From television to digital age, Milano Cortina sees media transformation

MILAN, Feb 4 : The International Olympic Committee's relaxed social media rules have prompted a new golden age for athlete influencers ahead of the Milano Cortina Games, where delegations and competitors will scramble to reach the next generation of fans.

Cortina d'Ampezzo ushered in a broadcast revolution the last time the Games came to town in 1956, becoming the first Olympics televised to a multi-nation audience.

Seven decades later, short-form videos on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are king in the Queen of the Dolomites to capture a coveted Gen Z audience.

"They're not going to be sitting down to a television every night and turning on NBC the way that my generation is used to doing," said Andrea Geurin, a clinical professor at NYU's Tisch Institute for Global Sport.

"It's become very fragmented, and so sport organisations like the IOC or like the USOPC (U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee) have to be able to reach fans in so many different avenues now."

The IOC made that easier when it lifted restrictions on what athletes could post to social media ahead of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, permitting audio and video recordings from the Olympic village, competition venues and training areas.

"It completely opened up the opportunity for athletes to finally tell their story in their words in a way that had never been done before," said Ramsey Baker, a senior vice president at Aggregate Sports and former executive director of U.S. Figure Skating.

"Athletes were able to kind of invite their closest followers into what their day was like being an Olympian."

The "Team USA Creators" programme for the Paris Games saw 20 social media creators generate roughly 100 million views publishing content in partnership with