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How is this different from how any other sport is treated these days? Or ever, really?
Watch a baseball game aat some point. The statisticians run out of things to talk about to the point that they give different earned run averages for boxers vs briefs...
The amount of gold medals won seems to me to correlate inversely to quality of life in a country. Say what you will about torture, it works brilliantly to produce elite sportsmen.
It annoys me because that isn't the point of the Olympics...
There's a point to the Olympics?
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Oh yes. The fattest, most bloated, most corrupt media circus that ever traveled through innocent little towns and huge cities alike, and wrecked them for the foreseeable future, the big cities through a massive proliferation of security cameras, the little towns because there is simply nothing left from before, all in the service of getting the big international high rollers in the IOC, whose morals make Jabba the Hutt look like a paladin, as much money as humanly possible.
And you thought there was no point???
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@OP if it wasn't intended to be pointless nationalistic pissing contest, why bother to identify the athletes by their nationality at all?
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The annoying parts of the US media coverage of the Olympics
That Bob Costas just had pinkeye, and wasn't Patient Zero for the Zombiepocalypse.
All of this is IMHO of course.
I don't know if this is true in other countries, but anytime I see or hear US media coverage of the Olympics, I am informed of which "place" the US is on "medal count". The US media treat the Olympics like a horse race, as if the point of the Olympics is taking home more medals than any other country. As if we somehow "win" should that happen.
It annoys me because that isn't the point of the Olympics, which is individual and team performance and competition. But it also annoys me because it falls apart on analysis. Even if the US ends up with more medals than Norway and the Netherlands...considering that the US has 60X more population than Norway and 18X more population than the Netherlands, exactly who is putting in the more impressive performance?
Remarkably, things have improved from the Cold War days, when the US and the Soviet Union treated the whole thing as a statement about who had the "superior" system. As if the amount of gold medals your "side" wins is somehow a metric for quality of life, infant mortality, personal freedoms, etc, etc, etc...
The medal count, is a hold over from the when the Soviet Union first started attending the Olympics in the '50s. Since it was a US vs USSR in all things, the media started keeping track of which country was getting more medals. Before this it was more about person that won the medal.
It should be noted that, before the Soviet Union started attending the Olympics, the rivalry between nations didn't exist and the Olympics were about world peace.
The Cold War stopped that.
Disclaimer: The above is a gross oversimplification. Please do not think it is factually accurate in anything more than the most general way.
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I think what annoys me is how, in some events, both the commentators and the athletes act like getting anything other than the gold is so shameful. It brightens my spirits substantially when an athelete wins the silver or bronze and actually seems happy and excited about it.
It's also not as bad now as it has been in the last, but I don't care to hear about the athletes sob stories. Especially when, in regards to the previous point, the sob story is that they are only the SECOND best in the world at something.
I think what annoys me is how, in some events, both the commentators and the athletes act like getting anything other than the gold is so shameful. It brightens my spirits substantially when an athelete wins the silver or bronze and actually seems happy and excited about it.
It's also not as bad now as it has been in the last, but I don't care to hear about the athletes sob stories.
Agreed! Even getting bronze means you're, at the very least, in the top half-percent of athletes in the world. At the levels of skill you're competing at, quite likely the only difference between bronze and gold is luck.
Norwegian media has this same focus. Winning the medal count would be awesome, but of course the only really important thing for us is beating Sweden =)
What annoys me is that it is currently Noon in Sochi, and right now there is no coverage of any events on TV.
The amount of gold medals won seems to me to correlate inversely to quality of life in a country. Say what you will about torture, it works brilliantly to produce elite sportsmen.
Ah yes, that wacky Norwegian regime! Inflicting Abba on... err no, wait, those were Swedes... Okay, you assert they're guilty of some sort of gross misbehaviour, but I can't seem to quite work out what, at present, dang it!
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The amount of gold medals won seems to me to correlate inversely to quality of life in a country. Say what you will about torture, it works brilliantly to produce elite sportsmen.Ah yes, that wacky Norwegian regime! Inflicting Abba on... err no, wait, those were Swedes... Okay, you assert they're guilty of some sort of gross misbehaviour, but I can't seem to quite work out what, at present, dang it!
Considering that the average of Gold Medals per game is:
27.00 Unified Team
26.28 Soviet Union
22.62 United States
17.45 East Germany
16.90 Russia
11.67 China
Totalitarian Regimes seem to do well at the Olympics.
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What annoys me the most in any sports coverage, especially figure skating is the commentators. Those people should be put to the sword, because I want to look and hear what is happening, not have a dullard tell me what i see with a few second delay, and then proceed to ramble about pointless crap drowning out nice music to which people skate to.
What annoys me is that it is currently Noon in Sochi, and right now there is no coverage of any events on TV.
I actually found out a reason for that. It's the advertisers. They'll pay the most for a prime-time slot. Well, prime-time slot and live coverage are not always the same thing...
What annoys me the most in any sports coverage, especially figure skating is the commentators. Those people should be put to the sword, because I want to look and hear what is happening, not have a dullard tell me what i see with a few second delay, and then proceed to ramble about pointless crap drowning out nice music to which people skate to.
The A.M. figure skating commentators are, for me, a significant improvement over the prime time buttonheads.
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I am most annoyed that Gruumash is not annoyed.
I blame Cosmo.
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What annoys me the most in any sports coverage, especially figure skating is the commentators. Those people should be put to the sword, because I want to look and hear what is happening, not have a dullard tell me what i see with a few second delay, and then proceed to ramble about pointless crap drowning out nice music to which people skate to.The A.M. figure skating commentators are, for me, a significant improvement over the prime time buttonheads.
Well, I live in +1 timezone. Sochi is I think in +3 or +4. I get the usual idiots with no brains, no education and no diction to speak of.
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NBC requires you to have a cable subscription to stream more than 30 minutes of live or replay off their site... Considering the big reason to stream is to get rid of cable it is pretty annoying.
It's getting bad up here in Canada as well. We got this new program for Olympic funding called "Own the Podium" about ten years back and it emphasizes victory and championship capability over a solid base of athletes to choose from.
We have 1/10th the population of the US, yet we seem to get close to them in medals in the Winter Games—and not that far behind in the Summer Games. It's an amazing testament to the skill of our athletes that we are even close. When we used to get a 4th or 9th or even top 20 placing in an event, we were proud. A medal of any colour was a cause for celebration.
Yet suddenly we have our media emphasizing the gold. Now we still have commentators who interview the silvers and bronzes with a lot of respect and care. But it's fading. If we had lost either the women's curling or hockey finals today we would have had a large number of people asking what went wrong and who is to blame. They would have ignored the fact that in population we are about one half of one percent of the population of the planet. Anything we get is impressive.
Things Canada should be proud of in the Olympics? The speed skater who gave up his spot for a member of his team who did not qualify for the event in question. The coach who went out and gave a ski to a Russian cross-country skier who had broken one of his so that he could finish his race. The fact that we had multiple 4th place finishes in luge sledding when the best we had ever done before that was a single 5th place finish. And that in women's events we are tied with the Netherlands for total medals and second only to the US. That many of our cities—including my hometown of Fredericton—are proudly flying the rainbow flag of the LGBQT community for the length of the games in protest to Russia's anti-gay laws.
That last paragraph makes me very proud to be Canadian. Going for gold is a wonderful motivator; but it is one of those journey-is-more-important-than-the-destination type things. Until countries realize this and let go of the need to prove themselves better than anyone else, the Olympics will always be a tainted by jingoism and the whatever-it-takes-to-win attitude in the drive for gold.
NBC requires you to have a cable subscription to stream more than 30 minutes of live or replay off their site... Considering the big reason to stream is to get rid of cable it is pretty annoying.
Well that sucks. Have you tried the CBC website? It's Canadian and might not work in the US, but it could work for you. No subs or money required for streaming of events.
It annoyed me, during the summer games coverage, that they focused almost entirely on the US team and athletes in the gymnastics competition. There were some talented athletes and skillful performances that the US coverage completely ignored because "not us".
What annoys me is that it is currently Noon in Sochi, and right now there is no coverage of any events on TV.I actually found out a reason for that. It's the advertisers. They'll pay the most for a prime-time slot. Well, prime-time slot and live coverage are not always the same thing...
Yes, but the events that were happening, Curling Bronze medal game, some skiing prelims, are not getting much if any prime-time coverage. And it's not like anyone is watching CNBC at that time of morning anyway.
I'm hoping we win hockey or we have to face this dark fate.
Jeez, talk about upping the ante...
I'm hoping we win hockey or we have to face this dark fate.
O.o I who have never cared about hockey am suddenly its biggest fan...U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
I'm hoping we win hockey or we have to face this dark fate.O.o I who have never cared about hockey am suddenly its biggest fan...U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
Maybe we can sabotage the other teams...
Possibly relevant link. I have noticed that a lot of Australians seem fond of harping on how much better they are than the US. Not noticed as much in the Irish though.
There's some kind of pun to be made somewhere in there, maybe with the word "harping" or the expression "getting your Irish up". Help yourself.
Guess the US keeps Bieber. Happy-happy Joy-joy!
>:D
When it comes to the Olympics, during a medal ceremony the two happiest people are the gold medalist (for obvious reasons) and the bronze medalist (he got the last possible medal). The two angriest are the silver medalist (he ALMOST got the gold) and the guy who comes in fourth place (he almost got a medal but just missed it),