Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?

Now we have better entertainment.

The hyper-focus of tv coverage on this-person-from-our-country rather than just showing all the sports

I don't see any reasons why Olympics should be held in single place or small area. Have for example larger regions or continents to share bids and allow them to bid for sports that are locally popular, thus having venue reuse. Also maybe scale down size for venues and number of events.

It made more sense before globalization. It was a chance to consider going to some unexpected destination, bringing people together from all nations. Maybe take your spouse or your kids with you, go on a cruise, hire a tour guide, grab a book with some tips and short phrases in the local language and embark on an exciting adventure.

In the 21st century, we interact with the rest of the world on a daily basis. You can learn more about any destination online (heck, on Wikipedia alone) than you would from traveling there for a few days to watch some random assortment of sporting activities.

And I think to some extent we're so used to having everything at our fingertips that sometimes actually going to the destination is less rewarding than one would expect--spend a ton of money (vs. going on the internet 'for free'), deal with customs, deal with the occasional crying kid on the plane, maybe forget to bring an item you really needed, maybe get mugged or lose your passport, have issues with your hotel reservation...

Not to mention the opportunity cost. Compare the number of, say, Summer activities one could consider instead of going to the Olympics in 1952 vs 2022. If anything we suffer from too many alternatives today

Plus there's no Cold War to raise the stakes to the point where anything but the gold medal wins utter defeat.

And frankly I'd wager most people aren't that into nationalism anymore, except maybe the alt-right and its equivalents elsewhere. "I'm just trying to get through the week" trumps all else for most people.

One reason I think is the fragmentation of culture. When there were only a limited number of TV channels you could reasonably have a handful of shows that everyone in the country would get together and watch, especially for event broadcasts like the Olympics. Now there are so many options the chances one thing will be able to dominate the conversation is very low, even if lots of people watch the Olympics, because of streaming each person might be watching totally different events at different times. The unified communal experience was a big part of what made it exciting.