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For the olympic sports: alpine skiing -How many athletes are there? How many people watch it during the Olympics and after the Olympics? How many events are there per year?
Hello! Thank you for your question regarding the number of alpine skiing athletes involved at the national and Olympic levels, the number of viewers for this sport during and after the Olympics, and the number of events that are held for this sport at these levels per year. I enjoyed researching this question because for the past 20 years I lived in Southwestern Montana and my favorite winter activity was downhill skiing. Because of that, it is also my favorite feature of the Winter Olympics!
INTERESTING NOTE
According to dearsportsfan.com, "Alpine Skiing is one of the signature sports of the Winter Olympics." They give several reasons for its popularity. A lot of people downhill ski, so they can relate to the sport. The crashes that occur in the alpine ski events can be pretty incredible. And, the crowds at these events tend to be somewhat rowdy. These factors combine to make for exciting viewing! Alpine skiing is one of the top Special Olympics sports, as well.
SUMMARY
In summary, I found that there are currently 390 alpine ski athletes registered with the International Ski Federation (FSI). For the current 2016-2017 season, there are 101 events scheduled on the FSI calendar. The cumulative number of viewers of world cup ski events in 2015-2016 was 3.32 million, and the alpine ski viewers can be estimated at approximately 1.4 million (estimate explained below). In 2013-2014, the most recent season including the Winter Olympics, there were 2.72 million viewers of alpine skiing, which made up 44% of the audience for all of the FSI World Cup events for that season. Using the 2015-2016 estimate, it appears that alpine skiing viewership during an Olympic season nearly doubles from the viewership during a non-Olympic season.
BACKGROUND
In my research, I was able to find a fair amount of information about broadcasting time and viewership for all world cup skiing events. But, I found it difficult to find statistics broken down for just alpine skiing, with the exception of the 2013-2014 Olympic season. However, I was able to make a reasonable estimate based on what I did find. I also found cumulative, in-person viewership numbers for the Olympics, but no break down for the alpine skiing events, and did not find in-person audience information for the World Cup competitions.
I was not able to find any discussion or statistics on the number of national and Olympic level alpine skiing athletes, but I discovered a list of registered alpine ski athletes with the FSI and counted them to identify 390 alpine skiers at the national and olympic level. I found a statistic that claimed that there were 327 alpine skiing athletes from 74 countries registered to compete at the 2014 Olympics, but I was unable to back that statistic up with a reliable source. However, it does seem to align with the number of registered athletes on the FIS website.
METHODOLOGY
I did not find statistical information about the number of alpine ski events per year. To determine this number, I visited the FIS-SKI calendar and counted the number of events scheduled.
To generate an idea of viewership during and after the Olympics, I researched and compared viewership of alpine ski events from the most recent season that included Winter Olympics, 2013-2014, and viewership from the most recent completed alpine ski season in 2015-2016.
RESULTS
"With more than 60 races during each season, the Alpine Ski World Cup provides around 200 hours of programming."
Alpine ski events were counted from the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup calendar for the 2016-2017 season. For this purpose, I considered an event to be a particular competition at an alpine ski sporting event (i.e., Ladies' Giant Slalom at Santa Caterina on December 27-28). The total number of alpine ski events on the FIS calendar for this season, as defined, is 101. 53 of these events are ladies' events, and 48 of the events are men's events.
October: 2 total, 1 ladies', 1 men's
November: 6 total, 4 ladies', 2 men's
December: 24 total, 9 ladies', 15 men's
January: 30 total, 16 ladies', 14 men's
February: 22 total, 13 ladies', 9 men's
March: 17 total, 10 ladies', 7 men's
Total season events: 101, 53 ladies', 48 men's
According to a report by Repucom, the 2013-2014 FIS season provided 7500 hours of TV broadcasting of skiing and snowboarding events, with the highest amount of broadcasting dedicated to alpine skiing (48%). The total accumulated audience reported for all of the events was estimated at 6.239 million, with 2.721 million viewers of alpine skiing (44%).
The 2014 Winter Olympics drew crowds of over 100,000 visitors per day. More than 1.1 million tickets to these events were sold. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any breakdown for the in-person attendance of the alpine skiing events.
The FIS-SKI 2016 Report on TV Media Evaluation shows 17,070 World Cup TV events and cumulative viewership of 3.32 million for the 2015-2016 season. Of those viewers, 57.8% were male and 42.2% were female. If we assume that the breakdown of viewers of alpine skiing as a percentage of the cumulative FIS World Cup viewers is similar to that of the 2013-2014 season (44%), then we can estimate that the number of viewers of alpine skiing in 2015-2016 was approximately 1.46 million. This number is just over half (54%) of the number of viewers during the most recent Olympic season, indicating that the Winter Olympics drive the viewership of alpine skiing up significantly (nearly double).
OLYMPIC BROADCAST STATISTICS/TRENDS
The broadcasting statistics from the 2014 Olympic Winter Games provide some interesting insight into viewership trends. According to stillmed.olympic.org, the worldwide television and digital coverage for the 2014 games was record setting, with a cumulative total of over 102,000 hours and a potential audience of 4.1 billion viewers worldwide. The broadcasting hours for the 2104 Winter Games increased nearly 80% over that of the 2010 Winter Games. Visits to the Olympic Games website reached over 14 million, with more visitors to the site in the first two days of the 2014 Winter Olympics than occurred throughout the entire 2010 Winter Games. Half of the website visits were on mobile phones or tablets. And, for the first time ever, more hours of Olympic coverage were broadcast on digital media than on television (60,000 compared to 42,000), even though the television coverage was greater than ever before.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The 2014 Winter Olympics brought record social media engagement over all previous Olympic Games, both summer and winter. Stillmed.olympic.org reported nearly 2 billion social media impressions, more than 2.2 million new Olympic social media followers in the first week of the competition, and more than 2 million new Facebook fans, bringing Facebook fans to 7.7 million. The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) total number of global subscribers climbed to over 37 million during the 2014 Olympics. (stillmed.olympic.org)
CONCLUSION
Alpine skiing is a very popular winter sport that has a great draw for viewers, making up 44% of the viewership for FIS world cup games. Nearly 400 athletes compete in alpine skiing at the national and Olympic levels. Two hundred hours of programming are provided by the Alpine Ski World Cup, generating 3600 hours of broadcasting throughout a season. An estimated 1.4 million people viewed alpine skiing last season, which was nearly double at 2.72 million during the 2014 Olympic season. The rise of digital media and social media have drawn significant digital viewership of ski events and, even though TV viewership hit a record high during the 2014 Winter Olympics, digital viewership even surpassed TV viewership.
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