- Al Trautwig is a giant gas bag. His jingoistic performance when calling the gymnastics is making me ill. I am not kidding. I want to vomit when I hear his smug voice.
- I remember now why I hate watching the diving, it's because of that hypercritical twat who is doing the color commentary alongside Ted "Bat Boy" Robinson. She'd find fault with the most perfect thing in the world if given the chance.
- I despise Misty May and Scarecrow Walsh. I hope they lose and that they get a solid metric ton of sand in their hoo hoo's.
- When it comes to swimming, how about less showing of the heats and more showing of the finals. And I could do with a little less on Mikey Phelps and his mom and a lot more on Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin.
- Olympic boxing is the TV equivalent of taking an overdose of sleeping pills.
- Thank goodness for USA, CNBC, and MSNBC for showing other sports besides the "marquee sports" that NBC shows during prime time.
- I love Olympic women's soccer. Men's soccer, meh.
- Table tennis and badminton work surprisingly well on TV, so why then are they only shown during the Olympics?
- Back to beach volleyball for a moment, how sweet was it to see that tall sweaty incredibly fit Chinese women team hug each other after each point they made? It was pretty dang sweet I tell ya. And yeah, maybe I said, "Go on, kiss her while you're huggin her," a time or two, so what?
- Mary Carillo should have stayed home and spared us her treacly unfunny "human interest" stories about China.
- I'm looking forward to the track and field next week.
- So far it's been a pretty good Olympiad.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Olympic observations
Here's what I think of the Beijing games so far:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
They never, ever show the events I want to see. I've been holding my breath for the Dressage. Is it on yet?
Is it on yet?
How 'bout now?
How 'bout NOW?
Now?
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
I will not respect the Olympics until they make Rugby an event.
And you are so right about the diving commentator. I'd like to see her dive into the Grand Canyon.
The thing that's pretty much turned me off the Olympics (other than the corruption, doping, and taking over of events by pros, that is) is the "pathos stories". I swear, if someone's sister isn't in hopsice or father killed in a crash on the way to the event, it just isn't worth bothering with, as far as NBC is concerned.
How's that been, so far?
I also am hating:
The ethnocentric commentary
The obsession with Mr. Phelps - enough already!!!
The complete ignoring of the other sports.
I only get basic cable so I'm stuck with what they give me
I don't really get to see the Olympics here--I don't have a television, and even if I did, it's on the Indian tv station and they show really weird things. But I don't see how the could possibly be too much coverage of Mike Phelps. I mean, sure, I'd turn down the volume, but all all-Phelps station? I'd totally watch that.
I'm watching it on Canadian TV, which has been pretty good over the years, but I not sure how NBC compares. The last one I remember watching there was 1984 (Mary Lou Retton and Carl Lewis.)
On the Canadian coverage they show the potential medalists plus all the Canadians who qualified for the finals. Sadly, these are usually two separate groups. I think it's sweet that they show all the Canadian athletes so their families back home can see them on TV. So on the women's all around gymnastics final we saw the top 6 or so, plus everything from Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who came in 16th.
What I don't get are the inane questions they ask the Canadian athletes after they bomb. They asked a swimmer what she has learned about winning an Olympic medal. WTF? she paused for a long time, probably wondering whether she should say "I learned that I can't win one because my arms are about half the size of that gal from Australia" Instead she gave some sort of standard pageant contestant answer.
The winter Olympics are a very different story, where the Canadians kick some serious ass!
Man, that women's curling gold in Nagano was spectacular. I'm not joking.
Vancouver in 2010 is going to be very fun. Sadly I found out that Canadians get first dibs on tickets. We only live 45 mins from Van, so I hope we can see something. We'll never be able to afford tickets for figure skating (probably about $775 for the top events) but maybe paralympic biathlon or something.
Table tennis and badminton require skill and fitness, and there is no chance for massive injury caused by an opponent. Therefore, Americans despise these sports.
Post a Comment