How TikTok and streaming are changing the Olympics

How are you watching the Olympics?

Streaming platforms are offering more live coverage than ever. Plus, the Olympians themselves are creating content of their own on TikTok — so maybe you're simply scrolling on your phone.

Today on Commotion, culture writer Mel Woods and CBC Sports senior contributor Morgan Campbell join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to look at how we're watching the 2024 Paris Olympics, and how it's changing the games.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Mel, what makes an athlete stand out from the crowd of content creators?

Mel: I think a big part is the volume of posting, but also the humanity behind it…. As a viewer, what I'm looking for from TikToks during the Olympics is that portrait in behind the scenes. What we see on the screen is one story, and what's happening for the athletes just as people in these two weeks is a whole 'nother story. I love watching a little inside the venue tour or the village, and people being like, "This is what I ate today at the Olympic Village." I will watch it over and over and over again. I think that's what does really well on TikTok, is that first-person peek behind the curtain of something that you don't know.

There's a lot of people who are doing it well who are also stars. I think there was a really memorable moment from the women's gymnastics team final. After the U.S. Olympic national team won the gold medal, immediately the camera panned to Simone Biles and Suni Lee planning what they were going to do on TikTok with their medals. I think that's just such a great moment — in this peak of their career, immediately they're like, "What dance are we going to do?" I think that shows how ingrained the experience is to these games.

Elamin: So this is kind of the fun of it, right? Now you get the inside look into what it's like to live in that world. It kind of reminds me of that CruiseTok story — the idea of, "This is a day in the life," of people who are on this cruise every day.

Mel: I think that just makes you remember that these people that we're watching do these spectacular things on TV are also mostly people in their 20s just having a fun time, and it's really nice to get those reminders.

Elamin: Morgan, what do athletes get out of it in terms of not just how well they perform at their event, but also how big of a deal they make on social media?

Morgan: The Olympics were the original exposure economy, because they don't pay appearance fees. For the most part, there is no prize money — except if your government says, "We're giving $1 million for each gold medalist." The big payoff for most, especially for most North American or European athletes, was the fact that you could use whatever fame you gained in the Olympics [and] leverage that into sponsorship deals that would make your life easier for the next four years.

The idea that the Olympics could take people who are sort of anonymous and make them into stars in a two-week span, that traditionally has been the second level appeal of the Olympics, above and beyond what you could win and the competition…. The reality is every Olympic year, there's someone who becomes a star during the Olympics. You talk to their sports marketing people and they say, "That person's going to be a star forever." And then two weeks after the Olympics, nobody cares who they are because they're not playing hockey, basketball or football, right? So the best thing to do, if you're in track and field, cycling or whatever, if you can hit the world scene and collect all these sponsorships heading into the Olympic year, then you're really winning.

Elamin: Is that how you create new stars now? We used to put the athlete on the cereal box, but now you just create a big enough viral moment for yourself. Is that worth the same thing?

Morgan: It's maybe not worth the same thing long-term, but it's worth something to people who traffic in that world…. Like, that's going to flame out very quickly. But the two things people forget are, for every sport in the Olympics, we might not have heard of these folks before but they're famous to somebody, because every single sport has a dedicated fan base that follows folks between Olympic cycles; it's just the rest of us are kind of parachuted in.

And so, everybody might not have heard of Anthony Jeanjean, the French BMX guy that just got a bronze medal, but you know who has fans in France? You know who has fans among BMX fans? Anthony Jeanjean. So it's a case of the rest of us just clueing in. And now, because you can stream all these events and give these more obscure events a bigger platform, that niche fame now has a better chance of crossing over into something more mainstream.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jess Low.