Olympians & Social Media

We've all heard of Facebook.  Many of us have heard of Twitter.  We know what blogs are and we know how to nagivate Web sites.  These forms of social media have been around for a long time now, especially basic Internet sites.  But these past Winter Olympics were the first time in history that the International Olympic Committee really, fully utilized social media to advertise, inform, update and connect athletes to fans and spectators all over the world.

The past games were the first in which an overwhelming number of American athletes "tweeted" to their fans about the Olympic experience - it put fans in the moment, in the place, in the mindset of the celebrity athletes they'd been rooting for since before the games began.  American downhill skier Lindsey Vonn is a tweet machine with 71,478 followers and multiple posts a day during her time in Vancouver.  Though the games are long over, she has continued to update her fans/followers about her post-Olympic training and plans.  Shaun White isn't nearly as consistent with his tweets.  Nonetheless, 169,371 people still follow him!  Apolo Ohno is almost annoying with the amount of tweets he's produced - but his 162,873 followers love it.  The Olympics as a whole also maintained a Twitter account for up-to-the-minute updates about the games.

The games also had a commanding presence on Facebook, where various Olympic organizations had fan or group pages, athletes had profiles, fan and group pages, and even individual sports had fan or group pages.  Athletes kept their fans abreast of Olympic news via status updates and built their fan base through virtual friend requests.  The International Olympic Committee's Facebook page has over 1.5 million fans and inspired almost 200 million similar pages since last January, as reported on olympic.org.  The page also hosted a photo contest in which over 4,000 photos were submitted.

The IOC also made use of YouTube and Flickr, where officials, athletes and fans alike could post videos and photos for other Olympic fans to view.  NBC, the major network broadcasting the games, provided live video streams of events for fans to watch from any computer with an Internet connection.  The Web site also provided in-depth interviews and biographies of the athletes, schedules of events, slideshows of all things Olympic, interactive maps and games and other supplementary video.

For the first time in Olympic history, fans and spectators could access the games at any time.  They could watch events wherever they wanted.  They could personally connect with their favorite athletes via Twitter or Facebook.  They could practically stalk the Olympics and athletes through countless social media tools.  For the first time in Olympic history, fans, no matter where their location, could be fully involved in every aspect of the Olympic games - it became an entirely new level of interactivity.

It's kinda cool that something as monumentous as the Olympics could be made so accessible to so many people.  Social media put personalities and stories with the athletes.  It made the sheer magnitude of the organization of the games conceivable, and it broke down walls that traditionally exist when celebrities are televised. 

I'm excited to see how the International Olympic Committee utilizes social media for the Summer Games two years from now.

The Olympic Village

Major television networks show us Olympic performances, interviews, emotions of the athletes and all other aspects of the actual competition.  But what happens when Olympians leave the spotlight for day?  What is the Olympic Village like?  Is it glamorous?  Is my idealized, romantic vision of an international community brought together in the spirit of competition and athleticism realistic?  If you're like me, you wonder about this.  What's it like to live at the Olympic Village for two weeks?

The Coca-Cola Company produced an Olympic commercial that parodied life in the Olympic Village:

This all seems like great fun.  But here's what life in the Olympic Village is really like:

For these past Winter Olympics, the city of Vancouver actually built two villages: one in the mountains for the skiing venues and another in downtown Vancouver.  The village in downtown Vancouver has over 600 units and is capable of housing over 2,800 athletes, coaches, trainers and officials.  The village in the mountains can accommodate over 2,400 athletes, coaches and trainers; it was also used for the 2010 Winter Paralympics. 

Teams are housed together and bunk two athletes to a room (and, none of the bedrooms have a television).  The villages are complete with lounges that contain televisions, video game setups, training centers, cafes, stores, and a 24-hour health clinic.  There are cafeterias that are also open 24 hours with an incredibly diverse menu (in order to accommodate the incredibly diverse Olympic athletes).  There are McDonald's at the villages and all the food is free (for the athletes, at least).

Because Olympians have spent the better part of their life preparing for this huge event, they are kept in check by their coaches and trainers.  Though there are no curfews in the Olympic Village, coaches make sure their athletes aren't out until the wee hours of the morning leading up to individual competitions.  Once athletes have competed in their events, though, they are free to hit the town, the bars, party it up (and hook up).  In fact, the Vancouver Olympic Committee supplied 100,000 condoms to the 7,000 athletes, coaches, trainers and officials (this works out to 14 a piece). 

One thing that all athletes make sure of, though, is that their celebrations don't upset the schedules of other athletes.  Picabo Street, a skier who won gold at the Nagano Winter Olympics, said "Olympians are surprisingly mature, no matter what age.  It's required of you.  If you act like an idiot, you really stand out."  The athletes are very respectful of the dedication and commitment their teammates and competitors have for the games. 

It is also common and widely accepted for athletes to wear their medals out and about in the Olympic Village - to meals, to the lounges, on strolls and even to bed!  This display of accomplishment isn't met with scoffs and rolled eyes - it is met with a "Congratulations!" or a nod of respect. 

It is reassuring to know that the athletes I admire and respect in competition are also respectable outside of competition.  It would be easy to form cliques and superiority complexes.  But from the sources I've read, Olympic athletes are portrayed as very mature and down-to-earth.  Granted, there are all sorts of stories that never make it to the desk of a reporter, but even if it's naive of me, I still like to hold onto the idea that Olympians are athletes we can look up to.  Not just for their athletic abilities, but for their sportsmanship and dedication to friendly (but intense) competition.

Just How Much Money do Olympians Make?

When we hear the term "celebrity," many of us immediately think of our favorite actors/actresses. Some of us think of our favorite bands or musicians. And some may even think of important political figures. But more and more, people are starting to regard Olympic athletes as celebrities.

American athletes such as Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Lindsey Jacobellis and Apolo Ohno dominate magazine covers, headlines, talk shows and news reports.  They are every bit a celebrity as Robert De Niro, Madonna or Michelle Obama - they've just made their fame in a different way.

Olympians are some of the most revered athletes in the world.  They compete against hundreds of athletes from their own country and then move on to compete against hundreds of athletes from dozens of other countries around the world.  But despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on training, the countless painful hours of practice and even the glory that comes with winning an Olympic medal, these athletes (with the exception of a select few) don't even make a fraction of what other professional athletes or celebrities in the United States make. 

This is the biggest difference between Olympians and a regular professional athlete: Olympians (it would seem) aren't motivated mainly by money.  According to hoopshype.com, Kobe Bryant makes $23 million a year playing for the L.A. Lakers.  This doesnt include his sponsorships or other business adventures.  Robert De Niro makes millions of dollars for each movie he stars in.  Madonna makes millions of dollars on each tour she does, plus revenue from her music sales, endorsements and other business adventures.

Olympic athletes predominately make money through sponsorships or endorsements.  In fact, American athletes receive very little money by competing in the Olympics.  According to an article by moneyunder30.com, American Olympic athletes receive a "medal bonus" from the U.S. Olympic Committee: $25,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.  Snowboard-mag.com projects that Shaun White will make about $10 million this year, which includes prize money, sponsorsphips, endorsements and other business deals.

American Olympic athletes that the general population has hardly heard of (for example, the American curling team, bobsled team or even some figure skaters) make considerably less than that.  They are not as well known and thus do not make as much in endorsements, and aren't making as much from the Olympics because they aren't constantly dominating the podium.

The United States curling team, for example, had to personally go out and sell sponsorships and raise money for this year's past Winter Olympic Games.  Each member receives a $300 per month stipend from the U.S. Olympic Committee, which doesn't even cover the costs of traveling and basic necessities.  In fact, each member of the team has another job (or two) to cover other costs of the sport.

So, unless you're one of the few rockstar Olympic athletes (Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn or even Michael Phelps), you're not making much money at all.  In fact, you're probably losing money.

Knowing this, though, leaves me even more awe-struck and respectful of American Olympians.  It may be naive, but I honestly think that the vast majority of American Olympic athletes are motivated by the glory of being an American Olympian.  I'm sure Shaun White's pricey endorsements help to motivate him to strap on a board, but I honestly believe he just plain likes to snowboard.  He likes to be the best, he likes to compete and he likes the competition of the Olympics.  The U.S. curling team does what they do because they love the sport and they love the Olympics.  How many NBA players do you think would continue to play if their salaries were cut down by 75 percent?  Probably not many.

If I had to pick, I think I would choose to be an Olympic gold medalist rather than an overpaid NBA all-star.  Olympians just seem more ... pure to the idea of athleticism.

USA: Destined to Win?

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games came to a close this past Sunday with a final hockey game (U.S. lost to Canada in overtime) and Closing Ceremonies.  The final medal count revealed the United States on top with a seven medal lead over Germany in second place.  It's no surprise to many Americans that we came home with more medals than any other country this year.  In fact, year after year we rack up more medals than most other countries.  Though I swell with pride for our athletes, I often wonder how the Olympic results would differ if the playing field were even among every competing country.

These are the top five countries in terms of medal standings: United States (37), Germany (30), Canada (26), Norway (23), Austria (16).  Now, I'm not suggesting that the United States necessarily has a huge advantage over Austria in terms of its winter training facilities.  In fact, Germany, Norway and Austria have traditionally been Winter Olympic powerhouses.  These countries have plenty of funding to support their athletes - they are provided with top-notch equipment, facilities, food, lodging, etc.  The life of an Olympian is not a stroll in the park, but for these economically strong countries, they are afforded the best training that, well, money can buy.

What I'm comparing the United States to are countries like Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Croatia, etc.  Some may argue that this is not a fair comparison.  Why not?  The Olympics bring athletes from all over the world and have them compete in the same sport.  The uniforms are constructed similarly, the slopes are equally steep regardless of the skier, and the bobsled track is not faster or slower depending on the nationality of the team.  The recurring difference in the results has to do with the training each athlete receives on his/her journey to the Olympics.

American snowboarders and skiers, for instance, train at the top ski resorts in the country.  Which, coincidentally, are some of the top ski resorts in the world.  They live at the base of these mountains and get private slope time wherever they go.  And, according to an article in the New York Times, "The United States is one of the few nations that do not publicly finance its Olympic athletes."  This means that huge, wealthy corporations can fund any athlete it wants.  Red Bull and Burton sponsored Shaun White in these past games, resulting in huge paychecks and the best equipment money could buy (literally).  Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report sponsored the US Speed Skating team, which produced lots of laughs but also a huge pool of money to fund the best training possible.

Countries like Estonia and Croatia do not have these opportunities.  In fact, many countries (if they can afford to) send athletes to the United States to train.  Even playing field, right?  Wrong.  While these athletes get a few weeks at some of the best training facilities in the world, American athletes have access to these facilities whenever their hearts desire.  Simply put, more advanced training more often = better athletes.  Not because there is some physiological advantage American athletes have over other competitors, but because of the financial advantage our country and private sponsors wield.

Anyone care to challenge this idea?

My Own Olympic Adventure!

I talked about a trip to Lake Placid, home of the 1980 Winter Olympics, in a previous post.  Located in the Adirondack Mountains in Northern New York, Lake Placid is home to many world-class ski resorts.  And though the residents of Lake Placid have every right to brag about the town's Olympic history, my brother, dad and I were welcomed with open arms.  The people of Lake Placid and tourists alike were united by one common theme: our love for winter sports and the Winter Olympic Games.

View a slideshow of my pictures from our trip!