re: #50 danarchy

Nobody watches the world championships, if they are on TV at all it is like ESPN8.

If not for the Olympics, nobody outside the small niche each sport occupies would know names like Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug, Simone Biles. Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt etc.

If the Olympics stopped, TV would happily broadcast the championships so they can get their advertising revenue. They will make celebrities’ out of their own needs just as they did with those individuals in the past.

In the end, the sports I personally find interesting - yachting, modern pentathlon, fencing, ISSF shooting - are never on TV anyway so no big to me either way.