By Chad Love

If you were to hazard a guess what has been the most popular sport--from a TV audience standpoint--so far at the Olympics, what would be your guess? Swimming? Gymnastics? Beach Volleyball? Dressage (just what the hell is dressage, anyway)?

Nope, try archery. Yep, archery. How cool is that?

From this story in the New York Times:
The London Olympics have generated plenty of news so far, but how about this headline: Archery is the No. 1 sport so far on NBC’s cable coverage of the games. That’s right, archery has become a hot Olympic sport. In a telephone news conference from London Thursday, Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s top research executive, said, “The numbers for archery have been nothing less than huge.” And by huge he means it has averaged 1.5 million viewers — in the daytime hours — higher than any other sport NBC has covered on its cable channels, including basketball. (To be fair, if only the games of the United States teams are measured, basketball would beat the bow-and-arrow experts.)

According to the story, one possible reason for the upsurge in archery interest is (what else?) the monster popularity of The Hunger Games. Makes sense to me. What do you think? Is a young adult novel the best thing to ever happen to archery? Will it do for bowhunting and archery what Harry Potter did for reading?

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Comments (4)

from bassman06 wrote 45 weeks 1 day ago

I hope it does. I've been called about 10 times in a week to teach archery. It helps with some economy, but not much around here.

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from Chris Pohlson wrote 45 weeks 1 day ago

It already has.

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from cazador1022 wrote 45 weeks 16 hours ago

Dont forget the movie BRAVE. Its all girls too. Good for the sport and the next generation. We had Robin Hood they have BRave and Hunger Games.

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from cazador1022 wrote 45 weeks 16 hours ago

Dont forget the movie BRAVE. Its all girls too. Good for the sport and the next generation. We had Robin Hood they have BRave and Hunger Games.

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from bassman06 wrote 45 weeks 1 day ago

I hope it does. I've been called about 10 times in a week to teach archery. It helps with some economy, but not much around here.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from cazador1022 wrote 45 weeks 16 hours ago

Dont forget the movie BRAVE. Its all girls too. Good for the sport and the next generation. We had Robin Hood they have BRave and Hunger Games.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Chris Pohlson wrote 45 weeks 1 day ago

It already has.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from cazador1022 wrote 45 weeks 16 hours ago

Dont forget the movie BRAVE. Its all girls too. Good for the sport and the next generation. We had Robin Hood they have BRave and Hunger Games.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

Post a Comment

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.