6 Thoughts on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo (Which Really Happened in 2021)

1. NBC missed out on their greatest opportunity to promote their new streaming platform Peacock.

They failed miserably. They could have had half of America watching on their platform for the entirety of the Olympics, but instead had the lowest viewership in NBC’s Olympic history . That’s insane!

Nine years ago, my wife and I were in India working at an orphanage and watched the games live on YouTube in the middle of the night. We never had a problem (even with unreliable power and internet), were able to choose our event, and could watch the videos after they occurred. With NBC’s Peacock, even with a subscription, you could only replay certain events, and then it was only after a day or two passed and the internet had already spoiled the outcomes. It’s unfortunate that YouTube almost a decade ago did a better job than a major broadcasting company with their own content makers.

2. The Olympic Committee needs to crack down on the anti-Israel stuff more harshly.

This seems to still be a problem 49 years after the Palestinian attack on the Olympic team in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Israel won four medals (two gold and two bronze) at these Olympics and each one seems to have a story of someone refusing to acknowledge their place. On the Wikipedia page for Israel in the Olympics, there is a section called “Conflicts with Nations” due to the amount of times the Israeli team has been disrespected. In only one incident, in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, was it Israel's doing; Israel decided not to participate due to Russia’s treatment of the people in Afghanistan.

This year, Israel had their best Olympics ever and it’s a shame that it was marred by the disrespect and discrimination that has continued to be allowed by the Olympic Committee.

3. America didn’t dominate as much as they have in the past, and that's alright.

I like to watch Americans do great things. I also loved that Fiji won gold in men's rugby, Norway won the gold in the men’s triathlon, and Mongolia won four medals. I like seeing all the countries alongside each other. It gets a little boring when America wins everything… It’s really not that big of a surprise given our obsession with college and professional athletics and our GDP.

4. Simone Biles showed how we are still not as accepting of mental struggles as we think we are, and also how we idolize athletes who are still just human.

When Simone Biles stepped out of her role on the gymnastics team in the middle of the competition, the US media was spewing all sorts of mixed information - she was injured, potentially injured, had a mental breakdown, had a death in the family, had the spins… Can’t we get to a place where when someone doesn’t want to perform, we say “Oh man, I was looking forward to seeing them, but it’s their choice, not mine.” Like, seriously, Simone Biles not performing didn’t actually change my life in any way, so why should my reaction be anything but that it’s her decision to not perform. Whatever her reason is, it was the best decision she felt she could make at the time. It also allowed the other members of the team to shine. Her stepping aside also allowed Mykayla Skinner to get a silver medal at her second (and probably last) Olympic games after sitting on the bench as a backup last time. I think that’s a bigger story than if Simone Biles got another gold medal.

5. We, as Americans, should embrace more underdog stories and stop spending half the air time talking about the same few athletes.

We get it, America loves Michael Phelps. He got more mention during these Olympics than most of our other athletes who were actually competing. Everyone loves Katie Ledecky, Alison Felix, Caeleb Dressel, and Simone Biles but how many other athletes can you name? Literally every athlete at the Olympics, even the people who finish in last place, are world-class athletes. Each one has a powerful story behind their path to the Olympics (I doubt anyone just picked up the sport last year. Perhaps we could highlight other athletes instead of talking about the same ones over and over again....

6. The media attention at the Olympics is disproportionate to the number of sport participants or interest.

Climbing, Skateboarding, Karate, Baseball, Softball, and Surfing were all new to the Olympics this year, and they got as much air time in the US as race walking, the pentathlon, and equestrian (which, let’s be real, is more the horse doing the work than the rider). The new events represent hundreds of millions of people who at least occasionally participate in these sports worldwide, whereas the latter events I just mentioned represent less than 10 million worldwide (you can find this information on each sport’s governing bodies’ website). Also, Peacock’s primetime show covering the Olympics “live” showed almost as much table tennis (aka ping-pong) in the first week than any other sport other than swimming.. Seriously, no one cares that much.