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  1. #1
    Suspended 3-LockBox's Avatar
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    Summer Olympics anyone?

    meh...

    I get a kick outta people who think that we're obligated to care about them, just like the people who think we're obligated to embrace soccer. If it bores me, its boring. Most all Olympic events bore me to tears. Many of the events are subject to judgement, which makes them ripe for politics, and therefore, suspect. I might watch a few events or games, but by and large, I couldn't care less.

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    What I don't like (and I'm risking some serious flaming here) is the idea that Baseball and Basketball are considered olympic events. Does Quatar have a baseball team? And even WORSE... skateboarding. Please. I did a lot of that stuff when I was a kid. I'd say my generation invented skateboarding when our Dad's screwed rollerskate wheels onto a piece of 1 x 3 and we put a piece of plywood on some cinder blocks for use as a ramp. Same with our litttle Stingray bycicles.

    Nevertheless, I do enjoy some Track and Field events, platform diving and some gymnastics so yeah, I'll be tuning in frequently.

  3. #3
    Musicaholic Forums Moderator ForeverAutumn's Avatar
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    I'm not a big Olympic watcher. There are some sports that I enjoy watching, but they are sports that I would watch anyway, if they were on TV. I love the gymnastics competitions and I like to watch rowing. Otherwise, there's not much that I'll watch. Personally, I much prefer the winter olympics. I enjoy most of the winter sports.

    Toronto was a contender for these 2008 Olympics and I'm just thankful that they landed in Beijing and not here. I can't even imagine the chaos that this city would be in right now...not to mention the debt.

  4. #4
    Musicaholic Forums Moderator ForeverAutumn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    What I don't like (and I'm risking some serious flaming here) is the idea that Baseball and Basketball are considered olympic events.
    I don't mind these sports being Olympic sports. What bothers me is allowing professionals into the Olympics. It somehow sullies the spirit of the game IMO. I think that the Olympics should be restricted to amatuer athletes. When the NHL actually takes a break so that their star players can enter the Olympics, something is not right. I feel like it takes opportunities away from young athletes.

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    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    I'm probably like most others. I'll watch a few events, follow any good stories, but otherwise I find Summer Olympics to be far more boring than winter olympics.

    I do take exception to the notion that pro-sports athletes should be excluded from Olympic competition just because they make more money than so-called amateurs. Discriminating against financial success is just as bad as any other form of discrimination, even though nobody feels sorry for the victims in their mansions and Ferraris. There's no moral reason for them to be discriminated against just because they make money.

    20 years ago the amateur moniker might have still held some merit, but not today. There was a time where most sports weren't "careers". That ended in the 20th century. The Olympics had to adapt to that reality.

    There's absolutely nothing amateur about most most modern, tax and corporate subsidized Olympic sports. These athletes all participate in for-profit, money making, spectacle sports both in and outside the Olympics, and winning an Olympic medal can make you an obscenely wealthy overnight. Outside the Olympics in most sports there's purse prizes for most competitions and they're not insubstantial amounts...where there aren't prizes there's sponsorships. It's all industry now. It only lacks the mass appeal of pro-sports, not the intent. No more noble or less corporate than the NFL...just not nearly as big, popular, or successful.

    Truth be told it's probably infinitely harder to make it to the Olympic level as a pro-athlete, the competition is far more fierce.
    Besides, I'd rather watch the best of the best represented at the Olympics than the also-rans who tried to go "pro" and couldn't.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ForeverAutumn
    I don't mind these sports being Olympic sports. What bothers me is allowing professionals into the Olympics. It somehow sullies the spirit of the game IMO. I think that the Olympics should be restricted to amatuer athletes. When the NHL actually takes a break so that their star players can enter the Olympics, something is not right. I feel like it takes opportunities away from young athletes.
    I agree with this 100%. Another aspect of why I mentioned the two sports. Problem is, when countries like the former Soviet Union, who payed their participants back many years ago to perform, it led to... in some but maybe not all events and not all countries... sending pro atheletes to compete in the events. It certainly tarnished the purity of the Olympics, also IMO.

  7. #7
    Man of the People Forums Moderator bobsticks's Avatar
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    I like the luge. I want a luge.

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    Boxing was a sore spot for me and my brother, since we were big into boxing (remember when boxing was a sport one could follow?). Anyhoo, we were always chagrined when our 18/19 year old boxers would have to compete with Eastern block countries', Soviet Union's and Cuba's 30 year olds w/ 12 to 15 years experience.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bobsticks
    I like the luge. I want a luge.
    you'll need to wait until the winter olympics

    unless of course you were trying to spell "loogey".

  10. #10
    Man of the People Forums Moderator bobsticks's Avatar
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    I think they should try to street luge down a steep cobblestone street in the heart of Beijing...

    ...I also happen to love it when our jackass US basketball players get schooled by a group of Slavs not well-practiced in the arts of hot-dogging, show-offing, and ball-hogging.

  11. #11
    I put the Gee in Gear.... thekid's Avatar
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    What passes for Olympic coverage nowdays in a typical hour;

    30 minutes of coverage on how some athlete/athlete's relative has overcome some tragedy which has driven the athlete to be a "world class" athlete in some arcane sport like cliff diving skeet shooting.

    15 minutes of promos about what coverage is "coming up next".

    12 minutes of commercials by the "official sponsors of the Summer games"

    2 minutes of coverage of the preliminary quarterfinals of some track event.

    1 minute "checking in" on the "Dream Team" going up by 58 on Lesotho.

    Just the type of gripping coverage we need to prepare us for those exciting politcal conventions.....

  12. #12
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    I agree with this 100%. Another aspect of why I mentioned the two sports. Problem is, when countries like the former Soviet Union, who payed their participants back many years ago to perform, it led to... in some but maybe not all events and not all countries... sending pro atheletes to compete in the events. It certainly tarnished the purity of the Olympics, also IMO.
    I think you guys are about 20 years late to the party with that sentiment. The Olympics has loosened the amateur rules to the point of nonexistence. At one point there might have been some pretense to amateur status, to the point of scrutinizing whether any corporate logos were showing on an athlete's gear. But, right now the Olympics is nothing more than a multibillion dollar enterprise. The corporate sponsors are running the show, and they want the high profile athletes in the spotlight, regardless of their amateur status.

    Case in point, swimmer Michael Phelps made $2.5 million in endorsement deals alone last year. Yeah, he doesn't get paid to compete in swim meets, but c'mon is he really an amateur if Speedo's paying him to be a human billboard for their high-tech bodysuit?
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  13. #13
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    I like watching the Olympics for the competition itself, but NBC's primetime coverage is absolutely atrocious. I know that they've arranged the schedule in order to put a lot of the big ticket events into live coverage for prime time (well, except for people like me on the West Coast, where NBC decides to give us tape delay), and they started to pare back on the weepy win-against-all-odds sob story clips. But, it still gets heavily edited and packaged too much like a scripted drama. We'll see if things improve this time around.

    I would prefer that NBC cover the Olympics more like a sporting event, rather than some bad Lifetime movie. Fortunately, the coverage on NBC's cable networks (MSNBC, CNBC, USA) has been much better, with just live event coverage and minimal fluff pieces and pre-edited segments. Unfortunately, many of the live cable feeds will be shown in the middle of the night, and a lot of it will cover the more obscure sports and non-US teams, while the bigger events and US athletes will still be cordoned off and delayed up to 20 hours for NBC's prime time block.

    I guess I got spoiled growing up with ABC's Olympic coverage, which really got it right, particularly with the L.A. games in which nearly all of the big events were televised live with the whip-around coverage that works best with multivenue sporting events (i.e., when something was happening, the camera feed got switched over to get it live).

    None of the edited and packaged BS "virtual live" crap that NBC has done in its Olympic coverage (i.e., begin with live coverage, but then lengthen it out using tape delay in order to insert more commercials and manufacture more drama). Friends of mine used to watch the CBC coverage from Canada via satellite, and marvel at how NBC's supposedly live coverage would progressively lag further and further behind the Canadian feed as the events stretched on! The rest of the time, the CBC just gets it right by showing the events as they happen.
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  14. #14
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
    None of the edited and packaged BS "virtual live" crap that NBC has done in its Olympic coverage (i.e., begin with live coverage, but then lengthen it out using tape delay in order to insert more commercials and manufacture more drama). Friends of mine used to watch the CBC coverage from Canada via satellite, and marvel at how NBC's supposedly live coverage would progressively lag further and further behind the Canadian feed as the events stretched on! The rest of the time, the CBC just gets it right by showing the events as they happen.
    Ya know, for the most part I've found Canadian TV to be remarkably uninteresting but there's a few gems up here and CBC olympic coverage is one of them. We first noticed it visiting family during Sydney's games, then followed through with the winter games - wow Canada knows how to cover winter games.

    It's not what they do as much as what they don't do...they don't try to force the story, cover too many events at once, or make epic tales out of mediocrity. They just cover the games with some insightful comments. Half the time it's dull. But it's never annoying. I'll take dull over annoying any day.

    For what it's worth, Little Mosque on the Prairies and Trailer Park Boys are awesome, low budget Canadian shows.

  15. #15
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    What I don't like (and I'm risking some serious flaming here) is the idea that Baseball and Basketball are considered olympic events. Does Quatar have a baseball team?
    What are you, some Europhile? You should be happy since this year is the final go-round for Olympic baseball. The European and African voting blocs on the IOC decided to remove baseball and softball from the Olympics after this year, while deciding whether to replace those sports with rugby and squash. They disregard the fact that baseball is immensely popular in Asia, Latin America, and of course, North America. Of course, these are the same freaks that think TEAM HANDBALL and TRAMPOLINE belong as Olympic sports!

    I think a big impediment on the Olympic baseball tournament is that it overlaps with the professional leagues, and MLB's not about to pause it schedule in the middle of the season (like the NHL has) to accommodate the Olympics. It's nice that it gives the amateur players a spotlight, but it's once again a case where you got a national pro team like Cuba fielding that country's best athletes going against other countries where their best players are all on MLB and minor league rosters. Then again, the World Baseball Classic is emerging into a premier international tournament, because it takes place in March (before spring training) and fields the best players from around the world. The inaugural tournament two years ago was incredible with sold out stadiums, intense crowds (particularly the games between Japan and Korea), and Japan (led by Ichiro and MVP Matsuzaka) beating Cuba in the finals. That tournament returns next year.

    BTW, WTF is Quatar? Is that some star formation?
    Last edited by Woochifer; 08-08-2008 at 05:20 PM.
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  16. #16
    Man of the People Forums Moderator bobsticks's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
    ...The European and African voting blocs on the IOC decided to remove baseball and softball from the Olympics after this year, while deciding whether to replace those sports with rugby and squash. They disregard the fact that baseball is immensely popular in Asia, Latin America, and of course, North America. Of course, these are the same freaks that think TEAM HANDBALL and TRAMPOLINE belong as Olympic sports!
    Jes. Oy, Gevalt! I'm sick to death of activities being given the credibility of real sporting events. To qualify as a real sport it must either:

    a) involve massive amounts of expensive equipment, or

    b) have groupies

    On rare occasions an activity may qualify as a real sport though lacking one or both of the qualifying factors but that's if, and only if, you can die doing it. Hence, jai a'lai is a real sport.

    I mean c'mon, when was the last time you saw a throng of young hotties dropping trow over a trampoline match? Team Handball...pu-leeze. All you need is a cheap rubber ball and a wall...

  17. #17
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
    Ya know, for the most part I've found Canadian TV to be remarkably uninteresting but there's a few gems up here and CBC olympic coverage is one of them. We first noticed it visiting family during Sydney's games, then followed through with the winter games - wow Canada knows how to cover winter games.

    It's not what they do as much as what they don't do...they don't try to force the story, cover too many events at once, or make epic tales out of mediocrity. They just cover the games with some insightful comments. Half the time it's dull. But it's never annoying. I'll take dull over annoying any day.
    Sounds exactly like how a live sports event is supposed to be covered -- just let the drama of the athletic event itself play out. I also appreciate that the CBC will cover an event live, even if it's at 4am. NBC basically cherry picks the events it wants for the 8pm-midnight programming bloc, and edits it all to suit. For sports coverage, that just doesn't work, especially when NBC decides to play up its blatant overtures to the female demographic. NBC's cable networks do a good job at just covering the events, but unfortunately anything that NBC wants to save for its prime time bloc gets embargoed from the live feeds.

    Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
    For what it's worth, Little Mosque on the Prairies and Trailer Park Boys are awesome, low budget Canadian shows.
    I read that an Americanized version of Little Mosque On The Prairie is now under development at Fox. The whole premise of that show sounds hilarious and timely. I just worry that Fox's efforts to Americanize the show will dilute what makes it unique, and turn it into just another bland Fox comedy.
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  18. #18
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
    I read that an Americanized version of Little Mosque On The Prairie is now under development at Fox. The whole premise of that show sounds hilarious and timely. I just worry that Fox's efforts to Americanize the show will dilute what makes it unique, and turn it into just another bland Fox comedy.
    Ugh....I like a few Fox shows but Little Mosque has a special...classy wit about it that Fox has never, ever been good at. Their version of the show may have success, but it won't be for the same reasons.
    But after Greg the Bunny, Titus, Louie, and That 80's Show, can't blame them for...drawing inspiration from somewhere else.

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    Y'all are a bunch of commercialism zealots! Apparently some of us haven't sold out to Capitalism like Wooch and Kex have. More on this later.

    Now if you'll excuse me, I'm watching "War of the Worlds" with Tom Cruz.

  20. #20
    Musicaholic Forums Moderator ForeverAutumn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
    Ya know, for the most part I've found Canadian TV to be remarkably uninteresting but there's a few gems up here and CBC olympic coverage is one of them. We first noticed it visiting family during Sydney's games, then followed through with the winter games - wow Canada knows how to cover winter games.

    It's not what they do as much as what they don't do...they don't try to force the story, cover too many events at once, or make epic tales out of mediocrity. They just cover the games with some insightful comments. Half the time it's dull. But it's never annoying. I'll take dull over annoying any day.

    For what it's worth, Little Mosque on the Prairies and Trailer Park Boys are awesome, low budget Canadian shows.
    And let's not forget Corner Gas. Just brilliant comedy IMO.

    I've watched the Olympics on CBC, ABC and NBC. There's no doubt that CBC has the better coverage. Our satellite company is airing three CBC HD channels completely dedicated to 24 hour Olympic coverage. I'm not a big summer olympic fan, but I am looking forward to watching some of it in HD.

  21. #21
    Musicaholic Forums Moderator ForeverAutumn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thekid
    What passes for Olympic coverage nowdays in a typical hour;

    30 minutes of coverage on how some athlete/athlete's relative has overcome some tragedy which has driven the athlete to be a "world class" athlete in some arcane sport like cliff diving skeet shooting.
    http://www.borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=6920

    Athlete without Compelling Personal Drama Expelled from Olympics
    Diver Hid Details of Intact Family


    A member of the U.S. Olympic diving team was disqualified from competition today when it was learned that he did not have a sufficiently compelling human storyline to exploit on the NBC telecast of the worldwide sporting event.

    Tracy Klujian, the expelled diver, was not raised by a single mother, never had a career-threatening injury, and did not overcome a personal tragedy of any kind before making the Olympic diving team, U.S. Olympic officials revealed today.

    "Had Tracy been involved in an organ donation, as either a donor or a recipient, that would have been acceptable to us," a diving team spokesman told reporters. "However, he was not."

    According to sources close to the diving team, Mr. Klujian had concealed the fact that he comes from an intact middle class family who never lost their home to a flood, tornado, or typhoon.

    But what may have sealed Mr.Klujian's doom, sources said, was his utter lack of a gravely ill family member to win a medal for.

    "Tracy did his best to hide his background from team officials," one source said. "But when the truth came out, he was finished."

    Speaking to reporters in Beijing, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol was even less charitable, terming Mr. Klujian's actions "a reprehensible betrayal."

    "We do our best to check out all of the athletes to make sure that their backgrounds are full of compelling human drama, but we can't catch everything," Mr. Ebersol said. "This is a case of one really bad guy exploiting the system."

  22. #22
    Class of the clown GMichael's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ForeverAutumn
    http://www.borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=6920

    Athlete without Compelling Personal Drama Expelled from Olympics
    Diver Hid Details of Intact Family


    A member of the U.S. Olympic diving team was disqualified from competition today when it was learned that he did not have a sufficiently compelling human storyline to exploit on the NBC telecast of the worldwide sporting event.

    Tracy Klujian, the expelled diver, was not raised by a single mother, never had a career-threatening injury, and did not overcome a personal tragedy of any kind before making the Olympic diving team, U.S. Olympic officials revealed today.

    "Had Tracy been involved in an organ donation, as either a donor or a recipient, that would have been acceptable to us," a diving team spokesman told reporters. "However, he was not."

    According to sources close to the diving team, Mr. Klujian had concealed the fact that he comes from an intact middle class family who never lost their home to a flood, tornado, or typhoon.

    But what may have sealed Mr.Klujian's doom, sources said, was his utter lack of a gravely ill family member to win a medal for.

    "Tracy did his best to hide his background from team officials," one source said. "But when the truth came out, he was finished."

    Speaking to reporters in Beijing, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol was even less charitable, terming Mr. Klujian's actions "a reprehensible betrayal."

    "We do our best to check out all of the athletes to make sure that their backgrounds are full of compelling human drama, but we can't catch everything," Mr. Ebersol said. "This is a case of one really bad guy exploiting the system."
    This truly is a tragedy. How could they let this guy on the team without checking out his story? Maybe he'll get lucky and someone will rape his little sister today.
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    Ya know, I felt sorry for the girls Gymnastics team last night because the cameras were constantly on them, following their every move as they went from one piece of apparatus to another. Never mind how young and impressionable these girls are, how are they ever supposed to stay focused on their next exercise? I don't know how a coach can ever prepare the team of kids for something like that.

    But well, it WAS in glorious HD, so I guess it's okay then huh? Capitalism at it's finest!

  24. #24
    Class of the clown GMichael's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    Ya know, I felt sorry for the girls Gymnastics team last night because the cameras were constantly on them, following their every move as they went from one piece of apparatus to another. Never mind how young and impressionable these girls are, how are they ever supposed to stay focused on their next exercise? I don't know how a coach can ever prepare the team of kids for something like that.

    But well, it WAS in glorious HD, so I guess it's okay then huh? Capitalism at it's finest!
    Sometimes kids don't get affected by things that would drive us nuts. A few times they were glancing at the cameras and even smiled for us before putting on their serious faces. Some kids can handle pressure better than we could ever dream of. At least they weren't at war with people shooting at them.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
    I think you guys are about 20 years late to the party with that sentiment. The Olympics has loosened the amateur rules to the point of nonexistence. At one point there might have been some pretense to amateur status, to the point of scrutinizing whether any corporate logos were showing on an athlete's gear. But, right now the Olympics is nothing more than a multibillion dollar enterprise. The corporate sponsors are running the show, and they want the high profile athletes in the spotlight, regardless of their amateur status.
    No, I'm not late to the party. Instead, I speak towards the original intent of the Olympics which was to spread good will throughout the world. There are still plenty of events where the participants are among the college ranks or are participating in events that don't get lots of TV coverage. I think all of the girls who play on the US softball team are either in college, just out of college or are participating with amateur status. And I'm not talking about those who wear corporate logo's on their shirts, I'm talking about the ones who no longer play with the passion and competitive drive that they had before they were spoiled by guaranteed contracts. ALL basketball players and other pro atheletes have been tarnished by the fact that they know that no matter how much or how little effort they put into their talent, they'll still come out the other end rich. It doesn't matter that they don't get payed to participate in the olympics, they get their faces on the cameras in front of the entire world. It's all about ego IMO.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wooch
    Case in point, swimmer Michael Phelps made $2.5 million in endorsement deals alone last year. Yeah, he doesn't get paid to compete in swim meets, but c'mon is he really an amateur if Speedo's paying him to be a human billboard for their high-tech bodysuit?
    I think there are young people in the world who compete because of their inner drive to be the best. Take inner drive out of the picture when corporate greed steps in.

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