Chronos, this tolerance of misogyny is disappointing and vile, as is your threat to warn people who confront it. I was even halfway nice about it, yet dalej’s behavior is fine while mine isn’t. His is part of a pattern of behavior, as well. I guess the Dope hasn’t come nearly as far as I thought. I’m fully prepared to take that warning.
BTW, both the US women’s basketball and volleyball teams won gold medals. It’s the first time ever that the US has won gold in women’s volleyball. It was pretty exciting!
As instructed, I’m not going to talk about the motivations of anyone’s particular preferences for what sports are watchable because this isn’t the Pit. I do think that in general (absent looking at a pattern of what a person has said or done in the past) a person’s preferences are subjective and people like what they like. I don’t think it’s off-topic to discuss this in a thread about what Olympic events you prefer to watch. For me it’s generally not a problem to prefer women sports or men sports; you might like or dislike rules differences between different versions of the events, or might feel the quality of competition is better in one or the other. I generally prefer professional football over college football for those reasons.
Personally I saw a rugby match between women (Australia and USA) and I was fascinated because I don’t usually see women in full-contact sports. It’s not like roller derby is being broadcast on TV networks on Sunday nights or anything. They were tough and it was pretty exciting. It made me want to watch more sports like that.
The long-distance running on the other hand (either gender) was dull. Well, it was exciting during the last couple of laps when they finally start really trying to get ahead of each other, but otherwise it was just watching a bunch of people bunched-up and running. And you don’t know if the people near the back were just slow or were pacing themselves for the end, or if the people in front were better or were unnecessarily wearing themselves out. For some people that might be part of the thrill but for me it made most of the race somewhat meaningless.
It’s pretty damned fast in person as well. Back at the 1986 US Olympic Festival, my scout troop was tapped to hand out medals for the fencing competition.
Even standing right there next to the piste, it’s awfully hard to tell what was going on- we certainly couldn’t tell, and we were right there.
To some degree TV is better, if they spend the time to do instant replays with slow motion, etc… But if they just show you 15 minutes of it before cutting away to yet another women’s gymnastics event, men’s basketball, women’s soccer, or swimming event, then it’s almost not worth watching.
What I found by just watching the streams on NBC sports network is that if they had commentary on some of the lesser known sports, it was often aimed at those who are already experts on the sport. I realize it’s a tough decision to aim the commentary at the experts or do you provide some explanation for the masses who tune in every 4 years. But, at least the footage is there for those who want to see the entire event and not just 15 minutes and then another up close and personal like on the main NBC feed
Worst - Long distance anything. I mean, I’m happy for these people for excelling in their sports. It’s just not interesting. What are they doing? running. And what are they doing 20 minutes from now? still running. I am impressed by their achievement. I just don’t want to watch it.
Fun and new to me: Rugby 7. It’s nice. Even though I don’t understand it, there’s enough obvious (they’re trying to get the ball into the goal, which is that way). And it’s short.
Rugby Sevens was also a winner for me, matches don’t take forever and it’s just fun to watch. I’m increasing my knowledge of rugby in all its forms, but sevens was definitely a highlight
I realized some time back that there’s a metric to determine what sports I’ll enjoy watching: how often are the athletes upside down?
If they’re never upside down, like in basketball or running or regular swimming, it’s just not gonna do it for me.
If they’re often upside down, like in gymnastics or skateboarding or diving, that’s my jam.
There are a couple of exceptions: if they’re airborne, or if they’re using pointy weapons, it might be a good time. So ski-jumping and fencing don’t usually involve upside-down, but they’re still fun.
Freestyle swimmers flip over when they turn around at the ends of the pool. I don’t think the other strokes allow it.
I was hoping to see more of that than I did. One of the channels was supposed to show it yesterday, but the preceding event ran long, and then two cycling races, and then on to something else.
Any artistic or judged event is boring to me, too subjective. I’m relying on other people to tell me who has won.
Skateboarding was…
Do trick with very long name
Do indistinguishable trick with very long name
Do third trick that looks very similar to the first two with very long name
Fall over
Repeat.
Women’s football is unwatchable for me.
Always liked the athletics (all apart from race walking or marathon) and the climbing was an excellent addition.
We have discussed this in the moderator loop. @dalej42 did not receive a warning for his post in this thread, because taken by itself, it did not actually violate any rules. However, there is a clear pattern here, and it needs to be addressed: @dalej42, as of now you have a Topic Ban on any discussion of female athletes, whether individually or as a group.
Further, @Helena330 , while I understand your reasons for disagreeing with my decision, you also know that this was not the place to dispute it. Disputes of moderator actions go in ATMB or private messages. Since you wish to receive a Warning, you’ve got it.
Agree with handball. I started being a fan nine years ago, and NBC actually had pretty good coverage, even showing some matches live(ish).
Though the went to a commercial break and didn’t come back until after France had taken a commanding lead. The final was on tape, but the couldn’t be bothered to stop the tape for the crucial part of the game.
OTOH, maybe they’ll start showing more games next time.
