1)We dominate in women’s swimming.
2)Our men’s swimming is a bit too cocky for their own good
3)I found myself cheering for the guy that beat the Thorpedo
4)The US Olympic gymanstics teams needs a major overhaul. They seemed to have been trying too hard of tricks and injuring themselves too easily.
5)Bela did not need to be there, everytime I hear him I get cheesed because he seems to be a glory hound (he takes credit for when the team does good, blames everything else when the team does bad)
6)China men’s gymnastics did great, I was happy they finally won.
7)I DON’T LIKE hearing about who won before I get to watch it and its hard to avoid hearing about it.
8)Bob Costas has a real wry wit when he wants too. I have found myself cracking up on some of the jibes he has dished out.
9)I hope they do some other coverage of some of the lesser events. I really hope to see things like cycling and more indivdual oriented events. NBC seems to be hooked on team stuff for now.
NBC’s coverage sucks and the patronising attitude of the commentators gets on my nerves.
They need to know that not everyone has or needs cable, and show more variety on their broadcast channel. I’m getting bored with swimming and gymnastics. I’d like to see more equestrian events, more rowing and canoeing. (This is funny. I have the Olympics on right now, and they just started the men’s double sculls.)
Everything is taped beforehand, yet they can’t be bothered to show the entire event. They often miss important parts.
And would it have killed them to get a bio from CBC on the guy who won the triathlon? They had bios on all the men they thought would win, yet not on the one who did win.
CBC has the Olympics on 20 hours a day; the only break they take is for news. NBC should learn from them.
Here’s what I mean about NBC’s patronising attitude:
In the swimming prelims an American swimmer who came in second was “saving him/herself” or “just doing enough to make the finals”. In the women’s coxless pair (they just broadcast it) the Canadian team who placed second (thus making the finals) “didn’t have enough”. They “tired out”.
WTF?
They did the same thing for the men’s triathlon. The pack in the cycling leg were “too far behind” to catch up to the leaders. They were “falling back”. As I watched all I could think was that they were saving themselves for the run. I was right.
Okay, that’s enough. Any more and this’ll have to be moved to the Pit.
I observed yesterday that the up close and way-too-personal-for-me bios are really negative. I’ll use gymnastics as my example:
Insensitive Commentator: "Gloria Gymnast sure has been through a lot to get to her chance at a gold medal. She’s suffered two concussions, three shattered vertebrae, cervical cancer AND gave her little brother a kidney while she was in training. She’s soooo tough, that she was only in physical therapy for five minutes… And that’s not all. Her father is an alcoholic and had to get special permission to be released from re-hab just to attend. Her mother has a second and third mortgage on the house and can barely keep up with all the leotards and gym dues. Her little brother, after he recovered from the kidney operation, has been in and out of reform school ever since.
"Boy has this family made sacrifices to get this little Pretzel Girl to the Olym… Oh No! What’s this? A tiny little hop-step on her landing! She’s out of the running for the gold forever, her parents will divorce and … her life is now a ruined and shattered shell of what it could have been… forever. She’ll never recover from this! "
Dogzilla again: And how 'bout that Fine American Olympiad Spirit? GO Team! (Remember, there’s no “I” in team!)