Here are some random observations on the Olympics:
- Michael Phelps, obviously, is awesome. However, I hear some refer to him as the greatest Olympian ever, because he's won the most gold medals. While that is the obvious measure to use to confer this title, it doesn't seem fair to athletes in sports that have less opportunity to win medals. A good wrestler, for example, can win one medal per Olympics (or two, if he does both Greco-Roman and freestyle, but I don't think that happens). Swimmers, on the other hand, can do 8-9 events in one Games, as we've seen. Track and gymnastics also present opportunity for multiple medals, as this list shows. Maybe percentage of possible Gold Medals won would be a good measure.
- I wish announcers would give more technical information on sports. This is particularly true in gymnastics and swimming. Everyone who watches gymnastics knows that it is important to stick the landing. I was able to glean a couple of other things to look for (angle of handstands, keeping legs together on the bars), but otherwise it is not clear to me what judges look for when taking deductions (of course, it may not be clear to anyone, based on some of the judging in the womens' all-around). In swimming, I'd like to know more about the different strokes (not the TV show), and also be able to better identify who is who, and what race is taking place, if I tune in after the starting gun.
- One of the best aspects of the Olympics is the chance to watch, and care about, sports that normally aren't broadcasted, such as handball, field hockey, or water polo (or even, gasp!, soccer). Other than on USA Network at 3 am, these don't get much airtime during the Games (although I could watch on the internet, I suppose). I realize that ratings are important, but really, how much synchronized diving do people want to see? Shake things up a bit, please.
- Olympic basketball would be better with college players. Who wants to watch 30-point blowouts?
I agree wholeheartedly with your second point. (And most if not all of your other points, but I don't want this comment to get entirely out of hand.) I was watching some rowing, and they would throw in crazy rowing vocabulary words with no explanation ever. It made me pretty crazy.
ReplyDeleteAnd the gymnastics coverage is terrible, terrible, terrible for that and many other reasons. I mean, how could they not find three measley seconds to put up a graphic that said which teams made the team final? We just had to rely on what we could glean between American and Chinese performances (which was virtually all they would show). Again--obviously--driving me crazy.
I agree with Rachel about the gymnastics. It's my favorite event, and I'm pretty sure one of the most popular of the summer games. What appalled me more than anything else was showing a routine that had already happened with the commentators talking through the routine giving away things that were about to happen. "That's the first of two falls." "Watch what is about to happen, it gets worse." RIDICULOUS! I was beyond angry. And the reason they weren't showing live gymnastics finals was because they chose to show live qualifying rounds of swimming...I think finals should trump qualifying rounds when it comes to live coverage.
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