This is almost certainly the first and last time I ever post to a sports-related thread…
but – Barcelona? BORING?!? Where the hell do you consider exciting?
Add to the list:
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They split the Winter and Summer games to different years and now they’re no longer special. Now the Olympics are just another sporting event that has to compete with a multitude of other sporting events for my attention.
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It’s all about the money now. Broadcast rights, TV ratings, multi-million dollar bids by hopeful cities, corporate sponsorships, high dollar professional athletes. Remember when it use to be about the games?
As far as the tape delay broadcasts, I heard that the reason NBC is doing this way is to maintain their exclusivity. Once they broadcast an event, it’s open to any other US network to rebroadcast. So if something exciting happens in the middle of the night when no one is watching, then ESPN or Fox or CBS or ABC or whoever could show it on their morning news and steal the potential audience from NBC. Instead, we are held captive until NBC decides to let us see it.
And let me chime in - you think Barcelona and Sydney are boring? WTF?
Atlanta maybe. Barcelona and Sydney, no.
…have some BLUE COLLAR sports in the Olympics? Who the hell wants to watch equestrian events? this is for rich people (…“pass the caviar, Muffy…”). I propose adding the following sports:
-BOWLING: fat , bald middle-aged men with beer guts compete, wearing shirts labelled “AL’S GARAGE”
-ARM WRESTLING: quick and exciting!
-PICK-UP BASKETBALL
The Olympics have far too many beautiful people in it-let’s give the average guy a chance!
Well, I can understand the descision to tape delay it since Australia is 15-19 hours ahead of the US (depending on where you live in the US). I don’t get up at 3am to watch swimming, do you? I really don’t see how most people would benefit from live telecast that takes place a)while they’re sleeping or b)while they’re at work.
Lots of people want Dressage dropped completely from the Equestrian aspect of olympics, with the reasoning being “its all a bunch of people in top hats prancing hither and yon, and no one can &^$#@! understand it, plus the spectators are supposed to be quiet.” Never you mind that its the culmination of years of mental and physical training for both horse and rider, not to mention generations of selective breeding. My point is, its easy to discount events that are seemingly nonsensical or hard to understand. But to worldwide practitioners of that sport, they are very, very important.
I had the same feelings as Shaky Jake watching the gymnastics last night. Another factor is that the commentating is poor. They seem to make no attempt to explain what it is that you are watching. In figure skating, for example, they mention the names of the jumps and discuss their relative difficulty. They also say which elements are “required.” Also, in the replays, they tend to point out those fine points that really count in the judging but that are invisible to the layman. At least you end up understanding why skater X got a higher score than skater Y even though skater X seemed like she did better. With the gymnastics, it is really hard to tell what is going on.
And Jake, when Amy Chow did that…thing, I jumped up and hollered “Wow! Wow!” I woulda liked to see a replay, too.
Does anyone like the “up close and personal” crap? In the amount of time it took to show the personal stories on Elise Ray and that Chinese gymnast, they could have shown so many routines! Or they could have spent some time on a lesser-known sport. :mad:
**Green Bean[b/], don’t even get me started on the commentators. They have added little to the telecast. I am apparently qualified to do the gymnastics commentary because I know that
- Taking a hop on the landing is a tenth deduction, and “at this level of competition, those tenths are crucial”
- Having to stop during your routine is bad
- Falling is very bad, and a mandatory 5/10th deduction
- A poor routine will hurt your team’s chances - and your own chances of advancing to the event finals.
That is apparently all that is required, aside from understanding all the gossip and machinations regarding the coaches.
Shaky Jake
Wait… Ballroom dancing is an Olympic Sport?
Good thing I haven’t watched since… Um. I watched some of the 1984 Olympics. Does that count?
Ballroom dancing? What next? Tiddlywinks? Checkers?
The decision as to what does and doesn’t make it into the Olympics as a sport has more to do with politics than any rational definition of ‘sport’.
As I recall, the main requirements for getting a sport included in the Olympics is that it has to have an internationally recognized sanctioning body, and the participants have to demonstrate athletic prowess, however that is defined.
Outside of that, the rest is political. It’s who you know, what country you are from, what connections the petitioners have, etc.
I know the Japan Karate Federation has been attempting to get traditional karate recognized as an Olympic sport for decades, with no success. This is a sport that has an international sanctioning body, definitely requires physical prowess, and has a huge following of practictioners. It would look good on television, and meets the definition of a ‘sport’ much more closely than does something like ballroom dancing. Yet they can’t get it accepted.
Ballroom dancing in particular shares the same problems as Ice Dancing - it’s completely subjective, and scores can vary depending on trivialities like the costume worn and whether a smile is maintained throughout the performance. Because of the subjective nature of these sports, the judging is often totally unfair. The Ice Dancing competitions have been mired in scandal for the past three Olympics, to the point where many skaters have given up on it. It’s one of the only sports where the result is usually known before the competition. The judges have their favorites, and that’s the way they vote. The dance itself is not rigorous enough to lead to a lot of unforced errors - there are no big spins, throws, etc.
They should remove such subjective sports from the olympics, IMO. That includes Ice Dancing and Ballroom Dancing. There are borderline sports that require elements of subjective judging like Aerial Ballet in Skiing, Gymnastics, etc. But the criterion for good scores seems to be well enough established that judging isn’t a real problem.
HEY! I do! ME ME ME ME ME!!! Back in the days before I realized my family did not have the ridiculous sums of cash to fully support my talents in this sport, I used to dream of being a member of the USET. The Grand Prix jumping and cross-country are great stuff!
Dressage…well, yes, it’s about as entertaining as watching cement dry. It is the culmination of rider and equine skill, focusing on communication, subtlety, harmony, control, and refinement…but man is it dull to watch. Even for those who know what to watch for (me) find it du-ULL. (Problem is, dressage is day one of the three day event competition…what, then? A two day event?)
But cross-country and show jumping? That’s cooooooooooool! (for me, the SDMB’s admitted horse addict). And :::glancing around the “luxurious” studio apartment teaching has provided me::: I ain’t even rich. 
true but dressage is the only sport where people go: “My GOD, did you SEE that halt?”
grin from one horse fanatic to another…
Quite by accident, I flipped through the channels this evening looking for something semi-interesting and I saw a bunch of women in a swimming pool playing what appeared to be a combination of hockey & volleyball. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for them to try to move quickly while submerged in water to catch/deflect/hit/kick (not sure what they are trying to do, really) a ball that is just out of their reach.
For the few seconds (approx 30) that I watched, I began to chuckle a little because at first I was sure that it must be some kind of joke, like MAD TV doing some wacky sketch. Then my jaw dropped because I heard the voice of Bob Costas and I knew this was for real.
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Here is my prediction:
Within 50 years, the olympics will become exactly like the old TV game show called “Beat The Clock”. Remember that show? Where teams or couples had to perform various amusing stunts such as tossing raw eggs into aprons worn by team mates, or try to knock down at least 5 out of 10 bowling ping using a frozen turkey instead of a bowling ball… remember that? Who hoo… (wipes tears away). I might even buy season tickets.
Don’t believe me? Consider exhibit A: curling. 'Nuff said.
Let me get this straight: you’re ripping on WATER POLO?
Damn.
One of the hardest sports in existence (remember that you can’t touch the pool bottom the entire time). Granted, it has the scoring potential of hockey and soccer, but it does have the fight potential of hockey.
NBC is not doing the Olympics live???
My gaster is totally flabbered.
The whole Olympic program was supposedly based around having the top rating events scheduled for US prime time TV viewing. That’s why the athletics are being run so late at night (Oz time) and the whole eastern seaboard of Australia has been switched to daylight saving time 6 weeks early!
The Games budget, nea the whole damn countries gross national debt depended on Yankees paying top dollar for the TV rights and then NBC flush their viewers down the toilet like that.
Un-bloody-believeable mate!
I fully agree. I played waterpolo for many years: it is without a doubt the hardest and one of the most violent sports there are. Remember, these caps are for the colours, they’re not helmets. And there’s a lot of kicking and pulling going on under water.
The scores are usually a lot higher than with football (“soccer”), BTW.
I shouldn’t worry to much, Woolly
You can be pretty sure the decision to not show it live in the US was advertising revenue based. Presumably NBC crunched the numbers and have decided to concentrating the viewing figures into the highlights packages to maximize income.
While listening to National Public Radio on my afternoon commute yesterday, I heard that ratings for the Olympics are down 24 percent from what NBC expected. The NPR report said this is apparently because the Games are not being broadcast live, and that people who already know the outcome of the events are not tuning in.
BTW: The networks are very eastern-centric. The world revolves around the east coast. During the last Olympics, the Games were not broadcast live to the west coast, but they were on the east coast.
Keep writing to NBC to let them know next-day coverage is not acceptable!
Although I’m skeptical it will do any good, you can bet the NBC execs are not reading this message board. Writing and e-mailing them is the only way they’ll know how we feel.
Now if only we can get this linked on Threadspotting…
During the Atlanta Games, I was travelling through Asia, so I saw the Games in China, Hong Kong, and Seoul. You know what the broadcasters did in those countries?
THEY SHOWED THE FREAKIN’ GAMES! They didn’t show sappy “human interest” stories, they didn’t concentrate only on the games their athletes excelled in, and they didn’t waste time on commentary.
NBC’s coverage blows dead donkeys. The NBC suits don’t think the Olympics are sports? It’s the most important sporting event in the world. It’s an opportunity for the best athletes around the world to compete head to head. the mind just boggles.
My problem with “sports” like ballroom dancing and synchronized swimming is that they are judged on purely subjective criteria like Artistic Presentation. Real sports are judged on measurable criteria like speed, distance, or strength. I vote to eleiminate foo-foo activitives and concentrate on sports that exemplify the Olympic motto, “Citius, altius, fortius.”
And anybody who thinks Barcelona and Sydney are boring desperately needs to get out more.
What’s unacceptable to me is that they preempted my ‘Law and Order’ rerun.
I watched some of the equestrian coverage yesterday (it was the cross-country portion of the three-day event), and holy schmoly is sucked. First of all, there was very, very little actual coverage of the sport; it was an astounding amount of cheesy, and man I mean cheesy “stories” and such. Some examples of the lines that came out of the Cracker Jack Cliché Box:
“Not only is Mark Todd an excellent equestrian, he’s the best husband a teammate could ever ask for…” (dissolve into cheesy story)
Groooooaaaaaannn…
“Panache (one of the horses) is more like Pegasus at this point…”
“Mark has accomplished so much as a rider. Now, if only he could cook…” (dissolve into yet another segment with him and his wife)
“Her horse Panache had had heart trouble two years ago. Now, their hearts are as one…”
Sweet Buddah, this was just plain atrocious.
Ruffian - my kids asked if we could turn on the Olympics. Right after a commercial break, Bob Costas said they were going to the equestrian. I thought, hey, that could be pretty cool. At least it isn’t more gymnastics or swimming. What followed was at least 3 minutes of a friggin Hallmark card, showing pretty pictures of horses in beautiful scenery, with some voiceover extolling the wonderful thousands of years of man/horse collaboration. I’m just estimating at the length - it seemed like forever. Before it was up, my kids asked to turn off the TV, and I gladly acquiesced. Your “Up close and personal” with the horses actually sounds better than what I saw. I gueess I was pretty stupid that when they said they were going to the equestrian competition, they would actually go to the equestrian competition. What other sports telecast does not go directly to the arena of competition?
See, I think you guys are missing the boat in objecting to the delayed coverage., The biggest problem is that when the finally do get around to showing anything, they don’t show anything worth seeing!
Once again, I find I am obviously not part of the target audience.