Over the past two years, the United States has participated in two Olympic Games: the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics and the 2026 Winter Milan Cortina Olympics. These events are covered globally and are highly supported within our country. But do we support one more than the other? Do the Summer Olympics really receive more coverage?

The US won a total of 126 medals in the Summer Olympics: 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze, according to olympics.com. The team then went on to win 33 medals in the Winter Olympics: 12 gold, 12 silver and 9 bronze, setting a national record for the most gold medals won in the Winter Games. However, the Summer Olympics host 32 sports while the Winter Olympics only host eight, which are split into 16 disciplines. For example, skiing is a sport, but alpine, cross-country and freestyle are disciplines.

Looking at these stats, I could make an argument for either opinion.

On one hand, according to the article “Summer vs Winter: The Difference Between the Two Olympics” by Katelyn Ruehle for Her Campus, the 2024 Paris Olympics saw a 290 percent increase in interaction compared to the 2020 games. Five billion people watched in 2024, and 84 percent of the population over 14 years old with viewer access tuned in. Social media played a big part in the games by reaching younger audiences, and 6 million people actually attended a game rather than settling for the less expensive option of watching online. 

Ruehle mentions that the Winter Olympics also saw an increase in viewers, thanks to social media reaching a variety of demographics, with over 2 billion people. This number sounds big, but compared to Paris’s 5 billion and multitude of statistics, it isn’t much. From the numbers, I would conclude that yes, the US cares more about the Summer Olympics. But is it really overlooked?

In the Feb. 16 Deseret News article, “Americans are tuning in for the 2026 Winter Olympics, polls show,” by Minty Buckwalter, polls conducted by Morning Consult show that 38 percent of registered voters had already watched the Olympic Games. Twenty-two percent said they were planning to watch, 32 percent said they would not be watching and 8 percent were unsure of what their plan was. In these polls, which surveyed over 2,000 registered voters in the US, we see that more Americans were watching than not. 

While more viewers do tune in for the Summer Olympics, I don’t think the Winter Olympics are necessarily overlooked. I enjoyed the Winter Olympics as much as anybody (watching Alyssa Liu on the ice is a feeling like no other), but I enjoy the Summer Olympics much more. With a wider range of sports attracting fans from everywhere and the success level of the Summer Olympic athletes, the draw towards them is valid. 

Given the same amount of coverage, it is hard to say that the US overlooks the Winter Olympics. Viewers simply prefer what they prefer, and while a lot of people love the Winter games, more viewers enjoy the Summer games overall. Preferences can change with time, but the history of the Summer Olympics, stretching back to 776 B.C.E., is hard to forget.