Strange thing, I live in Chile and we are one of the countries with most mountains and yet we suck at winter olympics.

Summer. Winter Olympics have always felt rather bush-league in terms of what cities they end up in (and i am absolutely not trying to insult anyone. Trust me. Vancouver and Turin are fine cities, but certainly not in the same league as Athens, London, or Beijing)

On the flip-side, the Winter Olympics are kinda like the White Man's olympics, you mostly get the prominent northern hemisphere, white countries (the West, as it were) who really dominate these things. And again, i'm really not trying to be offensive at all, but that's the impression i've had.

Mr Khan has hit the nail on the head!

also thats the reason i hate hockey

The winter Olympics. There are more sports involved that I watch on a regular basis than I do with the Summer Olympics.

I do watch Basketball quite a bit, but it isn't so competitive on an international scale (2004 was a result of a sense of self-entitlement and arrogance... so I kind overlook that). I'm also really into Tennis. However, I feel that, for at least some individual sports, is no difference than regular major opens - Tennis happens to be one of those.

In terms of winter sports, I'm a huge fan of both hockey and curling and a casual skiing fan (parallel and aerial). There are others that I enjoy watching, however, not necessarily anymore than swimming/sprinting/etc.

Olympic hockey is particularly exciting for me. Imagine it as the super bowl of hockey (If you're a football fan). One that occurs only every four years. And in this year, it was played in the home town.

@Mr Khan - No offense taken, however, on a personal level, I couldn't care less what city they were played in nor what the predominant skin colour was. I care solely about the sports that I prefer and the competition.

The question isn't a matter of what event is more representative of the world, simply which one you prefer. Which one do you prefer watching?

If greater world representation enhances your viewing pleasure, and I think that that is a perfectly viable stance, then elaborate. I'm interested to hear. I'm looking at this with purely a sporting perspective.

Ideally, the two events would be seen as one sole event separated only by geography. It'd be nice if they were in the same year too, though logistically and economically it probably wouldn't make sense.

Also, I'm unsure what the demographics of these games has to do with anything - you mention mostly white, northern-hemisphere born peoples as the dominant types representing these games. I'm not sure what's wrong with that. It's simply a result of these countries interacting with their local geography. Hell, you wouldn't expect to see many Norwegian beach volleyball players. It's just simply a matter of their strengths laying elsewhere (see the Scandinavian countries - the perform much better in the Winter Olympics).

Summer. Because Australia wins a lot of Gold there as opposed to the Winter where we suck.

Could be part of the issue. World affairs are my particular province (International Relations major), and the athletics are secondary to me to just watching the international interaction, so i'm up for the one that's the more inclusive in terms of participation, and generally given more importance by the various countries.

Well said pearljammer.

That's certainly fair. Just different value sets. Though I certainly place great value on the interaction (and would agree with you in that regard- that the Summer games are more important), I percieved this as solely a question of sporting preferences.

See, Nikkom? This is why Boutros, wisely, chose to ignore the polling option for this thread.

Winter because of Men's hockey.


I like some things from summer but its kind of boring. Like really how important is it how far you can throw a shotput?