Post-Olympic Observations

1. Even though I was ready for them to be done, I always miss the Olympics for a day or two after they end. It's like at Christmas when I was young, and family members would come over, then they'd all leave. The competitions, the stories, and even the "Canadiana" (as Bob Costas called it) were a constant companion, and then they disappear. You'd think that at least the Today Show would hang around one more morning, to help ease us into the non-Olympic season, but no, they were back in New York (at least during the 3 minutes I saw of the show yesterday).
2. As far as I can tell, every sport got some prime-time attention from NBC - except curling. Now, I realize most people don't consider curling to be a barnburner, and I realize it was on the cable stations every day, but I still think the wider national audience should have been given a taste of the sport. It's no less boring than the bobsled, and that was all over prime time. On Friday, the last end of the mens' gold medal match started just as NBC's prime time coverage began. They could have cut in for the last few shots. If you didn't get to see any curling, here are some highlights from the womens' gold medal match.
   
3. NBC really rode Lindsey Vonn, even after she "only" won medals in two of her five events. I figured they would tone down the coverage of her a bit since she didn't medal in three events, but they did not. During the closing ceremonies, they cut a shot of her every five minutes. It was excessive, and it seemed like they wanted to prove that their pre-Games anointment of her as a star was correct.
   
4. I kind of like hockey, but I'm not a huge follower. I watched the mens' gold medal game, and I can see how it could help the sport among the general population. It made me want to go see an NHL game. I probably won't, but I at least considered it, and I'm sure many others will actually take that step.
5. Three of the last four Olympics (Vancouver, Beijing, and Athens) too place at or near a time when I moved to a new place. The Games are kind of associated in my mind with relocation. That being the case, though, I hope I'm still here when the London Games roll around.
   

Olympic Observations

1. I really wish Canada would win a gold medal, because I'm sick of hearing on NBC about how they've never won one "on their home soil." Sports journalists really sink their teeth into a story and shake it around like a rat terrier, don't they? Plus, they should say "home ice" or "home snow" instead of "home soil." These are the Winter Olympics we're talking about right now, although I realize the no golds thing refers to both the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.

2. I don't like how figure skating is the marquee event of the Winter Olympics. First of all, it's a judged sport, making it inherently inferior to real sports. Second, it's boring. I blame women for its popularity; women also make gymnastics the big sport at the Summer Games and make Democrats win elections (PDF). Boo!

3. Curling starts Tuesday! Curling is my favorite winter sport. In the past, I've had to bum other people's cable TV in order to watch it, but now it will be online. Awesome.

Making the Cut

There was a lot of talk during the just-completed Olympics about the removal of baseball and softball from the program. These sports have the chance to be re-admitted for 2016, along with potential new sports karate, squash, golf, rugby sevens and roller-skating. I will give you the list of current Olympic events, and tell you which I think should be added or removed. Wikipedia has the history of each sport's inclusion in the Games.

Archery
Athletics (track & field)
Badminton
Basketball
Beach Volleyball - obviously keep.
Boxing
Canoe / kayak
Cycling
Diving - get rid of the synchronized version.
Equestrian - we could replace this with rodeo :)
Fencing
Football (soccer) - remove. Yeah, it's a big sport, but the World Cup is a much bigger deal.
Gymnastics
Handball
Hockey (field)
Judo
Modern pentathlon - remove. This sport is a relic from a bygone era. See here.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rowing
Sailing - remove.
Shooting
Synchronized Swimming
Swimming - get rid of the open water version (the pool version is sufficient).
Table tennis - remove. This is a hobby more than a sport. Plus, it's dominated by one country, and that's why softball got kicked out.

Taekwondo - lots of trouble here with judging and referee-kicking. Maybe replace with karate?

Tennis
Trampoline - remove. Seriously.
Triathlon
Volleyball
Water Polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling

Now that we've removed 5 sports, and some subsports, what should we add? I say baseball and softball return, and we add squash. Golf? Heck no. What do you think?

Goodbye, My Friend

It is always sad when the Olympics end. The athletes that I welcomed into my home every morning and every night are going home themselves, and there will be a void in my TV that the networks will attempt to fill with inanity. I will miss not waking up in the morning to see what's happening in Beijing, or sitting up until 2 am watching events that were, in many cases, better than those which aired in prime time. It will be a couple of days until I have moved on. Football begins soon, but that sport doesn't hold the same allure for me. Plus, part of the joy of the Olympics is jumping from sport to sport as if I were at Golden Corral. A little badminton here, a helping of field hockey, and some water polo for dessert, as it were.

Citizens of Beijing should also be sad the Olympics are ending. Not only because the Games were a good time, but because, with the world's attention diverted, their government can resume blocking the Internet, polluting the air, and crushing dissent. Hopefully, China's contact with the outside world will spur some changes for the better. I am doubtful, however.

The Gymnastics Saga Continues

Surprisingly, officials will look into this whole underage Chinese gymnastic brouhaha:

The International Olympic Committee is launching an investigation into Chinese gold-medal-winning gymnast He Kexin's age, the Times of London reported. Mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up her age triggered the IOC to act.

I guess the pressure, and the mounting evidence, were too much to ignore. However, I suspect this will go nowhere. As I heard someone on NBC say, the IOC (or the gymnastics federation) has no subpoena power, so they can't compel China to produce any information. And China has no incentive to do so. The most likely outcome would be that China would lose gold medals. By delaying and refusing to cooperate, China can deny the investigating body any evidence that would create such an outcome. Instead, the IOC will likely say, when this is all over, that they don't have enough evidence to strip the Chinese gymnasts of any medals. China, of course, will claim vindication from this result.

Of course, it could just be that the IOC is doing this to cover itself. By taking a cursory look at the issue, they can say that they did their due diligence, and refuse to talk about it further. I suspect that some sort of result like that mentioned above will be announced in a couple of months, when the world's attention has turned elsewhere. What more can we expect from an organization that awards the Games to dictatorships or whoever gives the biggest bribes?

Never Heard of it

You know that song, "Time in a Bottle?" Yeah, me neither.

Olympic Observations

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?

• Did you see the bitter Swede, or the turned elbow (warning: grody)?
  

Olympics in a Larger Context

I love the Olympics. And since I have no job at the moment, I have plenty of time to watch them. I am unable, however, to avoid viewing the Games through a geopolitical context. To me, these are the modern version of the 1936 Olympics, which Hitler attempted to use as a propaganda tool to showcase his regime. From the intimidating Opening Ceremony (in which an apparently unattractive singer was sidelined and fireworks were faked), to the goon squads and bussed-in supporters that followed the torch relay, to underage gymnasts, China is trying to use these Games to show that they're the new world power.

The gymnast issue is a good example. Obviously underage girls (the limit is 16) are used because they are lighter and feel less pressure, apparently. They are allowed to compete because their Chinese passports say they are 16, but a country that will abet genocide in Darfur is not above forging a couple of passports. Gymnastics seems to be a sport well-suited to a totalitarian regime; take selected children from their homes at the age of 3 and drill the sport into them for 12 years or so (NBC stated this was the case). This NY Times story chronicles the coercion to which China subjects its athletes:

For many athletes, playing through injuries is standard practice. Most of China’s Olympic-caliber competitors are tightly controlled by a system that manages almost every aspect of their lives, often from early childhood. This includes housing, education, medical care and interactions with the public and the news media. In this system, decisions about training regimens and the risks of injuries do not get much of a public airing.

Whenever I see an Opening Ceremony performer, and athlete, or a cab driver from China on TV during these Olympics, I can't help but wonder what consequences they face should they fail or misspeak. I recognize that the Chinese also feel national pride due to the Olympics, but in such a closed society we don't know how much their actions and statements are motivated by pride as opposed to fear of retribution.

China would love nothing more than to beat the US in the total medal count, and they're helped by the fact that the home country usually gets a medal boost. That would be a huge propaganda victory for them. That's why I'm cheering hard in hopes that it does not happen.

Interestingly enough, the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in newly resurgent Russia. I'm sure they'll put on a good spectacle, although the status of things will be quite different by then. What with the IOC's predilection for giving the games to dictatorships, maybe Pyongyang should bid on the 2016 Games.

Imported Chinese Propaganda

Our good friend Rachel has a report up from a pro-China rally she witnessed at the University of Wisconsin. Her report dovetails nicely with my post awhile back about the Olympic torch stop in San Francisco. Across the country, we are seeing delusional Chinese citizens holding these rallies to steal attention from "Free Tibet" protests, to promote their country and their Olympics, and to spread propaganda. I call them delusional because they seem to actually believe that their government is doing nothing wrong in Tibet (or within China, for that matter). One of these events just happened in Salt Lake City. This one, just like the one in Madison, was most likely organized for the purpose of stealing attention from previously-planned, simultaneous Tibet rallies. I also have little doubt that the Chinese government is behind these events, providing organization, bussing in out-of-town Chinese students, and providing flags, other props, and talking points. As I've said before, if these students aren't going to take advantage of the opportunity of a free, uncensored society to learn about what really goes on in their country, then there's really not much point in us admitting them. This is especially true considering the massive amount of espionage and other nefarious activities these student undertake while here.

Did San Fran Kowtow to or Thwart China?

At first, I was pretty angry when I heard that San Francisco rerouted the Olympic torch at the last minute yesterday. I figured that city officials were kowtowing to China by preventing embarrassing protests like those that occurred in London and Paris. I thought maybe they were trying to appease the local Chinese population, or show solidarity with their fellow far-left wingers.

But then I read this story. It chronicles how well China was prepared for the torch stop. They bussed in Chinese people from around California and gave them flags and placards. These people then proceeded to swarm and shout down anyone in the crowd with a Tibetan flag. As C.W. Nevius described it:

Those inside the command center say city officials and Mayor Gavin Newsom watched the spectacle with growing concern. Although there was a brief scuffle with "Team Tibet" supporters around a bus early in the morning, the vast majority of the crowd was flag-waving China supporters. Sending the torch down those streets would have been like providing the Chinese government with a made-for-television commercial to show that hardly anyone in San Francisco - or North America - had any qualms about human rights abuses in China.

So maybe, rather than giving China their way, maybe San Fran moved the torch to prevent the aforementioned spectacle. Between the massive pro-China crowd and the goon squad that has been accompanying the torch around the world, China might just have been able to pull of the propaganda show on American soil that it appears they were going for. Maybe, for the first time ever, I need to give kudos to the city of San Francisco. It seems like this torch relay is bringing liberals and conservatives together like few things do.

I'm borrowing this rant from my brother-in-law, but on a related note, read this description from the NY Times of the thoughts of Chinese students in San Fran:

Hai Ming, 37, a Chinese student of civil engineering at University of California, Davis, about 70 miles east, had come to the torch ceremony on a bus chartered by the Chinese consulate.

Mr. Hai said he disagreed with Tibetan protesters who have flooded San Francisco this week. “I think they are crazy,” he said. “The Chinese people are very peaceful. They wouldn’t do what they are accused of.”

As the start of the relay approached, thousands were lining the route, and several scuffles broke out between pro- and anti-China forces. Near Justin Herman Plaza, where the closing ceremony was to have been held, protesters broke through barricades. Outside the stadium, pro-Chinese groups surrounded and taunted a small group of people holding a Tibetan flag, ripping the banner from their hands and chanting “Liar, liar, liar.”

As I understand it, one of the reasons we like to bring international students to America, besides the fact that diversity soooo enriches the collegiate experience, is to teach them about our country and our values. Well, our values aren't rubbing off on the Chinese too well, apparently. Despite the fact that they are out from under the censorship of their native land, they still seem to be in denial about how their government really operates. Do you think any of these students know about Tiananmen Square? Do you think any California universities have dared to tell them about it?