I’m actually pretty excited, but both my DVR’s hard drive and my remote’s FFWD button are having panic attacks in anticipation.
I envision “watching” 6-8 hours of coverage per night in a span of around 60 minutes per night.
The fact that I haven’t had enough interest to post a followup in the thread I started should be telling! 
I guess I find it curious that there is less of a buildup in the local sports pages. I generally flip through the sports section quite quickly, but would have noticed if there were articles about the Olympics. Seems there were articles about the infrastructure, Zika, and the Russians, and mention of bigname athletes (mostly golfers, as golf is the one sport I’m most interested in) foregoing. Just seems odd, as there is so much more pregame attention spent on - say - the Superbowl. Was also surprised there was no active anticipatory thread around here.
I assume the media are spending tons covering this. Surprised they aren’t wasting more newsprint on it. News coverage may ramp up now that the conventions are over, and there has been so much attention directed towards violence. Guess the public can only handle so many “big stories” at a time.
Like I said, we’ll probably have the DVR record whatever is readily available via cable, and then speed through it. Not sure if it will work best watching 1 day later, or whether it will be sufficient to give it a 1 hr headstart or so.
I’d like to watch, but probably won’t be able to. If I can find the particular events* I want streamed online (without requiring a cable-company log-in or a quasi-legal VPN) then I’ll watch. Otherwise, since I don’t subscribe to cable and my house is in a broadcast-signal shadow, it’ll be no Olympics at all.
*My unordered favorites are equestrian, judo, taekwondo, archery, badminton, diving, kayaking.
I’m interested in a few events, like rhythmic gymnastics and equestrian sports. I’ll probably watch the opening ceremonies, too.
“Now” the IOC has discredited medal counts? When did the IOC ever sanction “official” medal counts in the first place? Medal counts are an invention of the media.
Besides, as you probably just pointed out and I read it wrong, a particular Olympics’ medal counts are meaningless for the next 8-10 years or so, as medalists’ samples can be tested for up to that long, and at least one sample has tested positive 8 years after the fact.
One of these days, somebody is going to publish a medal count “that matters” - not by country, but by shoe/clothing sponsor. (“And it’s another gold for Under Armour, with Nike taking silver and bronze.”)
I have about as much interest as I usually do, which is to say, practically none. Spectator sports in general don’t interest me much, and I don’t care who wins what.
However, I will sometimes watch a few things, if it’s convenient. Gymnastics events, mostly. It’s a “Holy crap, the human body can *do *that?!” thing. I sometimes watch parkour or airdancing videos for the same reason. It’s about displays of agility–something I’m a bit lacking in, and find wondrous–rather than competition.
I remember an NPR commentator who lived in the northern U.S., and he got so tired of sycophantic American coverage, he switched his satellite dish over to the CBC, only to get more of the same, from a north of the border perspective. He said that a Canadian had won a medal in an event that only its participants and their parents would be interested in, and they just kept showing that, over and over again.
Yeah, my info on this is pretty old, but I watched most of the '84 Summer Olympics on Canadian TV and it was no less over-the-top nationalistic than the US coverage. I recall one track race where a Canadian woman won a medal–silver or bronze, don’t recall which–and the announcers were in such ecstatics about it that they almost didn’t bother to tell us who was the actual winner of the race.
It was less annoying to me than the typical US coverage, probably because Canada doesn’t win nearly as many medals as the US, but it was no less jingoistic for all of that.
Maybe things have changed in the last thirty years. Hope so, anyway.
I will watch track and field, but not much else. I will be following the men’s high jump in particular, since I’ve known one of the medal contenders since he was 14 years old.
I’m interested in the marathons, because I’m interested in endurance sports in general, and Meb Keflizghi (sp?) is projected to be one of the winners, if not THE winner, of a road race in my town this weekend. He lives not far from my sister in San Diego; she’s seen him running in a park where she walks her dogs. 
And he’s 41 years old!
There’s a local tennis player who has played at Wimbledon, etc. and is still planning to travel to Rio and compete. IDK if she’s a contender for a medal.
I have virtually no interest at all. I had about the same level of interest 4 years ago, maybe a little more. When I was young the closing ceremony of an Olympic Games almost had me in tears because this awesome sporting spectacle was over. I remember thinking about taking two weeks off work to watch everything one games. I don’t know that I’ll watch anything other than by chance this time.
Not interested at all. For a start, most of the coverage here is going to be swimming (look, I know the Australian swimming team is generally pretty good, but it’s really not especially interesting or exciting for me to watch) and secondly I think the Olympics stopped being about Being The Absolute Pinnacle Of Sporting Achievement a few years ago, especially with all the weird sports they put in.
Synchronised Swimming? I didn’t realise I was watching a 1930s musical. Beach Volleyball? Beach fucking Volleyball??? Yes, I know, it’s full of hot athletic people not wearing very much, but beach volleyball is, at its heart, in the same league as beach cricket - a fun, informal game to play with your mates at the beach. It shouldn’t be in the Olympics.
I mean seriously, are we going to see Counterstrike: Global Offensive or Defence of the Ancients or StarCraft at the Olympics?
Also, all the sponsorship and corruption allegations and so on around the Olympics is really offputting too - they whole Olympics thing is just a bloated unpleasant mess in my mind now.
The last time I can remember going out of my way to watch any part of the summer Olympics was 1996. I was part of the early security effort and was home before the opening ceremony. I even went out my way to see beach volleyball. Mostly that was to see the finished venue. It was still pretty early in construction less than a week before the games started when I had seen it.
I pay a bit more attention to the Winter. I’ll go out of my way to watch some hockey. I sort of enjoy curling and biathalon coverage when it pops in too. Neither exactly get much airtime and I’m no longer in OTA range of the CBC.
They still do the Olympics? :dubious:
Why? 
I’m pretty much the exact opposite. Winter games, I watch a lot, especially the curling. Summer games, very little. The only thing I remember watching from 2012 was the opening ceremony: Daniel Craig picking up HM, who sky-dived in; Mr Bean playing the piano; you know, memorable stuff.
I’d actually forgotten that this was an Olympics year until a couple of weeks ago.
No.
The London Olympics was when I somehow lost interest. I don’t know why, I used to love it. Maybe the politics behind it just put me off.
Yes; thought I only ever watch the Opening & Closing Ceremonies and Men’s Swimming & Diving. Occasionally I’ll tune into Men’s Wrestling.
NBC can go to Hell. Rio de Janeiro is one measly hour ahead of NYC and NBC is still insisting on tape delay vs a live broadcast.
I’ll admit part of wants to watch just to see how big a disaster these games turn out to be in the end. I’m really hoping Brazil doesn’t’ suffer a major terror attack.
That Don Guy - Oh, shoot. It would’ve been nice to know this during Beijing and especially Sochi. Wouldn’t have gotten so into it otherwise (let alone given any credence to that “Every nation except the United States counts only golds!” crap). Well, I guess this means the issue of how many of the USSR’s medals can be claimed by Russia is moot. And that’s a good thing. 
alphaboi867 - Needless to say, I don’t wish suffering on any people, but given the absolute laundry list of headaches the organizers are dealing with, it’s going to be a damn miracle if there aren’t some major hiccups along the way. All I want is that we hear about it. That the media dutifully reports these problems, or, in the unlikely chance that the organizers pull things off, that we hear about their truly heroic efforts. After all the shameless whitewashing in Beijing, I hardly think that’s too much to ask.
I used to be interested in the Olympics in some abstract sense. But years ago, I realized that I’m not particularly interested in any sports, so why should the Olympics be any different?
I love the Olympics, and have ever since I was a child. So I’m sure I’ll watch a good portion of it.