The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee believes that the upcoming Olympics on American soil will be part of a major boost in interest in sports as the 2028 Games in Los Angeles approach in less than two years and the 2034 Winter Olympics arriving just six years later in Salt Lake City.
At a media briefing following a meeting of the organization’s leadership on Friday, USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said that expected attention would mirror a similar surge seen following the Atlanta Games in 1996, which had a positive impact on the first Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002.
“You can imagine, we’ve had a number of conversations here with our respective National Governing Bodies this week about how to think about the participation interest that we anticipate on the backs of the LA28 Games as a result of the data points that we have both anecdotal and sort of factual around the impacts of the ’96 Games 30 years ago,” Hirshland said.
The Atlanta Olympics were credited with fueling a sense of national pride and reached around 92 percent of U.S. households on television, with 209 million Americans watching at least some portion of the Games.
And for the country, the Games produced some of the most iconic moments in modern Olympics history, with Muhammad Ali lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony, Kerri Strug’s gritty performance powering the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, Michael Johnson surging to a pair of golds in the men’s 200m and 400m and the second iteration of the Team USA’s men’s basketball “Dream Team” storming to victory.
The U.S. would ultimately win 101 medals and 44 gold in Atlanta, easily the most of any nation.
“You think about the rise, a couple of organizations that were here with us this week said they saw between 25 percent and 35 percent growth in participation on the backs of the Atlanta Games, and our job is to be ready to catch that interest,” Hirshland said. “And so the work that our teams are doing now at the individual sport level and us as sort of the convener and aggregator of all of these sports is to think about how do we ensure that in a world where social media is prevalent and information flows so much more freely than it did back in 1996, how do we anticipate incredible interest and capture that interest and provide quick access, easy access and clarity of how do I get involved if this is something that sparks my interest?”
Hirshland also said she was optimistic that interest in sports that typically don’t get widespread media coverage would see a rise at the college level as the countdown to 2028 rapidly shapes what the Games in Los Angeles will look like.
“I hope that that happens at all levels, including collegiate sport. So I do think that there is a very real possibility that the demand and interest in broad-based sports, let’s say the non-mainstream, college football and college basketball, will increase on college campuses,” Hirshland said. “That would be absolutely a victory from our perspective.”
