Do you plan to watch the winter Olympics? What do you enjoy the most? What doesn't interest you? Are there things that annoy you in the commentary or other things? The Olympics have been political for over 100 years, but what do you enjoy about national pride and what irritates you about politics entering the picture? Do you think your perspective has changed after the revelations about young athletes being abused by a doctor and ignored by the USOC (and while I know those were gymnasts, it's reasonable to assume that it's not limited to summer athletes). What about the doping controversy? What about some countries refusing to compete against certain other countries? Does the massive expense involved disadvantage smaller nations?
I like figure skating, ice dancing, and a few other events. I usually look at aerial skiing a little since former Olympian Nikki Stone is from my home town. I like the opening ceremonies, the highlighting of the home country's culture, and the lighting of the torch. I despise ignorant commentators who had plenty of time to become informed about different countries but whose network's research people didn't do their jobs.
My #1 pet peeve is the logos at the bottom of the screen: the TV network, the local station, the date, the time, the event name, sometimes the participants' names....and then the sportscaster says, "Look at the bottom of your screen at the skater's feet" (or whatever it is), when you can't because all this junk is in the way!
I like to watch most of the events. The thing that bothers me is when they are showing events that were recorded earlier and they still make you wait and wait for judges scores while watching, honestly speed that part up if it isn't live. And please show more medal ceremonies. I feel like I always have to look them up online.
Well, if I were queen of the world, which sadly, it doesn't seem like I'm ever going to be, I would change a couple of things about the Olympics.
First, I would do away with the ridiculously extravagant and expensive opening ceremonies. Instead, I would have the host country put together some amazing music that represents it's culture or heritage, and that music would be played while the athletes marched in, country by country. That would be the opening ceremony. I hate it when a country whose citizens are hungry or impoverished builds a 30 billion dollar swimming pool, and then after the Olympics it just goes to ruin. And the people are still starving.
And I would make a rule that no country could host the Olympics unless they had a firm plan in place to re-use all the venues for the good of their citizens afterwards (housing, a hospital, sports for underprivileged kids, etc).
And I would ban the network anchors from speaking during the opening ceremonies. I HATE it when they blather on and on while some pretty amazing musical production is happening. They don't have anything of value to offer - they just spout facts. Shut up and let us watch the dancing and singing and displays.
I do like the figure skating, and the bobsledding is pretty exciting. The skiing is ok, too (the jumps, the races). I think the most boring stuff is the speed skating, and the cross country skiing.
My pet peeve is when the commentator makes a too-technical remark about a hugely amazing jump or dive or quadruple spin. Instead of letting us just enjoy what we just saw, the commentator (who is usually very experienced in that sport) makes a remark like "watch the slow motion replay - you'll see that his left pinky was 2 degrees higher than his right pinky" or "his elbow stuck out an eighth of an inch too far", or some ridiculously small unnoticeable thing, and they say it like it's such a shame. How about "holy cow, how did that guy do that?" or "wow". Most of us who are watching are NOT pros. We're trying to enjoy the spectacle.
We'll probably check scores from time to time.
There's no particular sport we go out of our way to watch.
The bidding process and cost of building a new site every time the Olympics changes location is ridiculous - and it needs to end.
After the event is over - so many of these multi million dollar Olympic villages are abandoned it's not even funny.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/olympic-venues-that-were...
The scale of waste is staggering.
That money could be used for better things - even if it's just to help lower the cost of cable.
It's high time a single site for summer and another single site for winter Olympics be chosen and facilities will be reused and updated as needed.
I don't know what's going on with the site but I can't seem to give any flowers for the last day or so.
i'll probably watch a little. i love the figure skating, solo and pairs, and the downhill races.
my endless yawping beef with all olympic coverage is that we always get so little actual olympic coverage. they can't give us everything, i get that, and it's nice to have some background info to help us fall more in love (or not<G>) with the athletes, but the schmaltzy over-dramatic endless backstories make me nut up.
i'm not there for the tear-jerking or inspiring or courageous histories. if i want them, i'll look them up. show me the competition.
as soon as the sobbing violins soar up and the breathless prose cues in, i'm outa there.
khairete
S.
I don't watch. No reason other than I'm just not interested.
I'll watch figure skating and we're a hockey family, so we'll watch hockey as well. Given that the networks are smart enough to put figure skating in prime time and make you wait forever for the best performances, we'll also watch whatever is also on the prime time broadcasts that night. I like to watch the other sports if they're on but won't seek them out.
I love watching skiing the best.although I miss football season already!
I LOVE watching skating. Unfortunately, we don’t have cable (only Netflix and amazon prime) so I won’t be able to watch. We keep our TV in the “basement” floor so even the basic channels don’t come out clear.
we have no cable, so i will not be watching anything. but if i could watch i would watch the figure skating and ice dancing. i used to love watching that when i was a kid. but i never really pay attention to the commentary so cannot comment on that
