Daily Verse | Isaiah 30:21
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Happy Monday as we turn the page to August. Is it still a quarter to run a load at your local laundrymat?
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t watched any of the Olympics. None of it. And I’m not the only one who isn’t watching.
The first night of competition on Saturday averaged 15.9 million viewers, down 32% from the comparable night of the Rio Summer Games in 2016. NBC’s audience rose to 20 million viewers on Sunday, down 36% compared with five years ago. Monday’s competition scored 16.8 million viewers, off 46% from the 31.5 million who watched on the comparable night in 2016.
The 2021 figures include the average number of people watching on streaming platforms, which hit a record Monday, for an Olympics, with 746,000 viewers.
What has caused the decline in ratings? Well, there are these culprits:
The decline from the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro partly reflects the long-running drop in traditional TV audiences, which have been lured away by streaming. And while sports ratings have bounced back this year from 2020, many events are down from pre-pandemic levels.
But NBC has faced other challenges in attracting Olympics viewers this year, from empty stadiums caused by pandemic restrictions, to Tokyo’s 13-hour time difference with the U.S. East Coast, to high-profile athletes dropping out of the competition.
And the Olympics aren’t the only event to suffer from steep drop-offs in viewers.
The 2020 Olympic Games are just the latest TV event to feel the pain of steep ratings drops over the past year.
Every major TV awards show hit a record low in 2021 including the Oscars, which drew just under 10 million viewers, a 58% decline from 2020.
The 2020 World Series had its smallest audience in history with 9.6 million viewers last fall.
Even the Super Bowl, which had largely been resistant to the overall erosion of traditional viewing, saw its TV audience hit a 14-year low in February while more people streamed the game online than ever before.
This may be just me, but the reason I’m not watching isn’t because I’ve been lured away by streaming services or because there’s a 13-hour time difference with Tokyo or because I was crushed that Simone Biles dropped out of the competition. In fact, I didn’t watch the Oscars, the World Series, the NBA Finals, or the Super Bo—okay, I did watch the Super Bowl, but only because Tom Brady was making history. And I didn’t watch any football during the season.
Neither of the publications I cite above listed the reason I’m not watching.
I’m not watching the Olympics for the same reason I didn’t watch the Oscars, the World Series or the NBA Finals: they’ve all gone woke. I’m not interested in watching ingrates, like Gwen Berry or Meghan Rapinoe or LeBron James, complain about their circumstances and demonize the country in which they’ve had their success. They’ve disgraced themselves and their country.
While I am not actively cheering for these whiners to lose, I won’t mind if they do, so that they have no platform from which to be an activist.
Having said that, however, I do want to point out one athlete in particular. She’s a 21-year-old black athlete (her skin color doesn’t matter to me, but skin color is all the rage right now, so I mention it) and she set a world-record in the 400-meter hurdles.
Sydney McLaughlin is the first woman in the history of the event to run it under 52 seconds. And, even better than that, was her profession of faith after winning the Olympic trial.
“I think the biggest difference this year is my faith, trusting God and trusting that process, and knowing that He’s in control of everything. As long as I put the hard work in, He’s going to carry me through. And I really cannot do anything more but give the glory to Him at this point.”
No grandstanding. No complaining. No selling out her country. Just a humble acknowledgement of God and His work in her life.
Then, on Friday night, she won her first qualifying round.
The Dunellen native, running in her second Olympics, practically jogged to a victory in her 400-meter hurdles preliminary heat, advancing to the semifinals and leaving no doubt about her status as the gold-medal favorite.
And then, when it was over, she made a powerful statement that the big expectations don’t bother her.
“Pressure is an illusion,” the 21-year-old said. “It’s what you make of it. I’m just here to have fun and represent my country.”
So far, so good.
Yes — so far, good. She’s just there to have fun and represent her country. How refreshing. I just might watch hurdling to cheer her on.
If you want to learn more about Sydney and five other Christian athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics, click here.