[Heccubus]

Tonight, during one of the balance beam routines, they had this featurette about this one American who, at Sydney, did the unthinkable: Had her foot slip!! They made it seem like this huge tradgedy and I just didn't get it.

Depending on how she fell after her foot slipped, that could be extremely tragic. And painful. In the "down there" way.

[Stongbah]

She didn't even fall. Half of her foot had slipped off the beam.

[Despondent]

ok well, I do agree for the most part. the games suck, and the crowds translate the games as loser activites to the masses. I really used to watch, especially in '96 and the winter games. Having AN olympics every 2 years took away a lot. And its so past becoming commercial, and tainted. I thought the opening ceremonies were pretty good. Then I heard of someone TiVO'ing it down into 20 minutes of enduretainment, and felt a little shafted.

And yes track and field rocks. Hit the duck with the javelin and earn bonus points.

[Laura]

While I don't mind the olympics-- and I think whoever was bitching about how long distance runners are no good because they can't sprint is sour-grapesing-- I think it's dumb how they're covered here in the US of A.

Events with no American athletes are rarely covered or even mentioned. I've seen several events with one American athlete in second place, and the American is showered with praise, glory, interviews, information, heart-wrenching featurettes, etc., while the first place winner is pretty much ignored. It's largely the same if the American is in seventh place, but the first place winner is usually at least acknowledged there; and heven forbid they even mention the name of the second-place winner if the American is in third. In team sports, featurettes are usually about a "rivalry" between the Americans and some other team, and filled with blatantly anti-non-American speech about how wonderful it will be if the Americans beat them. Also, when watching team gymnastics-- where one person does each event alone but the scores are totalled for the team-- American athletes would be described using their names, e.g. "Carly Patterson is good at the balance beam," or "Annia Hatch is good at the vault," whereas with other teams, we'd get sentences like "Romanians are good at the uneven bars" or "Ukrainians have the desire to win." Like if you're not American, you don't deserve to have an identity beyond your nationality. Hey, NBC! The Chinese gymnasts are individuals too! And that Zhang Nan is really cute. Also the German volleyball player (regular, not beach) with the red hair. They are Olympic Cuties! WHERE IS THEIR DUE!

[SimeSublime]

Don't worry, its the same here but for Australians. Although SBS claimed to show the olympics without national bias, I haven't watched it as like I mentioned above, I'm not really a fan.

[Chyld]

My experience of the Olympics:

Scene: Pub in France
Cast: Me, my brother, two girls we spectacularly failed to even talk to.
Script: We went to the pub, couldn't muster the nerve to talk to two girls we liked the look of, and watched the event with all the girls doing massive somersults in the air. The end.

[Heccubus]

That story would've been better if it was the two girls at the pub doing massive somersaults, and not the ones on TV.

[A Mighty Pirate]

I personally like the olympics.