Sydney Olympics

Are you interested in the following Olympic events? 1. Soccer 56.6% 2. Judo 52.5% 3. Swimming 47.0% 4. Marathon 44.5% 5. Baseball 39.7% 6. Short Distance Running 24.0% 7. Tennis 21.7% 8. Basketball 20.4% 9. Volleyball 19.4% 10. Gymnastics 16.8% 11. Middle Distance Running 10.6% 12. Athletics (excl. running) 10.4% 13. Boxing 7.3% 14. Diving 6.0% 15. Triathlon 5.4% 16. Wrestling 5.3% 17. Hockey 5.2% 18. Cycling 4.9% 19. Ping Pong 2.9% 20. Canoe/Kayak 2.8% 21. Sailing 2.3% 22. Weightlifting 2.3% 23. Handball 2.3% 24. Badminton 1.9% 25. Fencing 1.4% 26. Equestrian 0.7%

In August 2000, we sent questionnaires to 5200 people who were registered in the category of Japan of our pen pal service and who indicated that they are willing to participate in surveys. We received 288 valid responses from Japanese people who live in Japan. 70% of the survey participants were younger than 30 years and 74% were female. In the following statistics we compensated the unbalance in gender by simple mathematical means. However, we did not compensate the unbalance in age.

The Olympic Summer Games 2000 are held in Sydney, Australia from September 15 to October 1. In the past, Japan herself has hosted three Olympic Games (Summer Games Tokyo 1964, Winter Games Sapporo 1972 and Nagano 1998), and has with Osaka one of the five final candidates for the Summer Games 2008.

According to the results of our first survey question, only 5.3% of men and 9.9% of women are not interested in the Sydney Olympics, while majorities of 64.0% of the men and 54.9% of the women are interested. The remaining respondents indicated to be a little bit interested.

In our second question we were trying to find out which Olympic events are most popular among the Japanese. The results show quite large differences between the genders. While many events are more or less equally popular among men and women (e.g. athletics, tennis, judo), there are a few events that are clearly more popular among men than women, such as baseball, basketball, boxing, cycling and wrestling. On the other hand, diving, swimming and volleyball are some of the events clearly more popular among women than men.

The Top 10 most popular events among men are ...

1. Soccer 64.0%
2. Judo 57.3%
3. Marathon 53.3%
4. Baseball 49.3%
5. Swimming 37.3%
6. Short Distance Running 26.7%
7. Basketball 26.7%
8. Tennis 21.3%
9. Gymnastics 14.7%
10. Boxing 12.0%

The Top 10 most popular events among women are ...

1. Swimming 56.8%
2. Judo 46.5%
3. Soccer 44.1%
4. Marathon 35.7%
5. Baseball 30.1%
6. Volleyball 26.8%
7. Short Distance Running 21.6%
8. Tennis 20.2%
9. Gymnastics 17.4%
10. Basketball 14.1%