Jul 23, 2024 - Technology
Hot sports summer
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It's been the best summer in recent memory to be a sports fan — and there's no end to the action in sight.
Driving the news: The 2024 Summer Olympics, kicking off this week in Paris, are obviously the highlight.
- While Olympic ratings have long been declining, 60% of Americans are still expected to tune in this year, per Morning Consult.
- Viewers can watch longtime draws like gymnastics, swimming and basketball, plus relative newcomers like skateboarding and surfing.
But the Summer of Sports has been offering up gems for weeks.
- 🏒 The NHL's Florida Panthers won their first Stanley Cup in dramatic fashion last month, nearly sweeping the Edmonton Oilers before Connor McDavid and company won three straight, forcing a decisive Game 7.
- 🏀 Also last month, the NBA's Boston Celtics completed the gentleman's sweep against the Dallas Mavericks, winning the finals in five games — not the world's most exciting series, but a big matchup between major markets regardless.
- ⚾️ Major League Baseball went into the All-Star Break last week with no shortage of storylines: Pittsburgh is falling in love with rookie pitching sensation Paul Skenes, the once high-flying Yanks have seemingly forgotten how baseball works, and the Mets are in the playoff picture thanks to Grimace, somehow.
- 🌡️ And WNBA rookie sensations Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky are drawing record crowds and putting women's basketball in the spotlight.
Zoom out: A bounty of enticing single-sport tourneys and races gave us plenty to watch ahead of the Olympics, too.
- ⚽️ Soccer-slash-football fans have been especially spoiled, with both the UEFA European Championship ("Euros") and Copa América serving up high drama to whet palettes as the 2026 World Cup draws closer. (The Copa, however, was marred by security issues.)
- 🎾 Spain's 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz won his second straight Wimbledon in a generational matchup against seven-time champ Novak Djokovic, 37 — blocking the elder's bid for the most Grand Slam singles titles of all time, at least for now.
- 🇨🇿 The Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova, meanwhile, topped Italy's Jasmine Paolini for her first Wimbledon title.
- 🚴 And this year's Tour de France was a banger — though mask rules came back in effect after some riders dropped out with COVID-19.
And that's just the pro-level stuff.
- 🍌 The Savannah Bananas — a Georgia product that answers the question "what if the Harlem Globetrotters, but baseball?" — are on a wildly successful world tour, recently putting on their "Banana Ball" show before a 42,000-fan sellout crowd at Washington, D.C.'s Nationals Park.
- Cleveland is hosting the Pan-American Masters Games, a kind of mini-Olympics.
- And if you're lucky enough to be in northern Minnesota this week, you could enjoy the bizarre spectacle that is the world unicycling championships.
The bottom line: Summer can sometimes be a snoozy time for American sports fans, especially with the massive national favorite — football — on its offseason break.
- But this one's been an absolute rocker, especially if you're the kind of sports fan who can turn on any game, any sport, and find something to love.
