I’ll be watching, in fact I even get a week off (I’m student teaching, and Norwegian schools get a one-week winter break that every four years coincides with Week 2 of the Winter Games. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.)
But I won’t need NBC’s extra coverage; I’ll be getting all the coverage I can handle on three channels of NRK, with no commercials and commentators who know and love the sports they’re talking about. And if I get tired of them, there’s Swedish TV, or god help me, Eurosport.
Hubba hubba I love all the extra channels, although admittedly it’s more important in the summer games, which have a greater diversity of weird sports. But I’ve noticed that the home team boosterism is much less prevalent on the subsidiary networks, so they’re more interesting to watch.
I LOVE the Olympics, Winter or Summer. I’ll definitely be watching and maybe recording too!There’s nothing quite like being able to see some weird niche sports in prime time. Last time brought the insanity of Curling to my TV, what will this year’s bring???
I wonder if Bode Miller’s in this year or if he completely washed out of the sport after his last failure. Also, I wonder if Michelle Kwan’s given up her dream of Olympic gold after being upset by 2 teenagers the last 2 times. She’s old for a figure skater, but Dara Torres did win silver at the Summer so there’s still a chance.
As long as you can look past all the hype, glurge, self-importance, tedious controversy, completely bogus results (the short program meant that the Russians won, deal with it), and grossly outdated politics (we’re almost an entire effin’ generation removed from the fall of the Soviet Union, NBC, cut the red baiting already), the Winter Olympics are a fun spectacle. C’mon, where else can you see completely unprotected daredevils zooming down an icy course, hardy cross-country skiers pausing to shoot tiny targets while their hearts are pounding, or beautiful couples in elaborate costumes performing an intricate ballet on an unforgiving, slippery surface? It’s color and uniqueness and life and incredible individual efforts, and nobody with any sense pretends that it’s important.
Ask Bode Miller. Sure, he wasn’t prepared for this and threw in a clunker. But he got his face time, he got his name out there, and heck, he even got a PS2 game out of it. That’s really all he needed, to be there and then say that he’d done it. If you actually take the time to follow him, you’ll see that it hasn’t hurt his career one bit (though he had one lackluster season recently and came close to retiring).
Anyway, we really shouldn’t be talking about established stars like Miller (and Michelle Kwan is most likely a non-starter at this point). The true appeal of the Olympics is the same as for March Madness; seeing an unheralded nobody give it his or her all and surge to victory. From also-ran to immortal in one glorious instant. Yes, I still remember Sarah Hughes. How could I not?
I’ll be watching, but not on NBC unless I want to see something that the CTV/TSN/RDS/other random related channels aren’t showing. I love the Olympics, especially the winter ones.
This.
The United States is sending Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu to the Olympics in women’s figure skating. They finished this weekend 1 - 2 in the US Championships. Michelle Kwan wasn’t skating; Sasha Cohen did try a comeback, was in the running after her short program, but fell on her butt during the free skate and finished 4th overall.
Bode Miller is on the US Men’s A-team for alpine skiing. So far as I know, the national federations don’t have to actually name the team members who will ski different events until very close to the actual event. I would assume Bode is likely to ski the Downhill to start the games, and would be likely to enter the other competitions as well.
I like the chance to see a variety of sports that I never see anyplace else. One of the things that drives me nuts about the Summer Olympics is that the coverage always focuses on the same sports. I only ask for a few minutes of fencing, archery, equestrian, etc. every four years; get rid of the damn basketball, already.
The winter games are all obscure sports, except for the figure skating, which doesn’t swallow up too much time.
After the Turin Olympics, I even tried curling. I got a concussion.
I froze my ass off last night watching the Grand Prix half pipe snowboard competition at Park City Mountain Resort. It serves as a qualifying event for the Olympics. Shaun White turned out a 49.5 run that was mindblowing. It was the first time I’d actually stood on the edge of the half pipe during a competition and I swear Shaun was 20 feet out of the pipe. Kelly Clark tore it up on the Womens side.
The only really non-obscure sport in the Winter Games is hockey. Figure skating, let’s be honest, isn’t a huge deal except AT the Olympics. It’s a popular participation sport, but more than half the people who watch it watch it every four years during the Games.
By comparison, the Olympics is not hockey’s biggest event.
Yes, I totally agree with you about the coverage. At Beijing, I was really excited for the ping ping and the badminton and was lucky enough to catch a few matches. Had to watch the rest online.
For years I’ve wanted to see fencing but I haven’t been able to catch much at all. I was finally able to see some skeet shooting this last Olympics and I was absolutely blown away at the level of competition. These guys have reflexes like the Flash!
With golf apparently being added, or soon to be added, my niche sport viewing is going to suffer even more. I HATE golf, it is completely not a spectator sport. If they take time to show it, they better take it from soccer or boxing or something like that.
How the heck did you get a concussion from curling?? Slipped on the ice?
I usually avoid the Olympics like the plague but I plan on watching the hockey games. Please keep Mike Milbury away.
I actually turned on the TV a few times two years ago for the Red China Olympics for the first time since the Munich disaster and was surprised how often it was beach volleyball. What ever happened to track, throwing javelins and hurdles…I always thought as those as “Olympic sports”.
Depending on what I can find online since I don’t have TV right now, heck yeah. Especially as this is a ski town and there are a few locals that I’ll be wanting to watch out for in various ski-related events.
And aside from that really friggin’ cold spell we had in earlyish December it’s been a warm dry winter, though this last week we got a couple of feet or so of snow over a few days. 'Bout time. I’m sure they’ve got the snow guns up there going at full blast, but this isn’t really a good winter to be having the Olympics anywhere in western North America.
(I’m student teaching, and Norwegian schools get a one-week winter break that every four years coincides with Week 2 of the Winter Games. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.)
(Mind, I’m on Vancouver Island, where the Olympics are not happening. But it’s been a mild winter…)