This is the first year I finally got so sick of the stupid NBC Olympic coverage that have only watched the opening ceremonies and two other nights. Last night was one. as I do enjoy the short track skating.
My greatest criticism, aside from the lack of coverage of about 75 percent of the sports, is that it is so incredibly boring. One night their entire 3.5 hour program covered only three, count 'em, three sports. They start with the eighth finals, the quarter finals, the semi finals, and then eventually do the finals of each sport. You’d have to be a total fanatic to want that much coverage. Evidently they don’t have any editors.
The individual figure skating was rather interesting, albeit far too long, but next comes about ten thousand hours of couples figure skating and ice dancing that I will gladly skip. If ice dancing is a “sport,” then they might as well add “fornication” next time.
On another note: What struck me as hilarious was some old fuddy duddy on the IOC who refused to let women have ski jumping because, “It is too dangerous.” Obviously he never watched women’s downhill or the new hot dogging events. As one columnist noted, the TV coverage is not “sports” but “entertainment.” Too true, but to me it is no longer entertaining. End rant.
To be fair, they usually don’t show all the 8th-finals, just the ones with Americans in them. But they do show all the quarters and semis.
I fucking hate figure skating and wish they’d show real sports instead. I did appreciate the uninterrupted hockey coverage this weekend, though, even if our team can’t seem to win anything.
I’d have to agree, the only “sport” I can stand to watch is, oddly enough, curling.
All of the racing events are simply the same thing over and over. The only thing that changes is what is being done fastest, i.e. skiing down a hill, skating or sledding down an ice shoot. The skill competitions, like ice skating, are pretty much the same thing. Every competitor does the same thing, except one does it “better” than everyone else and wins. I don’t know what makes one performance better, so its meaningless to me.
Personally, I know jack diddly about scoring in any of this. I do watch however for the standout moments, like those Chinese skaters… The woman wot fell on her knee, came back up, shrugged it off the best she could, and IIRC they nailed Silver. That’s pretty damn impressive if you think about it.
Or that Merkin snowboarder that grabbed a method air and landed on her ass… That was a lesson in life.
Basically I’m watching any Olympics coverage for three reasons: 1) No matter how little I understand about the sport, these people are trying their damndest. It’s pretty impressive. 2) Crashes. Falls. Bails. Perfect landings. Exact runs. Routines nailed. 3) Hot chicks. Those Dutch speedskaters? Wow. And I’m all over anyone female and Asian.
So, yeah, enjoy 'em or not. Your choice. I have multiple levels, and the lowest is at least guaranteed.
I actually think they’re doing a good job. The announcers are ok, and the color guys are even better. They’ll spot somethign so miniscule and are almost always right. I hate figure skating too, but it’s where they draw the viewers so they put it on. Last night they had that ice dancing on forever, luckily for me Family Guy coincided with it. Hint:when they have short-track skating, they don’t have figure skating since they use the same rink-so I look forward to that.
They had a good segment on the Italian-Norwegian x-country ski race in '94 that was really well done sunday morning. One on the Chinese skating coach and his Olympic event way beack when was equally good. It’s not perfect, but you can’t please everybody.
They can’t show everything of course, but it’s passable. THe interview with Jerome Bettis last night was shameless self-promotion since he’ll be working for their football broadcasts next year, and I have trouble staying up to 10:30pm cst to watch the end.
And also kudos for Lindsey Jackobelli(sp?) for coming on national tv and (almost) saying she screwed up. Must have been real tough. The camera work on that final was excellent. They showed the winner on the left side with 3 ecstatic people hugging here as right as she ended, and Lindsey standing 4 feet away and she just dropped her head standing there alone.