More than 100 million Americans have watched the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where many U.S. athletes continue to show their talents, skills and sportsmanship, and share memorable experiences inside and outside competition venues.
The cauldron is lit outside the National Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 4, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)
With a boom in streaming services and a habitual use of social media, the 2022 Olympics, which have made Beijing the first city to host both winter and summer Games, could become the most-viewed video programming in U.S. history, according to media industry insiders.
The popularity of the ongoing event among ordinary Americans and the friendship between U.S. and Chinese Olympians showcased in the Games have lampooned the Washington-led farce of a so-called "diplomatic boycott" of the Games, and convincingly attested to the new Olympic motto of "Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together."
WIDELY WATCHED
It "definitely sent a positive message that the world will endure," Marianne Chase, a retired elementary school teacher in Houston, the southern U.S. state of Texas, told Xinhua about the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. "We all need that right now."
Chase was among the 16 million viewers in the United States tuning in to watch the technology-driven, visually-pleasing kickoff of the Games earlier this month despite a time difference of at least 12 hours across multiple NBCUniversal platforms.
More than 100 million Americans have since watched the Games on the networks of NBCUniversal, the U.S. media conglomerate has announced, adding it has also become "the most streamed Winter Games ever with 2.23 billion minutes consumed."
"Considering that Olympic videos on YouTube and TikTok are going to rack up hundreds of millions of views, I wouldn't be surprised if these Olympic Games end up being one of the most-viewed video events in U.S. history," Michael Socolow, a media historian at the University of Maine, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying.
While most winter sports fans across the United States have watched the Games and cheered for their favorite teams and athletes at home or game-watching parties, others have chosen to have a try on their own.
Over the past weekend, amid romantic vibes, residents and visitors in Washington, D.C. had fun skating inside the ice rink at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden, surrounded by magnificent works of art and towering sculptures.
Miles away at The Wharf -- the U.S. capital's iconic waterfront destination, those who had "missed your Olympic qualifier" were able to compete in multiple disciplines, including ice corn hole and curling, with televisions mounted on a wall inside a bar nearly replaying figure skating and curling matches in Beijing.
Ice hockey enthusiasts also feel excited about the Games, where the U.S. women's team is seeking to defend the gold medal they won four years ago, and the men's team is looking to get back to the podium for the first time since 2010.
"It comes around once every four years, really. So you gotta watch it when it comes. You're also gonna be waiting for a long time," Peter Lombardi, a high schooler from the U.S. state of New Jersey, told Xinhua.
For quite some time, Washington has gone to great lengths to mount pressure on Beijing by using the Games as a political tool and manipulating allies as anti-China pawns under the cloak of protecting human rights. But its "diplomatic boycott" has been foiled and ridiculed as the Beijing Winter Olympics are gaining extreme popularity around the world.
"Olympics are very popular in Norway," Norway's Chef de Mission Tore Oevreboe told Xinhua in Beijing. "We don't believe in boycott. We want to participate."
"Boycotting is not good," Italian speed skater Michele Malfatti told Xinhua, hailing the volunteers of the Beijing Winter Olympics as very kind and the life in Beijing as very good.
