Just wondering. There has been no commentary on MJ... Are you watching? Has there been anything compelling? What do you think about the coverage?
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 02, 2012, 09:51:13 AM
Just wondering. There has been no commentary on MJ... Are you watching? Has there been anything compelling? What do you think about the coverage?
As cliched as it might sound, the men's and women's gymnastics competition has been particularly riveting - at least for the Doctor K household. Watching it with utmost enthusiasm.
It was devastating to see current World Champion and US teammate Jordyn Wieber just break down in agony after getting beat out to qualify for the individual all-around event, but even more AWESOME to see her and the rest of the team bounce back and absolutely NAIL all of their events/routines and kick the snot out of all of their competition - especially perennial heavyweights Russia, China, and Romania - and win the Gold by a mile.
Then you had John Orozco and Danell Leyva practically do almost the exact opposite on the Men's side - both of them just crushed the prelims and then absolutely fell apart in the Finals.
Then you get to literally watch history in the making as Michael Phelps secures his 17th, 18th, and 19th (EDIT: and perhaps 20th!) Olympic medals to become the most successful Olympic athlete in history.
IN. HISTORY.
Speaking of history, you've got countries with athletes who are winning gold medals in disciplines that they've never been able to win before.
HISTORY in the making. Right before your eyes. I can get past the fact that it's all pre-recorded simply to be viewed in prime-time. I still get to see it happen right before my eyes. Pretty compelling, if you ask me.
Please someone attempt to convince me that that's not epic in and of itself.
If you didn't see the conclusion of the women's cycling road race through the streets of downtown London the other day (which happened in the pouring rain I might add), then you missed out on a nail-biter. The American, Russian, and Dutch medalists made it just a spectacular and stunning last few miles.
Then there was the skeet shooter who has now won gold medals in five.. FIVE straight Olympic games.
HISTORY.
The sheer determination and raw emotion of the athletes, across all of the events, and their successes and not-successes is so palpable and absolutely awe-inspiring when you watch it all unfold.
Best stuff on TV. No scripting required.
Sure beats all the reality-BS that makes me lose IQ points every time I see even an advertisement for it...
Hard to watch if you have OTA tv rather than cable or dish. Have been able to get some feeds online from Al-Jazeera TV through www.oleoletv.com for the sports I've wanted to watch. Five hour time difference is a bummer.
I agree Doc... a bit disappointed that many of the events are not being shown... at least at night. Would have loved to see the skeet shoot... I would have liked to see some of the table tennis also...
Certainly more to come!
If you have a DVR, just record all the cable feeds during the day and then you can zoom through at night. I've watched the field hockey, archery, handball, etc. at night.
Track and Field is on the way next week! Totally gearing up to watch that!
And to solve the prime-time stuff, we've had to max out our DVR to record the programs across the array of NBC channels throughout the day.
Certainly not ideal, but way better coverage than in years past, when so many of the events weren't broadcast at all.
How about this - even some of the commercials for the corporate sponsors are stellar! The TD Ameritrade and Visa commercials in particular are so well done.
I've been watching a few hours' worth of coverage every day, it seems. We've got the TV on in our office reception, which helps. Also, our cable provider has created a number of special channels for watching it live. That basically means I get to watch a lot of ping pong and badminton. Exciting.
I did get to watch the women's cycling time trial yesterday, which was pretty cool.
Quote from: fsquid on August 02, 2012, 10:14:01 AM
If you have a DVR, just record all the cable feeds during the day and then you can zoom through at night. I've watched the field hockey, archery, handball, etc. at night.
Not sure why I have not done that. On the other hand... I wonder why the NBC coverage spent an hour on synchronized diving... with no US team even in contention...
For the very first time NBC is covering ALL the sports. They all don't go out over the cables, but they are all streamed live online. You have to have cable or dish that has NBC and sign on with you account number and password. If you don't mind ads in Arabic or Chinese you can get most of the feeds around NBC's blocks.
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 02, 2012, 10:17:16 AM
Quote from: fsquid on August 02, 2012, 10:14:01 AM
If you have a DVR, just record all the cable feeds during the day and then you can zoom through at night. I've watched the field hockey, archery, handball, etc. at night.
Not sure why I have not done that. On the other hand... I wonder why the NBC coverage spent an hour on synchronized diving... with no US team even in contention...
Did I just dream that the US won the bronze for synchronized diving on last night's prime-time coverage?
Quote from: vicupstate on August 02, 2012, 12:13:02 PM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 02, 2012, 10:17:16 AM
Quote from: fsquid on August 02, 2012, 10:14:01 AM
If you have a DVR, just record all the cable feeds during the day and then you can zoom through at night. I've watched the field hockey, archery, handball, etc. at night.
Not sure why I have not done that. On the other hand... I wonder why the NBC coverage spent an hour on synchronized diving... with no US team even in contention...
Did I just dream that the US won the bronze for synchronized diving on last night's prime-time coverage?
Nope, you sure didn't. A four-time Olympian finally wins his first medal, along with his 19-year-old dive partner. The Ukrainians choked on the last dive and secured the Bronze for the US duo.
I must be in the minority here, but personally, couldn't give a damn about the Olympics. Furthermore, and this isn't my usual extreme-left-ambivalent-towards-America speech, but when I do catch a glimpse, I'm always rooting for the huge underdogs. In basketball I wanted Tunisia to win. Love when the countries that send four or five athletes to the games pull out a win against a US or China.
I am happy to see Gregg Troy is coaching the men's swimming team. He was a family friend and also my swim coach when I went to Bolles.
Quote from: ben says on August 02, 2012, 12:43:05 PM
I must be in the minority here, but personally, couldn't give a damn about the Olympics.
I doubt you are in the minority... at least amongst MJ posters... as evidenced by the huge responce to this topic... ;)
Quote from: ben says on August 02, 2012, 12:43:05 PM
I must be in the minority here, but personally, couldn't give a damn about the Olympics. Furthermore, and this isn't my usual extreme-left-ambivalent-towards-America speech, but when I do catch a glimpse, I'm always rooting for the huge underdogs. In basketball I wanted Tunisia to win. Love when the countries that send four or five athletes to the games pull out a win against a US or China.
I am happy to see Gregg Troy is coaching the men's swimming team. He was a family friend and also my swim coach when I went to Bolles.
I love the Olympics, but I share some of your sentiments, Ben. I usually root for the underdog and I really don't like how nationalistic the Olympics can be. Or how commercial it has become, but I think most people don't like that.
I hate the way the US media bucks the international standard and ranks the medal count based on overall medals achieved, not on gold medals achieved. So for a while yesterday, the USA was ranked in first ahead of China because they had one more medal, even though they were well behind on gold medals. No one else does that. It's just a bit sad.
Of course, I don't like the idea of a "medal count" at all, but what are you gonna do?
Quote from: vicupstate on August 02, 2012, 12:13:02 PM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 02, 2012, 10:17:16 AM
Quote from: fsquid on August 02, 2012, 10:14:01 AM
If you have a DVR, just record all the cable feeds during the day and then you can zoom through at night. I've watched the field hockey, archery, handball, etc. at night.
Not sure why I have not done that. On the other hand... I wonder why the NBC coverage spent an hour on synchronized diving... with no US team even in contention...
Did I just dream that the US won the bronze for synchronized diving on last night's prime-time coverage?
and the US women won a silver on the 3m board the other day
I love the Olympics! Can't wait for Track and Field to start. 8)
Sanya Richards-Ross (wife of Aaron Ross of the Jaguars) just won the Gold Medal in the Womens 400m. Congrats.
I just bought tickets to the paralympics athletics events on 6 September. I realise that's not the Olympics, but the running events should be pretty cool.
Quote from: Elwood on August 05, 2012, 04:25:16 PM
Sanya Richards-Ross (wife of Aaron Ross of the Jaguars) just won the Gold Medal in the Womens 400m. Congrats.
Good for her
^^^That was the only thing in the Olympics that I cared about. I was trying to tune in to the women's track & field, but I missed it. :(