Only get to see about 2 hours of coverage a day, and I’m really trying hard to avoid all the Can Get This Anytime Dangit events… basketball, soccer, surfing (my cable provider has a 24 hour surfing channel), tennis, golf… seriously, who the hell thought Olympic tennis or golf was a good idea… so be warned, my viewing is going to be all over the place and I’ll rarely watch anything at the same time you do.
I did manage to see most of the men’s gymnastics final; I’ll pick up the rest tomorrow. I didn’t see our squad make any big mistakes but they kept slipping further behind after leading the second rotation, and I wonder if they just weren’t able to go for the really big moves or if China and Japan were just that good. They did a great job with what they had and had a very conspicuous cheerful spirit, which I appreciated. Might I add, it’s pretty freaking awesome for an entire nation to loudly celebrate a bronze medal and be 100% sincere about it. 
More tidbits:
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Is NBC just that completely obsessed with reality shows? Because that is the only explanation I can think of for putting such idiotic, unaware, lifeless sportscasters behind the mikes. I’ve yet to hear a single intelligent observation or helpful piece of information from any of these hacks. It’s just “Ooh, that hurt.” and “You can really feel the emotion.” and “This is critical.” and occasionally incredibly basic rules they’ve already explained before, on and on and on. I never thought I’d say this, but they should give Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila a crack; at least they show real emotion.
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The second most annoying thing about the NBC coverage (I don’t get USA anymore so I can’t compare) is all the dead air. Seriously, have you all notice just how long we’re looking at athletes milling around, looking at things, looking for things, talking about stuff, waiting for something to happen, etc.? It’s gotten so bad that I’m frequently seeing these stretches of nothing splitting time with commercials!
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I’ve found all the yoo-ess-ay chants unbearable since at least ’96, and now I have to ask…what does this even mean anymore? What nation is there than can equal us in the Olympics now? I mean, China will make a fight of it like always, but they’re not an adversary in any meaningful sense of the word.
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Related note…I find it a bit eerie that Russia (along with Belarus) has no presence here at all, and everyone I’ve met so far…doesn’t seem to even notice. Remember last time, when the Russians were allowed to compete as a non-national squad (which I was perfectly fine with)? Debates raged about this. How it was a great injustice to not be allowed to represent their country, how they shouldn’t be here at all and the IOC was gutless, how this compromise was the best solution, how this compromise was a sham, how their medals were tainted, how everyone else’s medals were tainted, and of course the goobers who use “asterisk” like an exclamation point were out in force. Now…no heat. At all. (I mean, if you found something, I guess I’ll take a look, but I’m not getting out of bed or anything.)
suranyi - I’ll definitely catch that when I have the time, because…wow. I can understand how certain nations become dominant in certain sports that they have some kind of cultural and/or geographical edge in (Netherlands-speed skating, Norway-skiing, and Kenya-marathon, for example), but how is South Korea the archery juggernaut, and not, say, Great Britain, Japan, or Mongolia? Dunno, but speculation is always fun! 
Fiendish Astronaut - Thanks, I was wondering about how where they were getting that metal from. Well, I mean, it’s symbolic ANYWAY, so why quibble? 
Toxyion - If the Olympics wanted a fast-paced, exciting, physically demanding shooting event, the solution is obvious: paintball. I saw a couple events on ESPN, and it was the farthest thing possible from a static snoozefest. Teams running, sliding, and juking to find angles, suppressive fire, coordinating attacks and defenses…it was a blast! Biggest problem might be finding enough teams.
