JediDefender.com Forums

Community => JD Sports Forum! => Topic started by: Matt_Fury on July 28, 2012, 11:13 AM

Title: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Matt_Fury on July 28, 2012, 11:13 AM
Who's watching what?

I'll watch the swim events when I can as well as track & field.  Hard to do without spoilers because NBC's coverage is horrendous!
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Rob on July 28, 2012, 12:09 PM
My wife is obsessed with the Olympics.  So even though I rarely sit down to tune in, I see a ton of it.  We've got cycling on right now.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: McMetal on July 28, 2012, 05:17 PM
I'm sorta geeked, because I like that there is stuff on at all hours seemingly. Watched the US Women stomp Colombia in soccer earlier today, that was fun.

Our neighbor's sister is competing in the javelin event, so we def have a rooting interest there.

WTF was up with that opening ceremony by the way? That was the most incomprehensible mess I've ever witnessed, I literally had no idea what I was watching for most of it.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Nicklab on July 28, 2012, 07:14 PM
Who's watching what?

I'll watch the swim events when I can as well as track & field.  Hard to do without spoilers because NBC's coverage is horrendous!

We're in an age of social media, and there's a 6 hour time difference from the UK to the Eastern Time Zone.  There were bound to be spoilers on some of these events.  Millions of people in Europe were live tweeting during the opening ceremony yesterday.  Almost all of the surprise was lost.

What's the alternative?  Air the events live when people are asleep?  Or expect the audience to get up early so that they can watch the Shotput competition at 5 AM?  The events that are in primetime in the UK are something that people in the US could watch live, but you would probably lose a lot of the audience.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a US broadcaster that could provide Olympic content on so many different platforms, too.  Just doing some channel surfing, I was able to find Olympic coverage on 6 channels that are on basic cable.  And I think there's web content for some of the lesser seen events, too.  I think ABC/ESPN are the only other network groups that could offer anywhere near the programming.  In their case I think I've got about 4 or 5 networks on my cable that are under that Disney/ABC/ESPN umbrella.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Paul on July 29, 2012, 12:09 AM
My love/hate relationship with the Olympics...

I will watch just about any competition that they will air (live or memorex) that is an objectively measurable test of skill, speed. point scoring or ability.

If it involves crossing the finish line first, scoring the most points by hitting a target or putting a ball in a net, etc. then I will sit mesmerized for hours.

If it involves "judges", I don't care how athletic the competitors, it is mere exhibition and a waste of air-time.   I don't care if a "judge" from xyz country has it in for the "athletes" from abc country or if somebody fell down during 'warm ups' while worrying about their dog that was recently diagnosed with an undescended testicle that may require a fund-raiser, hours of prayer, perhaps a protest or two and 2 hours of commentators in near tears over the whole ordeal.

I don't mean that to diminish the athleticism that the Gymnists and Synchronized smimmers and "Ice dancers" all obviously possess and yes I am sitting on my couch and not wathcing these while on the treadmill (so I am sure they are more fit than me), but if I am watching a competition it needs to be measurable and quatitative.  Other than that it is really just a bake sale.  I mean why not award a medal for opening Ceremony Entrance?  It seems like the USOC would try to make sure the "Biggest crowd" was a medal event as well as "most camera phones per capita"...as long as it was not a "class" competition it would be one more set of medals the 'mericuns' could act like we were entitled to. (And don't get me wrong I am a dyed in the wool patriot, I just think acting like we win the most medals cuz we are the best in a bit insincere, we enter the most events and I don't find it sporting to "Scoreboard" Grenada or Haiti if we win more medals than they do with their single entrant in the entire games)

My proposal... for Gymnastics... see who can do the most flips in a minute... or who can hang on to the rings the longest or for synchronized swimming, who can hold their breath the longest.

Let us not forget the "mythical" history of the Olympics, they were traditionally intended to be in many cases a test of martial skill, so that warring nations could basically have a dick measuring competition without killing each other and form alliances. (Measuring, not judging...again very objective).

I love the pagentry, the fact that many nations of the world attend and that no matter how heated the competition, they shake hands and for the most part respect their competitors.

I do miss the Cold War though, when there were "Evil Empires"...

So watching yes... changing channels frequently yes, I'm even setting the DVR to catch the good competitions while I am watching others.

Most interested in the shooting sports and track and field.  There is a Texas Tech Red Raider throwing the discus, so I will be cheering him on.

I watched Women's Handball today too, that was a different sport I've never seen before.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Spirit of MAC on July 29, 2012, 03:24 AM
If it involves "judges", I don't care...

Well said.  I used to love watching a lot of those judged Olympic sports over the years, but the BS that goes on within and "behind-the-scenes" of each one of them (including the Winter games) has just become too aggravating to invest my time and fandom in anymore.  I usually go into each new Olympics telling myself to take it little easier on the Medal Tracker watching, but somehow I always find myself getting dragged back in.  Then I get thoroughly annoyed with the U.S. team if we're not leading in the gold and total medal counts, as if it's some god-given right for us to do so, which it is obviously not.  It seems the rest of the world is really catching up and/or surpassing the U.S. in many of these sports now (like swimming today).  Maybe they all work harder than we do now, while our athletes (and fans, like me) are getting too arrogant/spoiled/coddled/distracted/entitled/etc.  Or maybe I've just lost the proper understanding of the Olympic Spirit in my old age!

I'm still wondering if McCartney really choked up from emotion at the beginning of Hey Jude last night in the opening ceremonies as the media's suggesting, or if he just temporarily couldn't kick his vocals into high gear at his age.  Hopefully it was just a case of the former, though watching it, it seemed sadly more like the latter.  At least he finished relatively strong.  Pretty good ceremonies, and the James Bond/Queen bit was amusing, but it was definitely lacking the WOW factor of Beijing's performance (as expected).  Hopefully the Brit's weather cooperates over the next couple of weeks though, or we could be in for some less than stellar competitions.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: JediJman on July 29, 2012, 07:59 AM
Must be disappointing for GB to walk away with zero medals thus far, especially as the host.  We watched a little swimming and gymnastics yesterday. There really isn't a BAD performer in any of these - it is amazing what some of these people can do.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Paul on July 29, 2012, 08:34 AM
If it involves "judges", I don't care...

 "behind-the-scenes" of each one of them (including the Winter games) has just become too aggravating to invest my time and fandom in anymore. 

You will have to come back in 2 years (and of  course enjoy the JD.com community until then) to hear my Winter Games rant... it gets worse.....

I'm so used to JediJman posting in the NFL thread, I read GB as "Green Bay".... and thought he was just poking the packer fans with a stick.

Men's Handball right now.  It appears there is are 3 rec-league handball courts played on local indoor soccer fields within 15 miles of the house.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: P-Siddy on July 29, 2012, 11:00 AM
I thought Sir Paul was off for most of "Hey Jude."  As they showed the crowd (usually the Americans), they didn't seem too enthralled to hear a legend.  I'm sure their parents would have been more ecstatic than they.  Plus, they didn't even seem to know the words.  I guess they needed the Spice Girls in order for it to be classic for them.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Scott on July 29, 2012, 11:50 AM
I read a few weeks ago about how Twitter is showing the world how the younger generation has no idea who Paul McCartney or the Beatles are.  Same goes for other old acts like The BeeGees etc
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Paul on July 29, 2012, 04:51 PM
Maybe if he had sex with a Kardashian on a grainy video he would get more "cred"...
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: McMetal on July 29, 2012, 06:38 PM
Maybe if he had sex with a Kardashian on a grainy video he would get more "cred"...

Ugh, he'd probably just try to marry her so he can give ANOTHER half of his fortune away.

Great artist, stupid as hell about relationships.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Paul on July 29, 2012, 07:45 PM
Why do the Team USA warm ups look like Carharts?

I thought it was just the "Shooting Sports" but I saw another one of the USA medal winners wearing them as well.....

Maybe the Foreign company that made them for us was given the wrong info?....Not blaming them, blaming the USOC.....
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Matt_Fury on July 31, 2012, 01:09 AM
I have a degree in Applied Mathematics anc can't figure out how they score gymnastics!  Remember not so long ago when the best someone could do was a 10...hence the phrase a perfect 10?  Now 13 and change is a bad score!  WTF? 

The announcers are even better...some dude will fall flat on their face/ass and the announcer will talk about how bad it is then when they event is done, turn around and say how that was that person's best performance!  Then why the hell is that person on the Olympic team?!

BTW Nick, I understand how timezones work and that most of the NBC cable networks are showing events all day.  However, they are not showing the more popular events (swimming, gymnastics, etc) live.  Back in the 80's and 90's this wasn't so bad, but in the era of the internet, NBC needs to adapt.  Why not have these events online?  Or show them live then have a recap during primetime when there are no events going on?  NBC sports coverage is just bad to begin with...look at how poorly they covered the Superbowl this past year...they rushed and cut off most of the post game interviews so they could rush to air a show no one wanted to watch anyway.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Phrubruh on July 31, 2012, 09:39 PM
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/phruby/queen.jpg)
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Nicklab on August 1, 2012, 02:07 PM
BTW Nick, I understand how timezones work and that most of the NBC cable networks are showing events all day.  However, they are not showing the more popular events (swimming, gymnastics, etc) live. 

Yes, you understand timezones, but not television programming.  NBC appears to be saving the events with the higher level of interest for prime time when they can reach the maximum number of viewers.  And that has to do with the finances of them buying the broadcast rights for the Olympics.  They HAVE to show some of it tape delayed and in prime time in order to collect those ad dollars that help finance an incredibly expensive broadcast operation like the Olympics.

Right now, there are at least 4 networks with coverage airing RIGHT NOW.  Do you think if NBC was airing a swimming event that anyone would be watching Water Polo, Boxing, Fencing or Tennis which are all on right now?  Probably not.  In fact, it would probably hurt the ratings of those other events. 

Is the internet going to spoil some of those results for some?  Absolutely.  But not for everyone.  And that's probably because the casual viewers aren't so wrapped up in the games that they're going online to find out the results.  It's a very calculated risk.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Brian on August 1, 2012, 08:57 PM
I actually get into the Olympics quite a bit, particularly the summer ones.  It is sort of like "March Madness" time for college hoops, this once a year time (or in this case, four years) where there is nothing but sports on basically all day.  Plus, with the whole "country spirit" and everything involved, it makes a lot of things more interesting.

This year, there is a girl who grew up about five miles from me that is on the women's volleyball team.  It is a pretty big deal in the area where I'm from, so that's made that more interesting as well.  I'm always into the basketball....and have been watching everything from volleyball/beach volleyball, swimming, gymnastics, diving, tennis, etc.  The whole family sort of gets into it.  I do sort of get what some people say about "scored" events with judges like gymnastics or diving, I get annoyed with that as well.  Particularly when there is this athlete who can do all these amazing things, and then make a small "extra step" or something and the announcer immediately is like "ooooooh" in a tone like they just lost a family member.  Otherwise, really enjoy watching the games.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Paul on August 3, 2012, 08:31 AM
Without making this too "pit worthy", my favorite part of the games so far happened today.

The Saudi Female who competed in the Judo match today is a story I would suffer through during prime time.  Even if she got beat in less than a minute and half.

A young lady who wants to compete and went against bigger "odds" than just getting to the gym.  She was a blue belt and went against black belts, fearlessly.  That is the Olympic Spirit and it looked like everybody there supported her.

I will let you guys debate whether it was right to make a concession for her Hajib and all the other politicized aspects of it in the cesspool, ER uh Slime pit, Sarlaac Pit.

And if it turns out she and her parents did this for pure personal attention then I will be disappointed, as it stands though I say yay.
Title: Re: 2012 Summer Olympics
Post by: Paul on August 4, 2012, 11:26 AM
Ok Trampoline is an Olympic Sport?  With Judges even. 

This would be more interesting if it was again a measurable (objective standard).

Maybe it should be who can bounce the highest or farthest.  Not whether the Judge from Papua New Guinea thinks your flips and "preacher seats" are better than the competitor's from some other country.   And since it is a solo sport there is no chance for the Double Bounce.