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With so many fans not being able to attend the Olympics this year, the post-pandemic sports event seems very different from what we were used to. Just like most professional sports, Olympic events feed off crowd energy that transfers onto the screens for viewers at home.
Commenting on the very different kind of Olympic experience this year, Rick Burton, a professor of sport management at Syracuse University and the former chief marketing officer of the US Olympic Committee for the 2008 Beijing games, called the experience “sterile.” “The sponsors are going to be thinking the ratings will be down. They’re worried they’re not going to get their money’s worth,” he added.
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Moreover, sports psychologists are now observing an Olympics without fans as a real-life science experiment. It’s thought to help researchers and clinicians to measure the impact of a crowd of fans on its players—and on spectators at home. The unprecedented times offer an entirely new glimpse into what is the social and psychological makeup of the Olympic Games and how the competing athletes are affected by it.
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Some athletes have already stressed the pressure that’s been building for not having an audience of spectators. On Tuesday, superstar gymnast Simone Biles dropped out of the women’s team event, blaming “not the right headspace” for competition. “It’s been really stressful this Olympic Games. Just as a whole, not having an audience. There are a lot of different variables going into it,’ she told the Washington Post.
The findings made on viewers’ engagement also show that sports without fans may be way less enjoyable. Kantar, a research firm that measures consumer enthusiasm, found that two-third of American sports spectators announced that watching sports during the pandemic was not as engaging and enjoyable. “[The Olympics] could be a little bit less engaging, a little bit less fulfilling for the viewer,” Ryan McConnell, Kantar’s senior vice president for consulting, told Quartz.
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