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This week, we're going to be... skiing and shooting targets? That's a real thing? In the Olympics?! ANYWAY, we're talking about fans about all the Olympics: Winter, Summer, Para- you name it!
Next week, the cavalry's here! We'll be talking about fans... of Overwatch!
## Episode outline
### Fandom Facts
**History and Origins:**
> The modern Olympic Games or Olympics ... are leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart.
>
> Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. ...
>
> The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in several changes to the Olympic Games. Some of these adjustments include the creation of the Winter Olympic Games for ice and winter sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with a disability, and the Youth Olympic Games for teenage athletes. The Deaflympics and Special Olympics are also endorsed by the IOC. The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic, political, and technological advancements.
>
> — [Wikipedia - Olympic Games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games)
**Search Data:**
As a fandom, [Olympics fandom appears _highly periodic_](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F05nd_), which is not surprising. The largest spikes in interest in the Olympics occurred in...
- August 2004 (Summer Olympics: Athens, Greece)
- February 2006 (Winter Olympics: Turin, Italy)
- August 2008 (Summer Olympics: Beijing, China)
- February 2010 (Winter Olympics: Vancouver, Canada)
- August 2012 (Summer Olympics: London, UK)
- February 2014 (Winter Olympics: Sochi, Russia)
- August 2016 (Summer Olympics: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
(In order of popularity: Summer 2008, Summer 2016, Summer 2004, Summer 2012, Winter 2014, Winter 2010, Winter 2006)
It would appear that Winter Olympics are less popular, but are growing in popularity, whereas Summer Olympic popularity depends highly on the location.
In terms of interest by region, the top 10 countries in order are: China, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Iran, Uruguay, Hong Kong, United States, Japan.
**Size of Fandom:**
Let's take a look at some of the data we have:
- _510k_: Number of attendees to the 2016 Summer Olympics (10 500 athletes and 500 000 travellers) ([People - 4,900 Medals and 6,000 Hours of TV: The Rio Olympics by the Numbers](http://people.com/sports/rio-olympics-2016-facts-by-the-numbers/))
- _9 million_: Number of tickets sold for the 2012 Summer Olympics ([CNN - London Olympics by the numbers](https://www.cnn.com/2012/07/27/world/olympics-numbers/index.html))
- _3.6 billion_: Number of people expected to watch the 2016 Summer Olympics worldwide ([People - 4,900 Medals and 6,000 Hours of TV: The Rio Olympics by the Numbers](http://people.com/sports/rio-olympics-2016-facts-by-the-numbers/))
Based on these numbers, we estimate the fandom to be **somewhere in the hundreds of millions in terms of size**.
**Fast Facts:**
There _is_ a section on Archive Of Our Own for [Olympics Real-Person Fiction (RPF) with over 400 works](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Olympics%20RPF/works); For reference, this category is dwarfed by other sports-related RPF such as Figure Skating RPF (over 1200) and Hockey RPF (over 8900) Football RPF (over 10 000)....
