Olympics - what are you watching?

Canoe slalom is on right now - I like this!

I'm looking forward to catching some handball also. 

Here's the schedule:

https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule

I watched the opening ceremony a couple of nights ago and it was spectacular.   It was at night and they did a globe made with I think they said 1,800 drones with lights.  It was high in the air above the stadium and the globe rotated showing all the continents and landmasses.   Amazing.      

That was pretty amazing!

Whichever country hosts the next Olympics will have to do something more amazing in the "can you top this?" opening ceremonies competition of the last few decades.   Already looking forward to it.  But I am also a fan of more traditional ceremonies.   If the country cannot top the Japanese techno stuff, a large choir with good songs will be just fine with me.  

I watched the 200-mile road race the other night until I could not stay awake.  It ended around 4:00am EST. Something about this long race was consistently interesting.  I like women's softball (US vs. Japan on right now.) since I am still coaching on a local men's team. Last week after the game, we did some practice at-bats against a woman who is pitching for a college team.   Full wind up and very challenging and I think she could strike us all out if she wanted.  

I'm skipping it.  The protesters are right.

How’s the coverage? Is all the live stuff on cable/subscription  channels again, withNBC showing 4 hours of highlights featuring mostly human interest stories about the US athletes and leaving out everything the US wasn’t in that day? Again?

I watched for the first time yesterday after the Met game.   The Mens triathlon was on.  They seemed to show the whole thing in real time.  I have to confess that I found the swimming leg to be boring, especially since they were showing a lot of it from a distance.  It looked like a wake from a big school of fish.   Some stuff is just not exciting to watch.  I appreciate the athleticism and work but with long distance races of various kinds, how is the middle exciting or entertaining?  It can be exciting at the end but how exciting is it to watch people running in the middle of a long distance race?   

bub said:

I watched for the first time yesterday after the Met game.   The Mens triathlon was on.  They seemed to show the whole thing in real time.  I have to confess that I found the swimming leg to be boring, especially since they were showing a lot of it from a distance.  It looked like a wake from a big school of fish.   Some stuff is just not exciting to watch.  I appreciate the athleticism and work but with long distance races of various kinds, how is the middle exciting or entertaining?  It can be exciting at the end but how exciting is it to watch people running in the middle of a long distance race?   

 I don’t know, why do they show all the innings in baseball?

I caught the end on the women's roadrace that was very exciting.  

https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/olympic-games-2021/women-s-road-race/results/

Yes, nightly coverage will be USA centric, but with 5,000 hours of streaming content it might be hard to cover everything.  I have xfinity, I think you can get most of it through your dvr.

kramer said:

I caught the end on the women's roadrace that was very exciting.  

https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/olympic-games-2021/women-s-road-race/results/

Yes, nightly coverage will be USA centric, but with 5,000 hours of streaming content it might be hard to cover everything.  I have xfinity, I think you can get most of it through your dvr.

 I don’t have cable or Peacock, so no olympics for me.

yeah - guess you can buy access or borrow a friend's cable login.  oh well.

ridski said:

 I don’t know, why do they show all the innings in baseball?

 Or why show a whole soccer match when is usually ends 1-0?

jamie said:

 Or why show a whole soccer match when is usually ends 1-0?

 Exactly. If all you care about is the result, the sport itself will seem boring.

I understand it’s star-studded basketball, but rerunning the U.S.-France game — twice — took up huge blocks of time on NBC and NBCSN that I would have rather gone to other coverage.

In the meantime, Telemundo was a welcome alternative for different events (women’s volleyball and synchronized diving, for two) that don’t have a Team USA focus or involve skateboards. For someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, even the athlete profiles had a certain silent-movie-like appeal.

Fair question Ridski.  I like these 7 inning games that they re playing in double headers this year.  Stretches of team sports can be boring.  But there are variations and possibilities of different, sudden dramatic plays from moment to moment.  Soccer, although, very low scoring, is fun to watch because of the almost chess like way teams move the ball around (and I'm not a big fan or frequent watcher).  If you tune into a marathon in the middle, you are basically watching guys run for a long stretch of time. I know they re "doing things" - positioning here and there with a view towards the finish - but to the eye, they're still just running.  

I love team volleyball - men's and women's. It's such a fast game requiring strength and coordination and it thrives on teamwork. It's the ultimate teamwork game.  And man, they can jump. Very exciting game to watch.. I used to play a bit. Until my feet gave out. 

Women's Beach Volleyball is fun to watch, too. Love those bathing suits. 

I watched the women's triathlon from start to finish. Very impressive. 

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

Women's Beach Volleyball is fun to watch, too. Love those bathing suits. 

You may love them but, for some of the athletes, not so much.

Norwegian women's beach handball team fined for not playing in bikinis

Some people have associated this incident with an unusual streak of racist and sexist memes (the women's swim cap fiasco for example) at this years games but I suspect these issues have always been there, what is new is that people are finally paying attention to them.

Between the racism, sexism, corruption and, this year, blatant disregard for human life, I think it is clear that the Olympics need to radically transform themselves if they are to continue to serve any purpose whatsoever.

Beach volleyball is great.

3 on 3 basketball was pretty cool too.  I just love the variety.  Caught some table tennis last night as well.

Handball - here's one highlight vid:

This years Olympics certainly are a PR mess in the United States.  I would be interested to see the view from other nations.

One thing really stands out.  In 1964, Tokyo was deemed to be too hot in August so they moved the games to October.  In 2021, when Tokyo is somewhat hotter in August than in 1964, they determined that network viewership trumps concerns about the athletes.

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

I love team volleyball - men's and women's. It's such a fast game requiring strength and coordination and it thrives on teamwork. It's the ultimate teamwork game.  And man, they can jump. Very exciting game to watch.. I used to play a bit. Until my feet gave out. 

Women's Beach Volleyball is fun to watch, too. Love those bathing suits. 

I watched the women's triathlon from start to finish. Very impressive. 

The power and precision in volleyball is really something, even in non-Olympic settings. Women’s volleyball gets higher ratings on the Big Ten Network than anything but football and men’s basketball. Some schools regularly draw crowds exceeding 5,000 for matches.

I am planning on watching beach bicycle racing and pool fencing tonight.  

I should have been alliterative:   pool ping pong.    great sport.

watch the Fiji men's rugby team all singing their national anthem.   A great moment in sports.  

The long-distance 1500 and 800 m swims have a certain fascination.   

Pole vaulting is also very cool.  If you have ever pole vaulted, you know the split second when your feet are going up and you are upside down and then you do a 180 degree turn.  It is almost like you are weightless for a split second.   

Lots of other sports are like this.  For example when runners or swimmers almost literally fly down the pool or track.  Not to mention gymnasts.   Dancers feel this way when they are perfectly in step.   I know I am waxing philosophical, but sports is really cool.   

Finished watching the Men’s Discus finals this morning.  Tremendous effort by Jersey’s own Sam Mattis, the only American in the finals.  Paris 2024 !