Summer Olympics Provide More Equal Opportunity

941
Opinions, Mental Health
Share your opinions by emailing opinions@thedepauw.com

The Summer Olympics provide a more inclusive, diverse, and equal playing field for the world to showcase their athletic champions.

The summer games are more diverse in general, as the Winter Olympics have a massive problem with being seen as a collection of rich people’s games. Winter Olympic games usually require some sort of equipment, which requires sufficient funds to participate while most of the Summer Olympic sports only require the ability to run, swim, or jump.  

The Winter Olympics have an issue with diversity as well. According to the New York Times, the United States Winter Olympics team has a total of 243 athletes (compared to 554 at the 2016 Summer Olympics), only ten team members are African American with ten more being Asian American. Only 92 countries compete in the Winter Olympics whereas 206 compete in the Summer Olympics. These numbers leave no margin for error: the Summer Olympics are more diverse and inclusive.

Summer games can be held in more countries whereas the Winter Olympics can only be held in cold spaces. Almost every single Winter Olympic games exhibition has been held in a cold, mountainous area such as Northern Italy, Northern Asia, and Canada. The Summer Olympics have been held in more geographically diverse locations throughout the years: Paris, Athens, Moscow, London, etc.

The Summer Olympics are also the original Olympic games. They began in Olympia, Greece in 776 BCE, a whole 2,700 years before the Winter Olympics were introduced for the first time. The Summer Olympics were even re-introduced a whole 28 years before the Winter Olympics were invented. The main ancient Olympic event was the footrace: a Summer Olympic sport.