The Winter Olympics have begun! Not that many of us are actually paying attention. Why do the Summer Olympics receive so much more attention in the United States than the Winter Olympics?

Well, simply, in the words of Marshawn Lynch, America is “about that action, boss.”  We love seeing freakish athletes do freakish things. We are a society in which sport has been built around dunks, home runs and crushing hits. We don’t want to watch a power hitter go for a base hit. No, we swing for the fences in this country.

That’s not to discount the dedication of the winter athletes. They work hard to get where they are. It’s a huge accomplishment. We just like seeing people “born with it.” Summer athletes put a lot into what they do as well, but the sports of the summer require more natural ability. Average Joe can’t just train hard and become the fastest man alive. It just doesn’t happen.

The Winter Olympics are made up of sports that take years to master. LeBron James couldn’t hop on a pair of skates and give a flawless short program. He could, however, line up for a 100m dash and be somewhat successful. He obviously wouldn’t beat an Olympian, but you get what I’m saying.

We like events made for the natural born athlete.

This is the same reason football, and even basketball, have started to take over the sports world. Skill sports like baseball, golf and tennis have started to fall off. The same goes for the Olympics. The Summer Games are the football to Winter Games’ baseball.

Maybe it’s even simpler than that. Maybe we just like a little more blue-collar sport. Everyone has run a race at some point.

Not everyone is skilled in skiing down a hill. Let’s be honest, most winter sports are the sports that successful people enjoy on weekend trips to Aspen. Most average Americans can’t relate to that.

The Olympics are such a great time. We, as a country, love the chance to put our patriotism on display for the whole world to see. We will watch, we will love them, but while the winter sports will be on our televisions, summer sports will be on our minds.