Dr. David Cassilo
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy. He studies sports communication issues focused on health, including head injuries and athlete mental health. 2022 recipient of the National Communication Association’s annual Lawrence A. Wenner Emerging Scholar Award.
Email: dcassilo@gmail.com
Twitter: @dcassilo
The 2024 Olympics were everywhere. The event led to a ratings bonanza in the United States, as 30.6 million viewerstuned in, making it the most-streamed Olympics of all time. Elsewhere, X reported record high usage during the Paris Olympics. As such, for a two-week period, the Games were all many could talk about on both sports and traditional news platforms.
Unlike some other sports, the Olympics typically has the ability to draw in the non-sports fan or casual sports fan. Such a widely viewed Olympics would seem to be the perfect springboard for the 2024 Paralympics to capitalize on that interest. The Paralympics, taking place just 17 days after the Olympics concludes and at many of the same Paris venues, could attract the viewing attention of anyone who wants to continue filling their Olympics fix but does not want to wait until the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo or the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Yet, live content for the Paralympics was not as readily available in the United States as the earlier Games. During the two weeks, the Paralympics aired mainly on streaming (Peacock), while some events were broadcast on USA Network and CNBC. Only a few days during the fortnight included programming on local NBC affiliates. Unlike the Olympics, during which you could not help but turn on your television and be directed to watch live or recorded action, those wanting to watch the Paralympics largely had to seek out that content.
Those looking for online content about the Games were also met with roadblocks. While NBC Sports’ website was plastered with Olympics coverage, the homepage was largely absent of Paralympics coverage during the two-week stretch. Those looking for Paralympics coverage would have to go directly to NBC’s Olympics site. Meanwhile, ESPN, America’s top sports network which deems itself the Worldwide Leader in Sports, had no menu option for the Paralympics. Instead, users needed to click on the “Olympics” tab, which provided limited coverage.
Having two of the United States’ prominent Olympics news sources shift their approach from the Olympics to the Paralympics may not be good for generating fan interest. For instance, Google Trends tracks “Interest by Region,” which is “popularity as a fraction of total searches in that location.” During the Olympics, the United States ranked 13th among all nations in this metric for people who searched “Olympics.” During the Paralympics, the United States was 24th. In a country like the United States with its massive population, a difference like that is a substantial drop in interest.
Of course, nothing here can be deemed as purely causal. The Olympics occurs during a relatively slow time in American sports, thus facing little competition. The Paralympics timeline includes the start of college football season and Week 1 of the NFL season. Additionally, the Paralympics falls over Labor Day weekend, a time when many Americans may not be sitting around their television.
Still, one cannot help but consider a “if you build it, they will come” approach to the Paralympics. Essentially, how would fan interest look if it wasn’t so hard to find coverage and content related to the Paralympics? If it was featured prominently on television and on sports news websites, would the interest and appetite for it increase?
The common counterargument in these instances is that the interest level just isn’t there. However, that sort of argument has been debunked many times over with other sporting events, especially in recent years. Most notably, this has been seen in women’s sports. With more TV coverage than ever before, sports like college softball, women’s college basketballand professional women’s basketball have enjoyed record ratings. In 2024, women’s college basketball produced higher TV ratings for the Final Four than its male counterpart. These examples have shown benefits to when networks commit showing certain sports or competitions.
For the written media coverage out there, there’s also a delicate balance that must be walked by these content creators. The Paralympics lends itself to incredible stories of perseverance and inspiration and highlighting those stories are the somewhat natural inclination of a writer looking for a good story. But these athletes should not only be discussed in terms of their disabilities. The Games’ participants are athletes with superior skill and focusing on their wins and accomplishments the same way writers do in the Olympics is a necessary task. It is yet another way these athletes could be treated similarly to their Olympics peers and doing so may be another way to increase viewership or reader interest.
While the Paralympics takes place after the Olympics, it should not be considered an afterthought. These are high-level competitions with elite athletes worthy of drawing an audience. With more attention, promotion and focus from mainstream sports media, the Paralympics would have the visibility it needs to draw that audience.
