Taking the temperature of the 2024 Summer Olympics

The 2024 Summer Olympics kick off in Paris this Friday, with a buzzy Opening Ceremony that includes performances by Céline Dion and Lady Gaga.

We were curious: How do attitudes about the upcoming games differ between audiences in the U.S., U.K., and France?

Who’s the most patriotic and nationalistic when it comes to their Olympic viewing habits?

And what does everyone think about the addition of breakdancing (or “breaking,” in Olympic parlance) to the 2024 roster?

Using Harris QuestDIY, we were able to quickly build and deploy a multilingual survey on Tuesday, July 23 to 1505 respondents in the U.S., U.K., and France, receiving results within mere hours.

On your mark, get set...

Awareness varies by country

‍We started our survey by ascertaining how aware people were of the Summer Olympics themselves.

Turns out, there’s a certain lack of brand awareness—especially in the United States.

• Only 65% of American respondents were able to correctly identify that the next Summer Olympics is happening in 2024, rather than 2025 or 2026.

Meanwhile, 78% of U.K. respondents answered correctly, and 95% of French respondents did (which makes sense, considering their country is about to play host to countless visiting tourists).

Who are the Olympics super fans?

A healthy number of respondents—27%—claimed to be “very excited” about the impending Summer Olympics.

• The most enthusiasm came from a younger cohort, with 41% of those aged 25 to 34 identifying as “very excited” for the games.
• Excitement levels broken down by country of origin suggest that Americans are the most likely to be very excited for the Olympics (37%), followed by U.K. respondents (28%).

The French themselves were the most blasé about the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, with only 17% claiming to be “very excited”—and a solid 25% saying they were “not interested at all.”  

Track & field takes the gold

The 2024 Summer Olympics includes a range of sports, from basketball and track & field to fencing, judo, skateboarding, table tennis, and wrestling. 

Respondents to our QuestDIY survey were asked to multi-select which sports they were most looking forward to watching. 

• Track & field (or ‘Athletics,’ for U.K. audiences, and 'l’athlétisme' for the French) was the most popular overall, with 44% of people looking forward to it.

Overall, the next most popular sports were:

• Swimming (42% of respondents were looking forward to following)
• Gymnastics (38%)
• Soccer/football (30%)
• Tennis (21%)
• Cycling-related events (19%)
• Volleyball (16%)
• Archery (13%).

Interest in certain sports broke down along gender lines, as well as country of origin.

• For instance: 51% of men are looking forward to track & field VS. 37% of women.
• 45% of women were looking forward to gymnastics VS. 29% of men.
• U.S. audiences were most looking forward to gymnastics (51%), while UK and French audiences were most looking forward to track & field/athletics (50% and 44%, respectively).

Patriotic viewing habits

Some people watch the Olympics across the board; others are primarily rooting for their home country. 19% of all respondents said it was “extremely important” to follow your own country’s athletes.

• This sort of patriotic or nationalistic POV on the Olympics was more pronounced among men (23% saying it was extremely important) VS. women (16%).
• A penchant for nation-based viewership was also higher among a younger cohort, with 28% of those 25 to 34 saying it was “extremely important” to follow your own country’s athletes.
• 22% of American respondents held this view, whereas only 15% of French respondents did.

Is Paris up to it?

US and UK respondents were willing to give Paris the benefit of the doubt, with only 1% of both cohorts suggesting that the city would do “very poorly” managing its hosting duties.

The French were less forgiving, with 11% predicting that Paris would manage hosting “very poorly.” Ooh là là.

This might have something to do with very public, pretty gross issues regarding the city’s waterways.

‍Breakdancing isn’t a sport. But it’s an art. No, it’s none of the above...

Introducing new sports (even temporary ones) to the Olympics is always a bit fraught. Tradition butts up against a love of novelty.

Breakdancing—an energetic style of dance pioneered in the Bronx in the ‘60s—comes to the 2024 Summer Olympics, and people certainly have opinions about it.

• 14% of our respondents were “very excited” about the inclusion of breakdancing (a.k.a. “breaking”) in this year’s games, with the same percentage of men and women sharing this attitude. 25% felt “somewhat positive.”
• Americans were the most likely to be very excited about breakdancing (17%).
• The French were the least likely to be very excited (11%). 

Open-end survey responses from those who were less than thrilled about the inclusion of breakdancing tended to question the very nature of the activity itself: “It’s a dance style, not a sport. What’s next....Ballet?” 

“I don’t consider rolling around the floor a sport,” one respondent disdainfully noted.  “It is silly,” another wrote. “An effort [for the Olympics] to stay cool that has NOTHING to do with sports.”

Fire up your own survey!

Interested in using QuestDIY to power your own bespoke survey? We’d love to show you how easy it is.

Meanwhile, check out other survey-driven deep dives we’ve taken with QuestDIY into topics from Pumpkin Spice to the environmental impact of AI and marketing and meat alternatives at summer BBQs.