[drewprops]

They're playing the opening ceremonies on the East Coast of USA now. Let's talk about the Olympics in this thread over the next few weeks! I'm a big fan of Bob Costas but I wish that he'd shut his yap and just let the ceremonies play without commentary.

[Moogs]

I agree. NBC is so pretentious with their Olympic coverage, it baffles the mind. It's like they refuse to listen to their critics or learn from their mistakes, no matter how many media commentators or people tell them to just keep it simple. And for the record Jim Lampley is a douche bag.

We can only hope this time there aren't 2 dozen human interest stories for every day of coverage, meantime you see half as much of the actual events. They just need to STFU and let us enjoy it. This isn't Oprah, it's the Olympics.

[RowdyScot]

This is why I watched on CBC earlier this afternoon when it was live CBC always des a fantastic job with the Olympics.

[Eugene]

Bob Costas is 100 awesome.

[Moogs]

100 awesome?

I wish DirecTV would carry CBC as a regular channel. I'd watch it in a heartbeat over NBC. I don't know why they feel compelled to speak on every single issue or little observation someone makes, instead of just reporting the facts of the games and letting us watch. Once or twice I can forgive, but they've done this for every Olympics as far back as I can remember. Lilehamer maybe? Torture....

[AWR]

One of the top 10 things about living in Switzerland is the Olympic coverage (yes living here can have one grasping at straws). It's sports, sports, sports. Very few commercials, none of the Oprah affect, no cutting out in the middle of events, lots of live stuff.....

When I lived in the States, the Olympics coverage always had me enraged. No events where the US isn't involved; or even more so, you need an American ready to WIN. Commercials commercials commercials; special interest stories about one-armed, one-eyed, lesbian Chinese bi-atheletes who grew up in the town dump eating cans.... (this while USA-Sweden ice hockey game is going on live (but it's 0-0 in the second period, so the ratings must be falling..).

And but for the idiotic F1 race car spinout performance, I enjoyed the opening ceremony last night.

Some of my favorite winter events are hockey, downhill and super G, speed skating.

Let the Games begin.

[Eugene]

Eh, the special interest shmoozefest stories can be really good. You can get sports year-round, why not add some fluff?

Then again, Torino is shaping up to be a giant snoozefest. None of the grandeur of Athens or Barcelona, and somehow lacking the smalltown feeling of Lillehammer. Those were my 3 favorite...the rest were meh. I guess from a technical standpoint, the SLC games were very well done (credit to Mitt Romney), but have any of the recent games been truly memorable?

[Franz Josef]

Is it just me that doesn't like all of this Olympic hype? No disrespect to those who love it, but I feel heartily disgusted that every time I see the word Olympics, there's a doping scandal being mentioned in the same breath too.

[curiousuburb]

Turin is apparently hosting another big international competition at the same time.
Not sure it will get the same television coverage, but I'm pretty sure some athletes may try crossover talents.

OLYMPIC coaches wanting their athletes to remain as pumped up with testosterone and adrenalin as possible until the moment of competitive release will be dismayed to hear the distracting news that Turin is also playing host to an international erotic fair this weekend. The organisers of Turin Sex at the Mazda Palace boast of “hot games” featuring more than 50 porn stars and expect the fair to be attended by “lots of sex athletes”. There is great debate among Olympic watchers as to which discipline these will be drawn from. source

Ice hotties... mmmmm.

[Moogs]

Icegasms galore.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by AWR When I lived in the States, the Olympics coverage always had me enraged. No events where the US isn't involved; or even more so, you need an American ready to WIN. Commercials commercials commercials; special interest stories about one-armed, one-eyed, lesbian Chinese bi-atheletes who grew up in the town dump eating cans.... (this while USA-Sweden ice hockey game is going on live (but it's 0-0 in the second period, so the ratings must be falling..)

Rage? Oh yes. No matter what, NBC coverage always just completely infuriates me while the athletes are walking in during the opening ceremony. I begin watching, all excited, happy, and eagerly anticipating seeing the athletes' faces from all these many countries. It's one of the things I most look forward to. But as soon as the procession begins, I become enraged at the camera work.

Just who *are* the people who make camera decisions? I'd like to bash them in the head repeatedly until they get the point that they should be showing what the television VIEWER is interested in seeing. HELLOOO!!! Is that too complicated a concept for these idiots? It's as if a 13 yr. old intern were making camera decisions. No, wait. I take it back. Any 13 yr. old would make far better decisions. *seethe*

(NBC planners) Let's see, we can give *20 seconds* of camera time to each nation's athletes as they walk in. Now, how can we most effectively infuriate the viewer?

Step one: of the 20 seconds available, let's spend a whole TEN seconds with a long-shot of the Olympic rings for every single country, gradually moving in during the ten seconds on the sign showing the name of the country.

Step two: Now let's spend FIVE more seconds trying to catch a glimpse of the flagbearer - whose face is (surprise!) continually being obscured by the flag - but let's keep it a medium-distance shot, so that even if the flagbearer *does* become visible for a split-second, our camera range is too far out for the viewer actually to see his/her face.

Step three: we only have five seconds left now, so instead of showing the actual athletes who are the entire reason for the existence of the games, let's be sure to get some great shots of some of these ancient coaches - you know, individuals that everyone's just *dying* to get a glimpse of.

Oh... and two seconds total of one athlete; another two seconds of another athlete - specifically selected because he has his own camera almost completely obscuring his face.

(Viewer, who had foolishly hoped to see close-ups of as many athletes' faces as possible, is now completely enraged, because the exact same camera work is slavishly followed for every single country. )

And I completely agree with AWR about coverage restricted to US athletes. I'd *love* to get to know more about all the other fascinating athletes from so many other countries.

Oh well, sorry. Just *had* to get some of that off my chest. *seethe*

On a positive note, I just love the idea of the Olympics, of gathering competitors from around the world, individuals who have dedicated themselves to seeking excellence. I think all the sports are exhilarating and wonderfully inspiring. It all makes me want to go out and strive for excellence too.

[Ryan]

IMHO, the IOC needs to give US coverage rights to someone other than NBC.

(That was way too many acronyms for one sentence )

[ghoti]

NBC does that to protect you from any wardrobe malfunctions or other things that might happen during that ceremony that you should not see. Also, many of the athletes are legally kids, so showing them up close would be catering to pedophiles. Showing too many people of a certain ethnicity is considered just as racist as creating the impression that all of them are equally represented in sports (or the world), and showing too few Americans would be considered un-American. Any hint of religious symbolism has been carefully removed, so as not to infuriate the legions of bored housewives who have their mouse cursor positioned over the "Complain!" button on the FCC website while they enjoy the show.

NBC had a special task force work out the exact timing for that event over the course of over a year. They decided that showing the flag and country name would be acceptable, and get them into less legal trouble than showing people (that is until the Extended PATRIOT Act (EXPATRIOT) will make showing foreign flags illegal next year). The shots containing people were painstakingly scripted to avoid as many lawsuits and FCC penalties as possible. Still, they expect at least a dozen lawsuits, especially from the Mothers of Pedophiles Association of America (MPAA) and Jack Thompson.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the show!

(The unnerving thing about this is that I don't even think that I'm completely off)

[pmazer]

Is anyone watching the downhill right now on NBC? What's up with the random and frequent blackouts during the race? One would think that they would have this all figured out by now. The blackouts are very distracting, and making me not want to watch at all.

[Moogs]

Canada Women 16 - Italy 0

Shouldn't there be a mercy rule or something? It was ugly.

[murbot]

Yeah, it's pretty rough on those weaker teams... but goals for and against could likely determine home advantage (last change) for the final, in which case they need to rack up as many goals as possible.

They were talking about it before the game, how they wouldn't usually run up the score hard, but they kind of have to with this format.

[Moogs]

Yah I guess. I don't know that last change in the Final is worth demoralizing the other team when they're trying to get their program rolling. At the very least I would've kept Wikenhauser and the other marquee players off the ice and let the reserves and 3rd/4th lines get the bulk of the work from the opening face off.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by Moogs Canada Women 16 - Italy 0 Shouldn't there be a mercy rule or something? It was ugly.

So much for home ice advantage...

Agreed they should have put the 4th line on...

Didn't there used to be a rule about "only players who have played x amount of minutes qualify for the final medal (regardless of who was listed on the squad)??" If this is still an Olympic rule (ie: if your backup goalie doesn't play, they don't get a medal), they ought to use the early games to give every player some ice time.

And what's the name of the Canadian coach who instituted the rule about "must pass to everyone on the ice before scoring" during the old 15-0 blowout games?

[murbot]

Dude, this isn't termite hockey.

Just the reality of the format boys. What, they're supposed to back off, maybe let Italy score a few, then Italy somehow gets an advantage over some other super shitty team... or the US scores 15 against them tomorrow, then they finish ahead of Canada in the standings?

Sorry, it's not pretty, but when it's set up this way you have to take every advantage available.

[Moogs]

No Canada didn't have to let anyone score. All I'm saying is if they had sat their 3 or 4 best players and starting goalie, they still would've won 8 or 9 nothing, most likely. Christ the Italians looked like a bad high school team. I mean bad. Remember they would never have qualified for the tournament if their country wasn't hosting... They picked their roster from a total of like 50 women hockey players in the entire country. 50!

The game was over before it started.

[RowdyScot]

I wouldn't expect their prospects to be much better on the men's side. Too bad I'm not Italian...they could've called me

[Moogs]

Heheh... seriously. Thing about the men is, some of them probably will be American or Canadian (with dual citizenship), or otherwise learned to skate and play in other countries. They said there is a division 1 men's league there with 10 teams or something like that. Probably they're equivalent to Switzerland or Germany, maybe a little worse.

All right... so whose rooting for Bode to blow a tire on the slopes today? I hope one of the other Americans takes the spotlight from him. Nothing worse than a media whore who doesn't know he's a whore / pretends like he's above the media fray, when it's the media that made him what he is.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Moogs All right... so whose rooting for Bode to blow a tire on the slopes today? I hope one of the other Americans takes the spotlight from him. Nothing worse than a media whore who doesn't know he's a whore / pretends like he's above the media fray, when it's the media that made him what he is.

The media is more at fault for Bode than Bode himself.

Now for the results, I wouldn't worry.

[Moogs]

Well the the relationship is a parasitic one. Bode can't be mr. rebel without a cause guy without the media, and they don't have any "interesting" / off the wall stories without him.

I don't count crying figure skaters as interesting btw, because there's always a figure skater crying about something. This year it's Michelle Kwan crying that she fell in practice which btw, I think is an excuse for "I'm afraid of falling flat when everyone is hoping I'll win gold". You took someone's spot, played this up as your last hurrah, participated in the opening ceremonies (which is a big deal / part of why people dream of the Olympics)... get a set, do your best and if you screw up you screw up.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Moogs I don't count crying figure skaters as interesting btw, because there's always a figure skater crying about something. This year it's Michelle Kwan crying that she fell in practice which btw, I think is an excuse for "I'm afraid of falling flat when everyone is hoping I'll win gold". You took someone's spot, played this up as your last hurrah, participated in the opening ceremonies (which is a big deal / part of why people dream of the Olympics)... get a set, do your best and if you screw up you screw up.

Of course she wanted it to be her last hurrah. She wouldn't have gone to a third Olympics if she didn't think she had at least a slim chance at its biggest prize. She realized she wasn't fit to do that so she pulled out ASAP to afford Hughes enough time to practice and settle down before the event gets underway.

All in all I think it has very little to do with screwing up on the big stage.

[SledgeHammer]

Originally Posted by pmazer Is anyone watching the downhill right now on NBC? What's up with the random and frequent blackouts during the race? One would think that they would have this all figured out by now. The blackouts are very distracting, and making me not want to watch at all.

The HD coverage has been extremely buggy. Sometimes it's alright, but other times it hiccups every minute or so, sometimes just pixelating the picture for a second, sometimes audio and video going away completely for a second or two. It's pretty obnoxious.

[murbot]

Originally Posted by Moogs Canada Women 16 - Italy 0 Shouldn't there be a mercy rule or something? It was ugly.

Whoops, 12-0 over Russia today for the Canadian women.

Of course I kind of felt bad for the Italians, but I love blood whenever any Canadian team plays the fucking Russians. Sweet.

[Moogs]

Yah, fuck 'em. I hope the Russian men get the crap kicked out of them.

And, after all the trash talk, hoopla and rebel coverage, Bode places 4th in the downhill... maybe worse. Beautiful. I love. it. I hope he goes 0 for 3.

[drewprops]

I was talking to my Dad about the snowboarding half-pipe thing... it's gotten pretty boring and we were talking about ways to make it more interesting. He thinks that they should have to do synchronized team half-piping in formations and I think that they should get those big padded fighting sticks that soldiers use to spar with each other. Wouldn't that be a cool event? Maybe even as a downhill run... trying to knock the ever-lovin' out of your opponent. You start from two different stations at the same time and meet going down the slope...

POW!!! BLAMMO!!!!! OOOOOOFF!!!!

[alcimedes]

I'm still trying to find the Jamaican bobsled team.