Sport and the City: Women Reveal Their Passion for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

Women across Asia Pacific eager to support their home teams and watch the opening and closing ceremonies.

When it comes to the Olympic Games, women know exactly what they want to watch and the reasons behind their choices, according to a Visa survey on the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Watching and cheering their home teams is the number one reason women say they are attracted to the Games, followed by their fascination with the extravaganzas of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. In fact, of the 2,277 women interviewed across the region, three out of four (72 percent) said[1] the Olympic Games is the global sporting event in which they had most interest.

Richard Chang, Visa’s Executive Vice President and General Manager for Greater China and the Philippines said, “The Olympic Games are more than just a sporting event. With all the pageantry and real life drama as the world comes together to celebrate the spirit of sport, and underdogs pit their strength against star athletes, the Games can take attention away from any soap opera or drama. Add to this, the appeal of the summer Games making its appearance only once every four years and it is little wonder then that the Games are so popular with women across Asia Pacific.”

Football among top three favorite sport for females
While the stereotypical assumption might be that women prefer to watch “gentler” sport such as gymnastics, the survey found that most (53 percent) listed swimming as their top Olympic sport while slightly less than half (44 percent) were most interested in gymnastics. Athletics and football tied for third place (34 percent) among women, demonstrating the strong draw of these events typically dominated by male fans.

Performance and keeping score matter to women who will be watching the Games with 71 percent saying they were interested in the medal tally updates. Women also seem to be less interested in talk than in action with 79 percent saying they would rather catch the real sporting action and only 53 percent planning to watch the post-event analysis of the Games.