Winter, mostly for reasons that don't actually have anything to do with the games themselves: Winter Olympics take place in February, after the football season is over and before baseball starts. Since these are the two primary sports I follow, there's really not much competition. The Summer Olympics on the other hand take place in August, which is in the thick of the baseball season and also when preseason football is going on. And furthermore, since it's in the summer I'm much more likely to want to be outside doing something than indoors watching TV.
Summer has the benefit of the US utterly destroying any other country in basketball (US/China game in 2008 was awesome.) But even as an American, I'd have to say the winter games trump the summer. Both have their lame "sports" and really, ice skating and gymnastics are one in the same. But I still can't understand how Evan Lysacek, in a "sport" filled with dudes who look like villains from Sailor Moon, is hooking up with the babetastic Nastia Liukin. On the other hand, a threesome with Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso would be glorious. Especially if Julia was wearing her plastic tiara and custom lingerie line. I have half a boner right now.
Apparently the American skip (Captain essentially, and usually the guy to throw last) is the bartender at his local curling club. Funny quote I saw on DGB about curling Focus: As a Canadian, I had to choose Winter or I'd probably be forced to give up my citizenship. Hockey, curling, snowboarding, aerials. I'll take any of those over sprinting and rowing any day. Plus with Luge, Skeleton and Bobsleigh, that shit is insane.
Easy. Summer Olympics. I live in a country where only a few areas ever see snow and below-freezing temperatures. Also, S.A. has produced a few kick-ass swimmers (e.g. Penny Heyns, Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman, etc.), a couple of decent runners (Zola Budd-Pieterse, Elana Meyer), a pole vaulter (Okkert Brits - who never had any luck at the Olympics) and, of course, Hestrie Cloete in high jump (silver in 2000 and 2004 games but now retired). So, Summer Olympics for me.
Ever since I started gymnastics class, I looked up to Kim Zmeskal, Shannon Miller, Kerri Strug and the like. I still tear up thinking about Zmeskal's epic fall off the beam during the 92 summer games. I still get the chills watching Strug's vault in 96. I love, love, love diving. I'm fond of track and field (comes from playing the sport in high school). I'm a fan of swimming. Winter Olympics are always fun to watch but the summer is always #1.
Curling is the "fishing show" of the Winter Olympics... If you see it on TV, you have to stop and watch for at least 15 minutes. I chose Winter, simply because there was never a moment I didn't want to watch. I was in Atlanta for the '96 Summer games and went to some tremendously boring events (rowing/rythmic gymnastics/diving prelims) simply because we had tickets. My wife and I have now added "attending Winter Olympics" to our bucket list. Just not in Sochi. Them Russians are fuckin' bizarre.
The ironic arrogance of this post had made me realize just how much we Americans take for granted our international dominance of the Olympics. I don't think it's a stretch to say that less than one half of one percent of the American population would know who "Hestrie Cloete" is. A silver medalist in women's high jump from a decade ago is really the marquee athlete of South Africa? That's crazy. Anyway, I had a damn good time watching these Winter games, but ice dancing and shuffleboard on ice don't compare to watching the Dream Team, the fastest human in the world competition, the fastest human-fish in the world competition, or ping pong.
Definitely summer. I like hockey, snowboarding, and the downhill skiing events but they just don't compare to pure athleticism of the athletes at the summer games for me. Shit, here in the US they didn't even play the first Canada/Us game on network television, instead they put the gayest sport in the world of figure skating on instead. I could have shot NBC at that point. With the summer you get Track & Field, Basketball, Soccer, and Beach Volleyball. I am still a little pissed that they took out baseball as well, as it seems to me that it is played everywhere other than Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Plus without the Summer Games we would never see the collection of the greatest basketball players on the court at the same time who do this to 7' french pussies. This is one of the craziest athletic plays any human will ever make. [youtube]<object style="height: 344px; width: 425px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xp6qJ7LZNlg"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xp6qJ7LZNlg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></object>[/youtube] For some reason it won't let me imbed this. Here is the link <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=xp6qJ7LZNlg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fuser%2Friggsy11%23p%2Ff%2F14%2Fxp6qJ7LZNlg#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6qJ7LZNlg#</a>