I saw that earlier today. That was good stuff.
Any US Dopers know what Telemundo has been focusing on? I flipped by and they were showing soccer, which I have not much interest in.
And fencing was on earlier for about ten minutes - just enough for the two Americans to get eliminated.
The quality of the CBC coverage has been great so far, but I have been appalled at the amount of commercials! When I was watching earlier, I swear they were showing two minutes of swimming to two minutes of commercials :mad:
You know, I’m not a huge fan of olympic coverage, usually, but I think you guys are being a bit harsh. So far on NBC today has been a whole ton of diving and gymnastics, with a total of ZERO US competitors in either, and a lot of focusing on the Romanian team. There’s also been a lot of swimming, with a few US competitors, and then two volleyball matches, whcih did include US teams.
Meanwhile, MSNBC was rowing, rowing, rowing, rowing. Which I find tedious as hell. And Bravo is about to come on with Badminton, Ping Pong and Field Hockey.
So, overall, it’s a lot better than some of you seem to give it credit for. Although still far from perfect?
Oooooh. We just beat Norway in Beach Volleyball. Big fucking whoop! Norway doesn’t have any beaches! It’s all rocks and fiords and shit! Yet there the announcers were, leading the huzzahs for Our Side.
Bah.
Soccer, boxing, and beach volleyball, I have been told.
Of course, you could also check the link I posted above… 
So, LilyoftheValley, the Rockies are losing big and I’m about to start channel flipping. What’s on in the Olympics right now?
Synchronised diving! Thrillsville.
Anyone in the mountain time zone, subtract one hour from that site instead of two. We must be on a time delayed time delay.
On a diving-related side-note, what’s with the low-rise Speedos? I’m sitting here, minding my own business, then I’m hit with an eyeful of Australian butt-cleavage!
Actually, I’m not really complaining… 
And I thing CBC’s doing a great job so far, covering a bit of everything, even if they were a bit too chatty during the opening ceremony. I don’t watch NBC coverage anymore, because I hate how they spend 20 minutes interviewing the American guy who came in 47th in an event, and don’t bother to talk about the gold-medal winner. I don’t know if it’s still like that, but the last Olympics were, and it was annoying.
I’m sure CBC does the same with the Canadian athletes, but I’ve never really noticed it being quite as bad as with NBC.
Ok, that’s just not fair. I watched today on CNBC (just after noon CST), and they showed the Americans getting eliminated, but then they followed up after commercials with the gold medal round, which went to la belle.
Of course, the male commentator seemed a bit shady to me, and they never really explained for the laity how right of way works in sabre, so my sister’s fiance was a bit confused about why people were giving touches away to the guy who hit second. But… they did show the gold medal round.
And why is it that they can’t put the camera where it can see the director? I mean, it’s a bit confusing when you can’t tell who was awarded the touch until the female commentator tells you what the director said. I mean, how are you supposed to get your panties in a twist about the shitty calls if you can’t see them?!? 
I think the worst opening ceremonies were the ones in Atlanta.
Pick up trucks, football…cheerleaders. I was embarrassed. Damn Georgians.
Did they? They started mentioning the other sports that were coming up and didn’t mention going back to fencing so I figured it was over.
If they showed the rest, then my mistake.
And “Tom”, I hope you choke on those damned chips while your wife is shoving the salsa up your ass.
-lv
I just want to say that this is exactly how it should be and if the fucking announcers would just keep this in mind, I think we would all be enthralled at whatever sport was on. Make it exciting. Be knowledgeable. And above all, make us realize how awesome these people are. They (the athletes) make it look easy, which translates to boring for a lot of people.
Too much to ask?
That’s only because the US gymnastics team wasn’t in that group. Once the US men showed up we saw almost nothing but them, except when they cut away to show a Russian falling off something. The third group coverage focused almost exclusively on the Chinese and Japanese, with a momentary cut to the Ukrainians (but only because their lead athlete was killed in a car accident earlier this year and his widow was there). The final eight were announced and Germany was eighth, which was a surprise to me because based on the coverage who even knew the Germans were competing?
The US male sychronised divers were shown even though they had no chance of a medal.
Exactly!
I was almost as if the commentators were pointing and laughing. It was absolutely pathetic.
Thought i’d add a minor one from the MSNBC website.
Monday, the United States played the Czech Republic in women’s basketball. Apparently, the MSNBC headline writer never got the memo about the changes in Europe during the 1990s. The headline reads:
Hello? Czechoslovakia? No such country, my friend.
Hell, according to NBC’s own country list
Maroons!
I wish that the NBC graphic superimposed in the lower-right corner over live events (usually the O-rings and the stopwatch) had an alpha-numeric designation identifying the action as a heat (H), quarterfinal (QF), semifinal (SF), or final (F). The letter code could be even more specific: H1 would be the first heat, etc. Similar codes for the game events could be worked out: qualifying game (Q or QG), semifinal game (SFG), etc.
Oh, good. They’re showing women’s beach volleyball. AGAIN! Yes, they’re hot women in skimpy bikinis. We get it. But if I wanted softcore porn, I HAVE the internet, thank you! Show something INTERESTING, dammit!
Oh my sweet fucking lord is this CRAP!
I’ve been exposed to the horror that is American Olympic coverage before-- indeed, I have two friends working for NBC in Athens right now-- but I never had to rely on it as my sole purveyor of the Rings on TV until now.
This is mind-boggingly awful, even when you watch the overnight coverage. The two anchor guys for NBC don’t know jack. The actual events focus FAR too much on the American athletes (hello? Melting pot anyone?) even when they ain’t all that good (but even when they ARE that good it’s nice to know something about the competition, y’know?) and I could care less about any hyped athlete who predicts he’ll win dozens of medals.
If you’re referring to Michael Phelps, it’s not really fair to blame him for the hype. In every interview i’ve seen with him, he does his best to play down the hype about Spitz’s record, etc. I’ve never actually seen Phelps himself predict that he’ll win all those races.
Now that he can’t equal Spitz’s record for gold medals, maybe the media will get off his back a bit.