The 2018 Winter Olympics has come to an end. I am perfectly aware that probably not as many people know that there is such event being held this year. While it is an ‘Olympics’, many people only know the Summer Olympics, which usually is refered to as the Olympics. Why is that so?  Perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that we have no athletes participating in the Winter Olympics. The case may be similar to many other countries as well. Most of the countries with athletes representing them are from the four seasons country.

I happened to follow the event pretty closely due to personal preference toward one of the winter sports. Any updates related to the event can easily be found through social media. Not only from the official Olympic account, but also through online news accounts and even other personal accounts. Before, it was rather hard to follow updates before social media, when TV seemed to be the only source for the event’s live updates.

Through social media, it can be observed which sport is more popular compared to the rest by the number of reposted/retweeted or liked stuff. If you take a look at the official account, it is figure skating that is the most popular. Other sports like ski, curling, and snowboard are pale in comparison. Figure skating is basically a sport where individuals perform on figure skates on ice with a chosen music as accompaniment. One may wonder what makes figure skating way more popular than the rest. Was it about the nature of the sport itself? The cross between sport and art? Or perhaps it is the athletes themselves?

Regardless of whatever the factor is, the fact that after each winter olympic there appear to be more of figure skating enthusiasts (at least based on personal observation),  showed that eventhough those people may not follow the sport closely before, they find that special attraction from watching it. It is likely that the way the discipline is packaged, a combination of physical exercise  on ice and program music, become a unique factor contributing to the rise of popularity. However, another factor that cannot be left out is the sport endorsers, the athletes themselves.

My personal knowledge of the sport has uncover knowledge that when there are some great athletes who are not known only for their excellence in the discipline but also for their personality, image, and upbringing, they can be the one factor that helps to promote the sport into a much larger scale, thus helping more audiences to become familiar with the sport. Looking it from the side of business industry, it works similarly for any lesser known product or brand. If they manage to choose the perfect endorser, does not matter if they are actor, athlete, or model, with likeable and great traits, it should be just about time until their brand becomes more known to public.