There's only one more day until the first couple of sports of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi (Russia) start competition, and two days before the official Opening Ceremony. I'm getting kind of excited, because I love the Olympics (both the winter and summer games). So I thought this would be a good time to look at some views of the American public toward these winter games.There was some controversy over the Russian law banning any demonstrations support the right to be homosexual, and some Americans had called for the United States to boycott the games (like it did in the 1980 summer games -- also held in Russia). Fortunately, President Obama realized that would change nothing, except to deny American athletes the right to compete in the games (which they had spent years preparing for). Instead, President Obama and Vice-President Biden will protest by not attending the games -- and the president appointed some high-profile members of the LGBT community to head the U.S. delegation to the games.
Now it looks like the American people approve of the actions taken by President Obama. About 68% said they thought the United States should be participating in the games in Sochi. And 52% approved of Obama and Biden not attending the games, while a significant plurality (47%) approved of the delegation appointed by the president. I also approve of the president's actions. They were measured and appropriate.
Finally, a couple of non-political views. The charts below show how much of the games the public expects to watch, and which sports are their favorites.
All of the charts in this post were made from information contained in a recent YouGov Poll. The survey was done between January 25th and 27th of 1,000 random nationwide adults, and has a margin of error of 3.9 points.
