Watching the olympics?

[Phil Thien]

I'm watching when I can.

Heartbroken for the speed skaters, looks like the Under Armour suits that were supposed to make them faster may have made them slower.

I love watching any skiing, no way you'd get me to do ANY of that. 85-MPH downhill? The super slow motion showing the flex of the skis really makes me think that is somewhat controlled chaos.

During the downhill event they were superimposing two skiers on the screen showing where the leader was on the hill, in relation to the current skier. I think an interesting new even would be multiple skiers starting at the same time. I think it would be pretty exciting. Too risky in terms of injuries, though.

Not a big fan of the figure skating, but the wife and daughters seem to like it okay.

Sort of tired of all the spoilers on the radio/internet. Results are everywhere, without warning.

[Shawn Pixley]

I watch speedskating, LOML watches curling. In speedskating, I don't think the suits are the reason they performed as they did. It sounds like an excuse to me...

[Paul McGaha]

I was thinking the same thing Shawn.

If the difference between winning and losing can come down to the suits I would think the suits would have been well tested before they used them at the Olympics.

PHM

[Phil Thien]

There is an article (wire) in this morning's newspaper examining their performance issues. Lots of different theories. One was the fact that the skaters train on nearly perfect ice that glides well, and the Sochi ice isn't of the same caliber.

The problem is, these athletes compete in other non-Olympic events, and I'm sure they've competed on less than ideal ice, and they still excel.

Some of the athletes have indicated the suits were gotten to them very late, and are extremely tight.

Some skaters are switching to their old suits (the logos are being changed and the suits are being flown to Sochi). So it will be interesting to see how the skaters that use their old suits perform.

Oh, and another theory was that the U.S. skaters train at altitude, and that they should have trained in Milwaukee. But I believe training at altitude gives you an advantage. So...

I guess time will tell.

It is an interesting story.

I will say this, though: I don't like the idea of advanced suits that cannot be afforded by ALL athletes. If you're going to supply high-end suits to the U.S. athletes, I think they should be offered (for free) to athletes from other countries that would like to use them. Come-on, this is the Olympics, where are we going to play fair if not here?

This could be karma.

[Shawn Pixley]

Oh, and another theory was that the U.S. skaters train at altitude, and that they should have trained in Milwaukee. But I believe training at altitude gives you an advantage. So...


Training at alitude is a natural way to have a higher number of red blood cells that carry oxygen. Training at altitude is an advantage not a disadvantage. Training at low altitude and competing at high altitude is a big disadvantage. I agree with you that the uniform advantages should be shared with all the athletes.

Start rant...

I think a fair bit of this controversy is built be the NBC coverage. I really dislike the bias of the coverage. I really want to see the best atheletes regardless of their country. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoy it when an American wins.

In the men's long track 500 meters as an example, it seemed very clear that of the 40 skaters, there were 4-5 that were simply in another league. They diferentiated themselves in tenths of seconds from the pack that were clustered and diferentiating themselves in 100ths of a second. Every athlete there worked very hard to get there. Let's celebrate their journey. All of them are winners simply in being asked to compete. For the last ~20 years, I have complained directly to NBC around jingoist coverage. Don't start me on Bob Costa's coverage of Carl Lewis's running in the 4X100 relay (track) from years ago. The idea that an athlete who was faster than Carl and beat him to garner a position on the relay team should be bumped and denied his opportunity to compete for the gold just so an aging Carl Lewis could get another is patently wrong.

sorry, rant off on NBC's coverage.

[Bill McNiel]

Shawn,
I could not agree more with your "rant" more. My wife thinks I used a psudonym to post.

Add - KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE OLYMPICS!

[Jason Roehl]

I've given up on the Olympics not for the politics or the coverage--though those would certainly be considerations for me--but for what I understand goes on behind the scenes in the athletic villages after the athletes finish up their part of the competition. I won't post about it here, but you should be able to find out via Google if you truly want to know. I can't cheer for that.

[Phil Thien]

Shawn,
I could not agree more with your "rant" more. My wife thinks I used a psudonym to post.

Add - KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE OLYMPICS!

I agree with this as well. Nothing better than watching the face of any participant as they realize they've won a medal in their event. Those expressions are universal, they transcend boundaries.

[Roger Feeley]

The Olympics really illustrate the deficiencies in the user interface for my dvr. Some random thoughts:
1. I would very much like a web interface to my dvr that I can access through third party websites. The idea would be that I could schedule dvr recordings from a web site. My cable company would certainly provide something but I would also be able to schedule through things like Rotten Tomatoes.
2. I would very much like it if tv content providers would insert meta-information into the digital data stream. So, if I was a fan of Downtown Abbey, my dvr would watch for that meta information and record Downtown Abbey whenever it appears. My dvr sort of does that now but is dependent on a schedule published by my cable company. Sometimes that scheduling is 1 minute off and I miss the last of a show. Sometimes the schedule is just plain wrong.
More generally, I found it very difficult to schedule recordings of this Olympics because I found no really useful schedule. I was really interested in seeing the Luge relay (kind of a crazy thing, sounded like fun). Somehow I missed it. It would have been nice if I could have found the schedule for it that meshed with my cable lineup.

[Steve Wurster]

I've been doing most of watching via streaming, which means I've been watching most of it live. The NBC Olympics site is pretty good, and from what I understand a lot of cable providers are supported. I personally have Comcast, and so there is definitely no issue with watching NBC-based content. Every day you can see the list of events that will be shown live and at what times. It's then up to you to click on the appropriate link and enjoy the show.

Roger: Content providers do include metadata in the stream; it's your DVR that's the problem. I'm guessing yours is provided by your cable company. I have two TiVo units and absolutely love them.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Anyone else have this take? My daughter had recorded several nights coverage, so I watched a bit. The first thing was some snowboard popularity (freestyle something) contest, for at least 45 min, followed by a skiing showoff event for 45 mins, neither of which I care a whit about. The info said there was a ski race, which is what I wanted to see. I found it finally, all ten mins coverage of it. My personal tastes dislike anything that relies of judging. A competition should not rely on the imperfect system of judging IMHO, thats a popularity contest.

Apparently i'm in the minority though, so I just don't watch any of it. Oh, and the focus of US only athletes is irritating. I want to see the competition, if there are three Germans dominating the field, show it! One more thing, the US athletes they focused on for the first 1.5 hrs where the same prima dona group that the industry has been trying to make into a marketable product here for years. I'm tired of that crap, show us some real AMATUER athletes competing on a world stage.

Rant over...

[Shawn Pixley]

A competition should not rely on the imperfect system of judging IMHO, thats a popularity contest.

Apparently i'm in the minority though, so I just don't watch any of it. Oh, and the focus of US only athletes is irritating. I want to see the competition, if there are three Germans dominating the field, show it!
Rant over...

You're right with me. I maintain that there is a difference between sport and game. No event where the costume's aesthetics matter can be classified as a sport. Subjective judging is irrelevant in true sports IMO. Additionally, many things shown on "Sports Channels" are games. Poker is not a sport. Darts, billiards, and golf are not sports. They are Games. With those, can a person who is athletic have an edge? Absolutely! But there is no real athletic training required to be a participant. I have nothing against games. I play pool (9-ball and straight pool) and used to be on the state champion dart team. But I can't maintain that they are sports when I could be drinking a Guiness while participating. You can witness people who are not athletes participate in these games on a given day.

Rant off

[Brian Elfert]

I suspect if Olympic coverage for a USA audience wasn't biased towards USA athletes you would have just as many complaints about not showing enough USA athletes. NBC only shows about 2 1/2 hours of Olympics during prime time after commercials. Showing one hockey game could eat up 50% of the night's coverage. I imagine there are dozens of hours of events every day so NBC has to be very selective about what they show.

Still, there is plenty of blame to be placed on NBC for poor coverage. They waste a lot of time on athlete interviews and studio time with the host instead of showing actual events. They also certainly have plenty of commercials.

[Brian Elfert]

I'll never understand judging in figure skating. I'll watch a skater make all kinds of little bobbles and missteps in their routine and the judges give them a high score. Another skater will have what looks like a flawless routine and they get a very low score.

[Phil Thien]

Women's Snowboarding: Screaming multiple times as you've blown out your knee but you're still going over the jumps because you can't stop, is not fun to watch. Neither is watching a woman in mid-air scream because she knows she has twisted and won't land properly, only do land, crash, and knock herself unconscious. OMG.

[Rick Moyer]

You're right with me. I maintain that there is a difference between sport and game. No event where the costume's aesthetics matter can be classified as a sport. Subjective judging is irrelevant in true sports IMO. Additionally, many things shown on "Sports Channels" are games. Poker is not a sport. Darts, billiards, and golf are not sports. They are Games. With those, can a person who is athletic have an edge? Absolutely! But there is no real athletic training required to be a participant. I have nothing against games. I play pool (9-ball and straight pool) and used to be on the state champion dart team. But I can't maintain that they are sports when I could be drinking a Guiness while participating. You can witness people who are not athletes participate in these games on a given day.


Rant off
But Shawn, they're called The Olympic "Games"!:D

I know what you mean though. They're supposed to be the best athletes, and as such should require the best conditioning, not just a particular skill. However, if the Olympics was just the decathalon there wouldn't be very much to tune into. Money drives the bus, unfortunately.

[Prashun Patel]

Sport or game, I love that there are people who dedicate their life to something that gets almost no glory or money, and once every couple years they get a moment in the sun. Will they prevail, be bested, or choke? That tension is thrilling - whether it's bobsled, ice dancing, or the biathalon. I could watch any of it.

But as a parent, I do agree that it's scary that the Winter games are quickly becoming the X Games.

[Steve Wurster]

Regarding judging-based events: Figure Skating has been an official Olympic event since 1924.

[Bill Bukovec]

I tuned in one night. My first reaction was "When did the female figure skaters start wearing pants?" Oops. These are the men, never mind.

Then every one fell down during the routine and haven't watched since.

There are too many "made up " events just to fill 2 weeks of TV coverage.

I can look out my window and see winter events.

There is the giant slalom. (people driving to work), Luge (my 80 pound neighbor walking the 100 pound dog) and the snow plow ridge jump ( the hump of snow the snow plow leaves at the end of the driveway) and my favorite, the snow clump squirt. (It's an event for dogs) Precision, accuaray and color are all part of the judging.

[Jim Rimmer]

Start rant...I think a fair bit of this controversy is built be the NBC coverage. I really dislike the bias of the coverage. I really want to see the best atheletes regardless of their country. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoy it when an American wins.

It always seems like the USA athlete is SUPPOSED to win and if they don't then there has to be a good explanation as to why.

[Wes Mitchell]

I don't even waste my time on the "Primetime." Even watching on NBCSN and the other one is spotty with Comcast's description issues. I missed the end of the Russia/USA hockey game because I couldn't even find it. The best way to watch is On-Demand, at least on Comcast. Pick your sport and watch all you want.

[Lee Reep]

I missed a lot early. Unknowingly, I saw Bob Costas and thought I was watching "Night of the Living Dead". I immediately changed channels. Later, while watching coverage with my wife, I asked her who the guy was without the headress that looked like Yassar Arafat. It was Matt Lauer! Interesting games for sure...

[Roger Feeley]

My dvr is provided by my cable company. Are you saying that if 'The Good Wife' is delayed 30 minutes due to football, your Tivo still picks it up?

My cable company started out as Everest (local), got bought by SureWest which has been bought by someone else. There is still a very local vibe so I'm sticking with it. When I call support, I get someone right here in Kansas City. That's worth something.

[Gordon Eyre]

Just watched the gold medal round of curling between Great Britain and Sweden. The skill of the Brits was amazing. This was the only curling event that I watched but must say that it was pretty fun. The Winter Olympics are not my favorite.

[Steve Wurster]

Canada won gold in both the Men's and Women's curling matches.

[Steve Wurster]

No, a TiVo will not pick up a program that gets delayed due to a preceding program running long. A DVR that can detect the true start and end times of a program could do that, but that particular metadata is not part of any guide and might not even go beyond the main part of the cable plant. At a company I used to work for we were working on a network-based DVR that in theory could do that, because it was hooked into the systems at the cable plant that received the live program. But I don't know if our solution was looking at the metadata associated with the live program in that manner. I worked more on the scheduling side and not the actual recording side.

[Doug Garson]

Just watched the gold medal round of curling between Great Britain and Sweden. The skill of the Brits was amazing. This was the only curling event that I watched but must say that it was pretty fun. The Winter Olympics are not my favorite.
I think you are mistaken, Canada won the gold medal in both men's and women's curling. But yes the skill at that level is incredible.

[Don Morris]

I have been really ill with an ugly upper respiratory virus requiring multiple ER visits. So I've had the time to watch a lot of Olympics and was even too sick to watch some of the time. The worst thing that just didn't appeal to me was the re-hash of the Kerrigan/Harding incident of 20 years ago. They spent a lot of time on something that was/should have been long ago, last discussed at any length. We won some, we lost some...that's why we play the game. The women's hockey final was amazing. Felt soooo bad for our girls. Next time... However, it looks like we found a replacement for Lindsey Vonn. That'll keep Tiger busy.