Olympic Games

[rthomas]

Watch a few minutes sports, get 6 commercials; Watch a few minutes sports, get 6 commercials; Watch washed up announcer talk to football commentator; Watch football commentator present a heart warming story about athlete or athlete's family, get six commercials; Watch a few minutes sports, get 6 commercials.

Repeat ad infinitum.
Repeat ad nauseam.

[hurleyfor3]

Hey, when nbc screws up, at least it slips in a Duke reference. Did anyone else catch Costas referring to his partner as Chris Collins?

[BlueDevilBaby]

I had to laugh because at the beginning of that segment the reporter mentioned how 90% of the people who live in Canada live between their border and ours. Say what?!

Mary forgot the "miles" part.

[Mal]

Johnson won in Sarajevo, not Calgary.

Noted, thanks. Was that the Olympics where the U.S. won like a third of the skiing medals (including a Mahre brothers gold-silver)?

My broader point I think remains.

[Tom B.]

Noted, thanks. Was that the Olympics where the U.S. won like a third of the skiing medals (including a Mahre brothers gold-silver)?

The U.S. won 5 of the (I think) 18 available Alpine skiing medals at Sarajevo:

Bill Johnson -- gold, men's downhill

Phil Mahre -- gold, men's slalom

Steve Mahre -- silver, men's slalom

Debbie Armstrong -- gold, women's giant slalom

Cristin Cooper -- silver, women's giant slalom

[JasonEvans]

Snowboard Cross is one of the great sports added to the Olympics in the past 30 years, right? That stuff is awesome!! I sorta wish they would have 5 or 6 guys racing at one time... more wrecks!!

I agree that Moguls rocks. I also enjoy the Snowboard half-pipe. Love me some Flying Tomato!

--Jason "compare these sports to speed skating... puh-lease!" Evans

[sue71, esq]

All kidding aside, how many Winter Olympic sports were there before the addition of the "X Games" type events?

1. Figure Skating (x4- M/W singles, pairs, ice dance)
2. Speed Skating (long track, x?- multiple distances/relays)
3. Hockey (Men's)
4. Skiing (x?- downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super g, and I think there's more I can't remember)
5. Cross Country Skiing (x?- multiple distances/relays)
6. Biathalon
7. Ski Jumping

What am I missing?

[hurleyfor3]

Also bobsled/luge, although women's luge was added only a few Games ago, and skeleton is definitely an X sport.

Don't knock the X sports too much; they were added so that Americans would have more things to win medals in. The ioc knows damn well who bankrolls it.

For skiing you may be forgetting "alpine combined" which is downhill + slalom. Ski jumping is lumped in with "Nordic sports" which includes biathlon and nordic combined (ski jumping + xc). There are events on two different "hills" in ski jumping, plus a team event.

[sue71, esq]

Thanks for the clarification. I definitely forgot bobsled & luge, as well as some of the combined events.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the X events at all. They're great to watch and those athletes are on the edge of crazy! (BTW, the uproar over the pants width is too funny! Not wide enough?!?) It just seemed that the number of events almost doubled with the addition of the X events, even if they appear to be geared toward North America.

[Mal]

Don't knock the X sports too much; they were added so that Americans would have more things to win medals in. The ioc knows damn well who bankrolls it.

I tend to knock them every chance I get, for precisely that reason. Call me an old fuddy duddy. I don't have a huge issue with the halfpipe, although I think having it judged (which encourages conservatism) sort of goes against the spirit of strapping on a snowboard to take on a halfpipe in the first place. I do have an issue with boardercross. Personally, I think more than a couple thousand people in the world should regularly participate in an activity before it rises to the level of Olympic medal sport. This was made up as an exhibition thing less than 20 years ago, wasn't competitive in the least before the X Games and was inserted into the Olympics 5 years later. That's kind of silly. Not that the history of the Olympics isn't filled with other examples of the organizers hoping something would catch on through their endorsement of it, and promoting it prematurely.

Was JE being sarcastic upthread? I couldn't tell.

[DevilAlumna]

All kidding aside, how many Winter Olympic sports were there before the addition of the "X Games" type events?

1. Figure Skating (x4- M/W singles, pairs, ice dance)
2. Speed Skating (long track, x?- multiple distances/relays)
3. Hockey (Men's)
4. Skiing (x?- downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super g, and I think there's more I can't remember)
5. Cross Country Skiing (x?- multiple distances/relays)
6. Biathalon
7. Ski Jumping

What am I missing?

How could you forget CURLING!?!?

[sue71, esq]

How could you forget CURLING!?!?

D'oh!

[sue71, esq]

I just posted this as my status on FB:

Wow, Stephane Lambiel. Great short program. A few bobbles, but the best choreography so far.

[JasonEvans]

I do have an issue with boardercross. Personally, I think more than a couple thousand people in the world should regularly participate in an activity before it rises to the level of Olympic medal sport. This was made up as an exhibition thing less than 20 years ago, wasn't competitive in the least before the X Games and was inserted into the Olympics 5 years later. That's kind of silly. Not that the history of the Olympics isn't filled with other examples of the organizers hoping something would catch on through their endorsement of it, and promoting it prematurely.

Was JE being sarcastic upthread? I couldn't tell.

Nope, I think it looks like a fun sport. So it is not old and does not have a lot of tradition, big deal? I like watching it and that is the bottom line for me.

I agree that the X-games sports seem somewhat geared toward competitors from the US and Canada, but why is there something wrong with that? Is there something wrong with the Olympics including sports that are clearly geared toward Asian competitors like pink pong, badminton, and the martial arts?

Now, if the Olympics starts including football, that may be going too far. Who would win the silver? Canada, right? What about the bronze?

--Jason "how much must it suck to be Jeremy Abbott and have the most important moment of your life be a total flop?" Evans

[allenmurray]

I've alwasy felt that most folks consider the summer olympics the "real" olympics and the winter an "add-on". A shame, really but it does seem to be the perception.

The summer games have almost too many events in too short a period of time.

I've found myself wondering if some of the summer events couldn't be moved to the winter olympics. There are a lot of summer events that are not bound by having good outdoor weather. Boxing, swimming and diving (which despite their summertime connotations are exclusively indoor events), weightlifting, wrestling, and others could all be done in either the winter or summer. Would moving some of them add variety to the winter olympics? "Uncrowd" the summer games? Would it help viewership?

I'm just curious as to others' thoughts on this.

[hurleyfor3]

I like the winter games more. They always seem more intimate and less politically charged. The summer games almost have to be in big cities due to their scale, with each one trying to outdo the last. Also, at least with Americans, there are always athletes going into the summer games with huge expectations that you don't quite see in the winter games.

I don't think any events need to be moved. The winter games have the advantage from an American teevee perspective of occuring during February sweeps, and having a sport (figure skating) that holds wide appeal to women. When the the summer games take place most of us would rather be outside. There's already wall-to-wall winter olympics on teevee, and it's got plenty of marquee events; I don't think putting weightlifting on instead of curling would matter.

Also, a winter olympic sport "needs" to employ snow or ice. Or at least a "we can't play that sport right now because it's too warm" vein.

I've heard talk of moving basketball to the winter games over the years, but now that pros are in the olympics and everyone good plays in the nba this is a dead issue.

[Mal]

Nope, I think it looks like a fun sport. So it is not old and does not have a lot of tradition, big deal? I like watching it and that is the bottom line for me.

I agree that the X-games sports seem somewhat geared toward competitors from the US and Canada, but why is there something wrong with that? Is there something wrong with the Olympics including sports that are clearly geared toward Asian competitors like pink pong, badminton, and the martial arts?

Now, if the Olympics starts including football, that may be going too far. Who would win the silver? Canada, right? What about the bronze?

--Jason "how much must it suck to be Jeremy Abbott and have the most important moment of your life be a total flop?" Evans

I liked watching the obstacle course on the old Superstars shows growing up, but that doesn't mean it should be an Olympic medal event.

I don't have any issue at all with various Olympic pursuits being more popular in some countries than in others. In fact, I like it. It gives the games a lot more flavor. Not all nations can devote the resources to building medal contending teams in every sport imaginable. So I'm cool with sports that probably appeal to Americans and Canadians more than others, just as I'm fine with badminton and handball and water polo and other things the U.S. comparatively doesn't care about. Millions and millions of people around the world are competitive in those sports, even if they're ignored here.

It's the invention of sports out of the blue for TV purposes, then elevating them to the Olympic pedestal before there's any actual grassroots popularity built up that bothers me (a bit - I don't mean to sound all high horse here, none of this is a huge deal to me). I'd rather the boardercross grew to the point it was a legitimate sport with a legitimate following, independent of the world of television production, before the winners of its races got the same gold medals as those who have been cross-country skiing since the age of 5. It kind of demeans the winners in the other sports, I guess.

It would certainly be interesting to see football in the Olympics! I'd put my money on Australia being able to cobble together a decent team out of rugby/Aussie rules players, if they could just find a quarterback.

allenmurray, interesting idea. Swimming would be a big boost. You could throw basketball in there, as well - I mean, it is primarily played October-March. That would certainly draw in countries like Spain and Argentina that probably couldn't care less about the current Winter Olympics.

The only problem is that a critical component to everything in the Winter Olympics isn't the indoors factor or not being dependent on warm weather, but that they all involve either ice or snow. None of the suggested inclusions do, so you would potentially dilute the current product somewhat.

Personally, I like the Winter Olympics far more than the Summer, due to the smallish nature, and the predominance of sports that generally no one outside of snow country cares about. That's just personal preference, though.

[allenmurray]

Also, a winter olympic sport "needs" to employ snow or ice.

The only problem is that a critical component to everything in the Winter Olympics isn't the indoors factor or not being dependent on warm weather, but that they all involve either ice or snow.

I'm not a big fan of boxing, but if they did it on ice I'd watch!

More seriously, it is not that I think the winter olympics need anything else as much as I think the summer olympics are overloaded. A shift of some sports might allow summer to get rid of some of the overload without having to eliminate sports. My favorite part of the olympics is being able to watch sports that you never see at any other time. Thus, it is the minor sports that I find most enjoyable about the olympics, and they seem to get crowded out in the summer.

[cato]

It's the invention of sports out of the blue for TV purposes, then elevating them to the Olympic pedestal before there's any actual grassroots popularity built up that bothers me (a bit - I don't mean to sound all high horse here, none of this is a huge deal to me).

I see your point, to an extent, but the only reason that boardercross interests anyone in the first place is because of the grassroots explosion in the popularity of snowboarding. It's not like they just invented a sport out of thin air. The elements are taken from the exact thing that thousands of people are doing every day during winter -- bombing down the mountain, trying to go faster than their buddy.

How do you feel about the mogul competition? Once again, that is a new event drawn more from real experiences on the mountain, instead of the vast popularity of the competitive mogul circuit. When I was a kid, I spent a couple winters on a ski team at a local resort. Everyone on the team spent more time on the slopes fooling around in the bumps than practicing slalom.

[hc5duke]

i hate how difficult it is to figure out what time different events are on, with the dvr just showing "winter olympics"... i didn't have time to watch the games yesterday and couldn't record curling because my puny dvr can't handle an entire day's worth of games.

though i guess i could have looked up the time and recorded that segment.