Olympics Mania
My family is pretty big into sports. My dad is a wrestling coach, my brothers have played just about every sport that is played in middle america. Growing up, at least one TV in that house seemed to be perpetually tuned to ESPN. Even my grandparents are big into football, my 84 year old grandmother loves the Huskers (is there any other team? Go Cornhuskers, woot!). I’m not as interested in sports, most of the time. I loved playing volleyb
all in high school, and was a pretty good thrower in track and field. I really enjoyed playing co-ed softball in grad school and like to go out and play a friendly game of just about anything. Watching sports on TV is a different story, as a general rule, I just don’t enjoy it. I’ll happily go to any live sporting even and have a great time, but somehow it looses something in the broadcasting.
There is, however, one huge exception for me: the Olympics. I love the Olympics. Have since I was a kid; I still remember watching the ‘84 LA games when I was six and falling in love with gymnastics, turning porch railings into balance beams and nearly cracking my head open. I’ll watch pretty much any Olympic event, summer or winter games. Since the start of this year’s games on Friday, the Olympics have pretty much taken over my life. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but my evenings anyway.
The timed sports are the easiest to watch. It doesn’
t get much better than watching the American’s kick the speedo-clad butts of the French team in the 4×100meter freestyle after the anchor of the French team had professed that they would “crush” the American’s (though it would have been better if I hadn’t forgotten that live on the NBC screen means live East Coast time, so you should not look at CNN if you want any surprises).
The judged events are a different story. I’m sure a lot of it is training and knowledge of the sport, but I’m often left scratching my head as to why one routine scores so much higher than another. The most difficult system to grasp is the new gymnastics way of scoring. I hate it. It used to be a 10 was the best you could do in anything. Now they give a difficulty score and an execution score, these scores are combined and any deductions subtracted to give the final score. I appreciate rewarding athletes for the more difficult routines, but there is no longer the transparency of knowing which judge gave what score. The process is even more hidden from the viewers. The judges can review tapes of a given performance and then go and compare them to any other routine from that competition. And they can go back and devalue or increase a score at anytime. This just strikes me as wrong. And it takes forever for them to give the scores. Supposedly this is system will ensure less bias in the judging, but I d
on’t see it.
So I’ll just go on holding my breath as the men and women launch themselves into the air and grasp the high bar or uneven bars at the very last instant. I’ll try not to care too much about the scores. It was great to see the American men’s gymnastics team, composed of Olympics newbies after the loss of the Hamm brothers, take home the bronze when they weren’t even expected to be in the running. It’s not always about the gold.
We’ve really been enjoying the Olympics, too. I’m not crazy about the new gymnastics scoring system, but the thing that really bothers me is the microphones picking up everything the athletes say. I felt like I was eavesdropping on the girl gymnasts, and everything one of the guys said annoyed me.
Nichole I totally agree! The other night when the women’s team was standing around in a circle chatting the cameras were so close to them I just kept thinking “Leave those poor girls alone!” It’s not as if we have the right to be in on their private conversations just because they’re at the Olympics. I really didn’t like that at all! And I think I know which of the men you’re thinking of, the guy who ended everything with “Baby!” was getting on my nerves!
popped in from you link (bad link) from WW
That was such an exciting relay.
Such amazing teams… even if the French spoke too soon, they were a delight to watch as well.
I don’t remember ever seeing a more exciting race.
I am feeling pretty annoyed at NBC here is Oz. I was very excited that there is only a 90 minute time difference between here and Beijing, but turns out NBC insisted that the swimming finals be run in the morning in Beijing so the US audience could watch them at night. Grrrr….now I am forced to sneak a look at the internet at my new job to see if the Aussies have kicked any more butt in the pool.
The “whole starting things early so Americans can watch them” hasn’t worked out real well for us either, since they time delay everything for us anyway, though they show it in real time on the East Coast. Why can’t they just start it earlier here, seriously, waiting until 8pm to show 6 hours the Olympics is just ridiculous, show it in real time to us too! I understand your frustration, Sinead! And the Olympics-induced sleep deprivation isn’t helping!
I have seen some pretty Awesome Aussie swimming, Rice had an amazing swim yesterday!
I’ve not watched as much of the Olympics as I would like, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen. The amazing thing about the Olympics is that I’ll sit and watch a sport like Equistrian Dressage which I would never consider watching at any other time. Or badminton.
I really enjoy Olympic watching as well, and it’s one time where Canadian TV actually gives us a bonus: many more options for what to watch at the same time. I do hate some of the NBC commentary: if I have to hear any more whining (whinging for the Ozzies) about gymnastics scoring and ties…. Actually, I like the new gymnastics scoring. IMHO, it’s no longer based entirely on judges’ opinions but now has an aspect devoted to difficulty. And the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) feed does show the individual judge scores, so perhaps the US needs to catch up? (haha) I do love watching Canadians compete because almost always its not about the gold, its about the Olympic experience, bettering Canadian records, achieving personal bests. Of course medals are nice too…
The men’s swim 4X100m race was very exciting, I’ll give you that, and I love a kid delivering personal bests when under the crunch. But the posturing by the US men at the end? Worse than the French comments in my opinion.