olympian I know is Eddie 'the eagle' Edwards - famous for coming last in the ski-jump, famous becuase he had to pay his own way to the games and (I think) the jump he made in the competition was the first time he had actually gone down a ski-jump, he used to practice by jumping off of his garden shed roof!
Hey, it's an American colloquialism
But yea my grammar sucks.
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). Take into account that yesterday was a regular working day. If you look at the ratings on Sunday, the interest in the Olympics becomes even more obvious. Even a random sport like curling drew 1.7 million viewers. Out of the 25 most watched programs on Sunday, 16 were related to the Olympics.
