London 2012 Summer Olympics

[intedomine]

The problem I have always had with handball, and this is probably because I am a big soccer fan, is that it doesn't seem like too much of a challenge to score, and there is minimal variability or tactical complexity in how goals are scored. It's more a game that tests a team's ability to get basic ball handling right, rather than imaginative play and physical brilliance

I may need to watch more of it though. Hopefully, I get a chance to watch a match in full now I've got Foxtel.

Disappointed the Olympics are not on 7. As repulsive as their coverage was, their commentary team (Reeve, Roberts, Zempilas, Wilkinson) was always much more listenable than Channel 9's. Having Stefanovic in what used to be Macavaney's role is disgusting and an insult to the Olympic Games.

[cobl04]

^and Rob Sitch.

Rob Sitch's 'Bruce Mcavaney' impersonation (The Late Show) - YouTube

[LemonMelon]

Watching men's relay on repeat.

Lochte choked; Phelps, not so much. He is indeed a beast in those shorter stretches.

[bono_212]

It was great to see Phelps swim so well, just such a disappointment to see a full body-length lead slip away

[mama cass]

looking forward to seeing a bit of the eventing at Greenwich Park in a minute!

[mama cass]

AMAZING first x-country round for Nicola Wilson with the wonderful Opposition Buzz for Team GB! that was a joy to watch - i couldn't breathe and felt sick with nerves watching them tackle those fences and downhill gallops! cannot wait to see Mary King do her round in 40 minutes time! i LOVE working from home haha

she was only the second rider within the time limit and without penalties - the other one was the Australian guy i think who rode very well, did a very well-paced course! French rider rode badly into the 3rd fence and horse refused, ended up with penalties, and Irish rider fell off and was out, Canadian rider was incredibly slow + had a refusal and masses of penalties, Japanese rider had refusal and penalties too...

tv has now switched to the boring stuff for a bit

[LUNEDEMINUIT]

This is hilarious.This twitter account making fun of NBC's coverage of the games.

NBC Live Fail (NBCLiveFail) on Twitter

[MrsSpringsteen]

I was rooting for Aly, but not in that way. Unfair, when did they make the rule that only two from each country go to the finals?

I've pretty much given up on trying to avoid spoilers until the taped stuff at night. Last night I tried to do a quick check on the baseball on ESPN and unfortunately saw the scroll about the men's swimming relay, which still hadn't aired. If they're not covering it they don't care about spoilers, why do NBC any favors. Most web sites are doing some sort of anti spoiler thing. I do hate that scroll in general, I wish there was a button on the remote to get rid of it.

[MrsSpringsteen]

Originally Posted by LUNEDEMINUIT

This is hilarious.This twitter account making fun of NBC's coverage of the games.

NBC Live Fail (NBCLiveFail) on Twitter

The coverage is horrible, it always is. Stay classy NBC. And Ryan Seacrest makes me want to go Elvis on my tv. That hair looks absolutely ridiculous.


NBC skips Games opener act seen as tribute to terror victims
By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY
Updated 1d 14h ago

Which is more likely to encourage U.S. viewers to stick around for your feel-good TV show: chit-chat between mega-celebs Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps or what some English people saw as a tribute to victims of a terrorist attack in London that happened seven years ago?

NBC, not surprisingly, chose Seacrest-Phelps during its coverage of the London Olympic opening ceremony Friday in prime time.

Get used to stuff like this. You might see something similar on NBC on any given night of the London Games.

Actually, "coverage" might not be the best term to describe NBC's prime-time Olympic broadcast. NBC is trying to sell the Games that cost $1.18 billion in U.S. TV rights fees — and hundreds of millions more to promote and produce.

So when it came time in the opening ceremony for something that has been widely interpreted as a tribute to the 52 victims of terrorist attacks in London in 2005, it's not shocking NBC didn't see lingering on that as helping its overall marketing effort. When asked why NBC didn't show the memorial, NBC spokesman Greg Hughes on Saturday said only that "our programming is tailored for the U.S. audience. It's a tribute to (opening ceremony producer) Danny Boyle that it required so little editing."

With hours to tinker with prime-time coverage because of the time difference between the U.S. and Britain, NBC will be able to massage its presentation each day for maximum palatability — right down to when London's cauldron is extinguished and NBC, no doubt, already will be talking up its coverage of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

[cobl04]

The commercialisation really is a great shame. Shop owners in London aren't even allowed to show anything that might slightly resemble the Olympic rings.

[gump]

I'm loving to watch handball as well. It's almost like a mix of soccer, basketball and wrestling, with all the pushing around. And for once Brazil has a decent women's team, so that's exciting.

The NBC streaming thing is great. Does anyone else watch sailing? It takes forever, but I found it really exciting (one could never follow full Olympic races before the streaming era).

[trojanchick99]

Originally Posted by MrsSpringsteen

I was rooting for Aly, but not in that way. Unfair, when did they make the rule that only two from each country go to the finals?

I've pretty much given up on trying to avoid spoilers until the taped stuff at night. Last night I tried to do a quick check on the baseball on ESPN and unfortunately saw the scroll about the men's swimming relay, which still hadn't aired. If they're not covering it they don't care about spoilers, why do NBC any favors. Most web sites are doing some sort of anti spoiler thing. I do hate that scroll in general, I wish there was a button on the remote to get rid of it.

They made it when the reduced the number of athletes who can compete in the all arounds. It used to be 36 I think, but when it was reduced they limited the number of athletes per country.

[anitram]

Originally Posted by gump

The NBC streaming thing is great. Does anyone else watch sailing? It takes forever, but I found it really exciting (one could never follow full Olympic races before the streaming era).

Yeah, it's really awesome. I watched the Men's Finn race today (the 4th race) and I have to admit I thought it would be really boring but was actually great. Lots of action with boats flipping over, etc. Plus I like that they have 10 races before the final, it really does ensure a consistency.

[bono_212]

I haven't watched a minute of NBC Prime time coverage, but I have watched their live coverage and streams, and I have loved every minute. I'm thoroughly impressed. I'll just continue to avoid prime time.

[anitram]

I do like swimming and I watch it religiously every Olympic games, but this is an excellent article (and partly explains why I prefer athletics overall):

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/su...t.html?_r=3&hp

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by MrsSpringsteen

I was rooting for Aly, but not in that way. Unfair, when did they make the rule that only two from each country go to the finals?

This is not a new rule, I have no idea why one of the commentators (Elfie?) said it was. Everyone knows this rule. It often *is* a big deal for many of the teams but hasn't come up for team USA until this quad/Olympics (more on that below). I'm not sure why Bela was blowing up about it since he knows as well as any one how this rule works. As far as I know, no one has ever made any move to get it changed. In his defense though, I have heard him rant about it before. He's always been against it but again, it's always been there and no one seems to really care enough to change it.

In 1992, Tatianna Gutsu struggled in prelims and did not qualify for AA finals. The head coach did what we in gymnastics now call the "Soviet swap". They made up some excuse about Rosa Galiyeva being injured and not being able to compete. No one believed it one bit. Since Gutsu qualified third place on the Soviet team (actually called the Unified Team then since the Soviet Union had already disbanded but were competing together), she got to compete in the AA final and won the Olympics. In 1996, Dominique Moceanu did *not* originally qualify for the AA final. Now if ever there was a female gymnast groomed for Olympic stardom it was "Domi". Kerri Strug beat her but was unable to compete because of the infamous ankle injury. In more recent years, this hasn't come up for team USA because 1) we've had only one or maybe two AA standouts anyway or 2) most recently, the new (shitty) format has made it possible for specialists to not only make an Olympic team but be given preference (ex, Annia Hatch, Alicia Sacramone, McKayla Maroney). Last Olympics, Shawn and Nastia were a given. I don't think any of our girls even did AA besides those two so it was never an issue for team USA.

So, my heart breaks for Jordyn but at the same time, this is why I was joking with my cousin that team USA is almost too good this time around. The media seems to be playing this like some sort of breaking scandal and it's not....saw it coming from a mile away and Aly herself has said that she has always been training as an all-around gymnast, not a specialist. You could see on Jordyn's face the entire meet that she knew she was dancing the thin line between her dreams and the chopping block and her coach reminded her repeatedly. Someone has to sit out the AA and unfortunately this time it happens to be the World Champion.

My other two cents thus far....Maroney is absofuckinglutely AMAZING on vault, it is sick. When those vaults were invented no one in the right mind ever imagined someone doing them like that. I was also anxious to see He Kexin again on bars since she was what like 12 years old at the last Olympics. But holy shit there is no one in the world that even comes close to the Chinese/Kexin on bars. Yes there were deductions and she's probably struggling a bit with her new body but the technique is untouchable.

[Purplereign]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

i'm 99% sure those are tongue-in-cheek. anyone who says "MURICA" is mocking our former unspeakable president.

i feel like Magnussen is careful with his words, or has been, and hasn't said anything too terrible, but i always had the sneaking suspicion he was kind of a prick.

I feel bad for the Aussie boys as the weight of expectation was enormous (and the subsequent hand wringing and what went wrong commentary all over the commercial stations is doing my head in (), but I am never sad to see a little bit of humble pie being eaten.

Mr Magnusson could take a lesson from the pure and utter joy of team mate Leisel Jones . . . albeit she has experience on her side but she really is just genuinely happy to have qualified for the team . . . it is the Olympics for crying out loud and to make a team and then go ahead and make the medal race is an enormous achievement. /endrant

[Axver]

Originally Posted by cobl04

^and Rob Sitch.

Still one of the best things ever.

Originally Posted by Purplereign

Mr Magnusson could take a lesson from the pure and utter joy of team mate Leisel Jones . . . albeit she has experience on her side but she really is just genuinely happy to have qualified for the team . . . it is the Olympics for crying out loud and to make a team and then go ahead and make the medal race is an enormous achievement. /endrant

To me, it's great but kind of strange to see Liesel Jones display so much class. First impressions count for shitloads and I've disliked her ever since the first time I saw her race back at the 2000 Olympics and she seemed so petulantly disappointed about coming second. Hard to feel sympathy for somebody getting "only" silver when it means that they're one of the top two people in the world in their event. Times have obviously changed, and good on her.

[Axver]

Also, I'm absolutely thrilled about Mark Todd's performance so far in the three day event. He was a hero in New Zealand when I was little after his golds in 1984 and 1988, but his last medal was a bronze in 2000 when he "retired". He came back for Beijing, where he didn't win a medal, but now he's sitting a very close third after the dressage and cross-country, with showjumping to go. I think it'd just be amazing if he can finish with a medal - he's New Zealand's second oldest Olympian ever.

Apparently he's been mistaken for an official rather than an athlete by some of the Olympics staff.

[trojanchick99]

Part of why I love equestrian is 30 isn't considered over the hill. Love seeing Mark Todd up there after the 2nd day. I have a hard time watching the Cross Country portion of the eventing though because of all the falls.

I'm curious as to how NBC is going to cover Men's gymnastics tonight. There are a ton of storylines, US underperforms, China comes back, Team GB surprises and then the final scoring change. It was certainly not without drama.