Olympics anyone???

[ytimynona]

I'm a fan of the Olympics in general, but I do have several sports to which I am quite partial... swimming, running, archery, and short track speed skating, most notably! Which Olympic sports, if any, are your favorite???

[willywoollove]

Mostly I don't really care, but I do sometimes get caught up in swimming and gymnastics. The diving is amazing to me but I don't have the patience to watch. I also get caught up in track and field comps here and there. I usually follow the basketball but rarely watch a whole game. I'd love to see skateboarding as a major comp. Surfing would be cool also. I also think it's time to have MMA events in exhibition. I don't dislike the Summer Olympics many events are a little intriguing but like I said, I rarely can get myself to watch for too long.

Now Winter Olympics, I'm there. All events but speedskating.

[ytimynona]

Now Winter Olympics, I'm there. All events but speedskating.

Really? I love watching speedskating, although I can't sit still long enough to watch the coverage of the distance events.
Were you psyched about the snowboarding events last Winter Olympics? I was pretty happy to watch the halfpipe competition!!!

And just out of curiosity, anyone looking into going to the Vancouver Olympics? The tickets are relatively cheap (some of them, anyways!) and the trip can be relatively inexpensive... if you can find someplace to stay!!!

[MWT]

I saw a few segments with dirt bikes racing over hills and spots they had to jump. That's sort of in the direction of skateboarding, isn't it?

I'm mainly interested in watching impressive acrobatic feats. Gymnastics, diving, figure skating, ski jumping, etc. I don't care who's doing them or what country they represent, as long as they're good.

So it was annoying as hell when NBC followed around the Americans the whole time, even when they obviously sucked (*cough* women's diving *cough*), and completely ignored whoever was at the top. I hate that about having to watch from the U.S. There's a severe bias toward sports that USians are good at, and complete ignoring of anything where we suck. I guess it wouldn't do to let anyone know that we're not the absolute best at everything in the world...

[ytimynona]

I guess it wouldn't do to let anyone know that we're not the absolute best at everything in the world...

I noticed this at the most recent Olympics especially!!! I'd rather watch the finals of archery or judo than the quarterfinals or semifinals of swimming, just because they know Michael Phelps is gonna demolish the competition!!! Dang, I wish there was more coverage!!! But NBC had some sort of monopoly on it....
Even when they announced the final medal count, they added up ALL the medals each country had won (bronze and silver counting just as much as gold) so that the USA could top the charts, even though China clearly beat us in overall medal quality (China had like 2 golds for every 1 American gold).

[ship]

So it was annoying as hell when NBC followed around the Americans the whole time, even when they obviously sucked (*cough* women's diving *cough*), and completely ignored whoever was at the top. I hate that about having to watch from the U.S. There's a severe bias toward sports that USians are good at, and complete ignoring of anything where we suck. I guess it wouldn't do to let anyone know that we're not the absolute best at everything in the world...

I assumed this happened because I was watching in the US. If you watch coverage on the BBC, would there be more of a slant toward British athletes?

[MasterThief]

I guess it wouldn't do to let anyone know that we're not the absolute best at everything in the world...

I noticed this at the most recent Olympics especially!!! I'd rather watch the finals of archery or judo than the quarterfinals or semifinals of swimming, just because they know Michael Phelps is gonna demolish the competition!!! Dang, I wish there was more coverage!!! But NBC had some sort of monopoly on it....
Even when they announced the final medal count, they added up ALL the medals each country had won (bronze and silver counting just as much as gold) so that the USA could top the charts, even though China clearly beat us in overall medal quality (China had like 2 golds for every 1 American gold).

FWIW, if you weight the medals accordingly (3 points per gold, 2 per silver, 1 per bronze), the score works out to be China 203, U.S. 200. (And the development goal of the Chinese Olympic program was to concentrate in sports with multiple medals to max out their score in 2008.) It's going to be interesting watching how things play out in London in 2012.