OpinionViewpoints

The Olympic Games Remind Us of the Necessity of Nationalism

Save
The Olympic Games Remind Us of the Necessity of Nationalism
Actors perform during the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, on July 23, 2021. Morry Gash/AP Photo
Josh Hammer
Updated:
Commentary

The recently completed Tokyo Summer Olympic Games were, in many respects, an unmitigated flop. NBC’s prime-time coverage averaged a paltry 12.9 million viewers, making for the weakest ratings since NBC first began airing the Summer Games in 1988. Overall, the Tokyo Games saw a 49 percent ratings drop since the previous Summer Games, 2016’s rendition in Rio de Janeiro, and a whopping 58 percent drop compared with the 2012 Summer Games in London. Many factors are likely to blame: The time difference between the United States and Japan made for difficult live viewing; the physical venues lacked camera-friendly enthusiasm due to the COVID-19 pandemic depriving the Games of in-person fan attendance and a general sense that these Games featured fewer megapersonalities along the lines of yesteryear’s Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt.

Josh Hammer
Josh Hammer
Author
Josh Hammer is opinion editor of Newsweek, a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation, counsel and policy advisor for the Internet Accountability Project, a syndicated columnist through Creators, and a contributing editor for Anchoring Truths. A frequent pundit and essayist on political, legal, and cultural issues, Hammer is a constitutional attorney by training. He hosts “The Josh Hammer Show,” a Newsweek podcast, and co-hosts the Edmund Burke Foundation's “NatCon Squad” podcast. Hammer is a college campus speaker through Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Young America's Foundation, as well as a law school campus speaker through the Federalist Society. Prior to Newsweek and The Daily Wire, where he was an editor, Hammer worked at a large law firm and clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Hammer has also served as a John Marshall Fellow with the Claremont Institute and a fellow with the James Wilson Institute. Hammer graduated from Duke University, where he majored in economics, and from the University of Chicago Law School. He lives in Florida, but remains an active member of the State Bar of Texas.
twitter
Related Topics