SOWHAT? The thing that's struck me about all the hype for the Sochi Games is that it seems to be completely centered around the host city and the spectacle of the Olympic Games, and not nearly as much as usual about the athletes competing. Is it because of the dearth of American medal hopes in figure skating, and that I don't care about any of the flippity-flip "extreme" sports?
Are you excited for the Games? If so, for what? Or will you just turn on NBC every night, and whatever's on, that'll entertain you enough?
I'm incredibly excited about Figure Skating and even streamed the team competition on my second monitor at work (because prime time coverage is terrible). The Americans haven't been my favorite skaters in years so it really isn't about them, it's about the sport.
ReplyDeleteI'm not feeling just yet. I'm hoping I get excited once it gets going. I always love the hockey tournament, it's like the World Cup for pasty skin people.
ReplyDeleteI turned it on last night and heard those dreaded words from Costas " We'll get back to the competition in a few minutes, but first..." and they went into a studio interview with a couple of guys talking about Russian attitudes. When they finally got to a sport, the breathless excitement of the figure skating announcers irritated me so much I turned it off.
ReplyDeleteI'll probably watch some of the hockey when it starts.
Yeah, I just want to put on the TV and see a different sport (preferably a weird one I can't see on TV normally) than the one I saw the last time I put on the TV. You'd think "lots of different weird sports" wouldn't be that hard to achieve in the coverage, given that it is basically the very definition of the whole event. But I guess it's easier said than done based on my observation of the last couple of Olympics.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they're finally doing women's ski jump! Simultaneously, I wouldn't be THAT surprised if ski jumping in general turned out to be a 200-year hoax achieved via some kind of optical illusion.
At the risk of brush up against the Rule, Vladimir Posner? That's quite the Soviet-era dinosaur.
ReplyDeleteFor those looking to see different sorts of sports, please consider staying tuned after the Olympics and watching some Paralympics events. Though the coverage is slight compared to the Olympics overload, there will be more for this Paralympics and the next one than ever, and it can only improve if people show interest and watch. You can find out more about the coverage at http://www.paralympic.org/feature/no-1-nbc-highlights-handful-new-paralympic-broadcast-deals and view some videos about the sports at www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv.
ReplyDeleteAs for Americans and figure skating, the most exciting rivalry in the sport right now is in Ice Dance. Defending Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (from Canada) and reigning world champs Meryl Davis and Charlie White (from USA) have dominated the sport in the last few years - they've finished 1-2, 2-1, 1-2, 2-1 at Worlds. They've also raised the bar in terms of what's possible (both technically and artisitically) in the Ice Dance. And they're best friends and train together.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I definitely remain conflicted about paying a lot of attention to these Games. Yes, I'm appalled at Russia's anti-gay laws - but I think I may be more appalled by the IOC's "we don't want you to protest" response.
I tried last night for about an hour and gave up. For an extreme sport, Slopestyle was pretty boring to watch. I'll probably tune in for some of the figure skating, short track speed skating and hockey. Maybe curling if it ever shows up while I'm watching. I have a lot of stuff backed up on the DVR, so this break might be what I need to catch up.
ReplyDeleteI love the Olympics, what can I say? I always have. Part of it is watching sports that I otherwise never see. That said, I am plenty fine with DVR'g and skipping sports that I don't enjoy. During the summer, plenty of beach volleyball went zipping along because of that. Slopestyle is THIS close to hitting beach volleyball levels of dread for me.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of goes in the figure skating post and here, but one thing that I wish that announcers would do a better job of is telling me why a particular performance scored the way it did. For all of the complaining about diving commenting, I generally had a sense as to why the divers ended up in the order that they did---who was doing the harder dives and whose execution better met the standards. But with figure skating and some of the snowboard sports, I often don't. A couple of times last night with the figure skating, we got that, but it was the exception and not the rule.
I watched NBC's LiveExtra video from their website and the figure skating commentators were British rather than the American luminaries I expected. They did a somewhat better job of explaining the scoring, the difficulty of moves, and what did or didn't go well for each skater.
ReplyDeleteYou guys should all look up Plushenko's short program from last night. It is spectacular. I will provide a short recap: quad, arm waving, triple, butt wiggles, triple, blow a kiss, wandering spin, wink at the ladies. And DONE. The choreography was ridiculous, but you have to admire the sheer bravado of his performance.
ReplyDelete(Sorry if there's a double post - I have issues with this commenting system!)
Yes, Plushy skated well. But I still hate him. :) (Of course I'm biased, because I'm rooting for Patrick Chan - even when Chan's a little wobbly, like yesterday, he's just SUCH an exquisite skater.)
ReplyDeleteThe big question mark for Plushenko: will he be able to skate FOUR clean programs in a nine-day period?
Oh, I hate him too - but I found the over-the-top, theatrical nature of his performace to be very entertaining. I was really sad for Jeremy Abbott last night. When he's good, he's so good, and his short program is so unusual and exquisitely choreographed. (Pretty sure I stole that line from Peggy Fleming.)
ReplyDeleteI don't think Plushy can pull off four clean performances. But he has killer competitive and exhibition instincts. When push comes to shove, he seems to be able to just get out there and perform.
The Rule is always loosened a bit when it comes to international sporting events held in repressive regimes. Go for it.
ReplyDeleteNope. Skipping this one. I'll be back for the Chicago Olympics in 2016. Oh, wait.
ReplyDeleteI honestly assumed he was dead.
ReplyDeleteso sad for Jeremy Abbott - I was lucky to be at the US Nationals to see his short program, and man it brought the house down, it was phenomenal.
ReplyDeleteI remember in '94 they cut away from the USA Hockey game for a feature on a Norwegian log cutting competition. An angry phone call to NBC ensued- strangely, I did not hear back from them. My guess is NBC ONLY cares about figure skating- very few in the American sports media care about hockey at all- if you doubt me watch an hour of Sports Center sometime- and probably the only ratings they get are for figure skating
ReplyDelete"By the 'Scottish Play' you mean Macbeth?" http://youtu.be/h--HR7PWfp0
ReplyDeleteI think they care a lot more about hockey now than they used to given (1) that NHL players are now playing in the Games and (2) NBC's relationship with the NHL.
ReplyDeleteI watched opening ceremonies last night and was so turned off by Viera/Lauer commentary that I ended up watching with sound off. Not sure if that made the trippy production better or worse. Two snarky questions 1) does every opening ceremony need to include a young girl examining her country's history through dreams and 2) am I only one ruthlessly distracted by Costas' left eye????
ReplyDeleteYou may be right, but do you really think Bob Costas actually cares about the sport? Not me!
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