I have my TV on the (replayed) opening ceremony of the XXX (30th for some of you not familiar with Roman numerals) summer olympiad or the 2016 Rio games in Rio (de Janeiro), Brazil. There may be many issues the host city deals with, but let's hope for the best and all things go well for the city, tourists and athletes attend the upcoming events and games. Brazil proved to been a good host for the 2014 FiFA world cup in football (or soccer for US Americans). American...and greatest olympian ever...Mike Phelps carries the US flag representing the United States of America summer olympic team: 363 first-timers and 293 women out of 557 total American athletes.
Decided to watch some the Olympics coverage last night. Frankly, I found it to be very painful to have to endure the repeating cycle of five minutes of choppy event coverage followed by six minutes of ads. Then resuming coverage of an event in the middle of an athlete's performance. Annoying for the audience, and very disrespectful to the athletes. Plus, who decided it was necessary to plaster Rio 2016 on every piece of equipment and in every blank space in the arena - more idiocy.
And NBC has the temerity to wonder why their Olympic ratings are so low as compared to four years ago.
NBC is the worst Olympics coverage in the world, save maybe North Korea. ;)
At least this time the time zones work out. IIRC there was a huge amount of proxy servers to watch BBC coverage of 2012 as not having Live coverage on NBC was the last straw on top of a lack of comprehensiveness and competence. OK, the BBC doesn't always have that last one (the swimming coverage is awful - a really annoying presenter, and an unfortunately not very good pundit in Britain's most decorated Olympic Swimmer), but I can watch every event on their website (or via my TV as both cable and satellite have all 22 live streams as well as the two TV channels (1 or 2 depending on whether they want to air a regular programme on 1 or not, or 4) that hops about between them a bit
Plus Auntie Beeb doesn't add events to fake a higher medal score ;)
(https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/olympic-tetherball.jpg?quality=90&w=650&h=419)
In the unlikely event that they showed it on NBC, the other night the US women's' Rugby Seven team pulled off an impressive result against favourites (and eventual silver medal winners) New Zealand holding them to 5-0. NZ's narrow win meant they progressed to the semis, where they flattened a GB side 25-7 that had only conceded 10 points in the 4 games before. The US ladies also drew against Gold medal winners Australia in the group stage (though I don't think it mattered much for Australia so they weren't trying hard) and beat decent Rugby nation France to come 5th (their two games against Fiji, who are never a walkover, being 7-12 and 12-7). A performance like that with competent coverage and women's Rugby Sevens' popularity in a country like the USA where it's not very popular would easily double (at least). I want to play Rugby Sevens based on that performance, despite hating playing Rugby at school, being entirely the wrong physical build for it and not being American. But with NBC, I highly doubt it's even been mentioned.
Part of the problem is that NBC doesn't consider the Olympics to be a sporting event - to them, it's a reality TV show, where the events don't matter as much as their commentary and the athlete's "story". They also engage in censoring in order to make things more "understandable" for Americans (which is code for keeping the US ignorant of the rest of the world).
To me, the Olympics is a, to use a Twitter hashtag, a #5RingCircus. This is really sad considering the sacrifices that the athletes go through in order to participate in this one-every-four-year event. Look at the costs to put on the events, and then you look at the state of those constructed facilities a few years later, with some of them practically abandoned. We had the horror stories of the uncompleted (if not downright dangerous) facilities where the athletes have to stay in during the Olympics. Look at the price that NBC paid for the event, and I see your complaints about too many commercials to recover the costs paid for those rights. You can't convince me that there isn't enough Olympics to be shared among several networks.
I place the blame on the IOC, and the restrictions that they place on hosting the event and advertising the event. It's IOC first, and the athletes second.
Quote from: ZLoth on August 11, 2016, 12:36:09 AMthen you look at the state of those constructed facilities a few years later, with some of them practically abandoned.
That probably won't happen in Rio. The IOC are very very keen to avoid another Atlanta. And Brazil aren't going to want the issues that the World Cup caused - the stadium in the middle of the Amazon that could hold more than the population of the city it was built in really didn't go down well with the population.
Also accommodation is one of the things graded in the bidding process and weighted heavily - but seems to be an issue whenever you hold games outside of the most developed countries (as such places score low but the IOC votes for it anyway). New Delhi's Commonwealth Games had similar issues, Sochi's Winter Olympics, etc.
Quote from: english si on August 11, 2016, 05:56:47 AM
Quote from: ZLoth on August 11, 2016, 12:36:09 AMthen you look at the state of those constructed facilities a few years later, with some of them practically abandoned.
That probably won't happen in Rio. The IOC are very very keen to avoid another Atlanta.
Comparably speaking, Atlanta did well. It was a pretty good city going in, and continues to be a thriving city. If the venue wasn't to be used after the Olympics, it was removed. I don't know of anything that was completely abandoned there. Most of the other cities around the world that hosted the Olympics haven't done as well and most of the infrastructure built remains there, crumbling.
I think the IOC would rather the infrastructure be abandoned and crumbling rather than outright removed, which was the issue with Atlanta - they didn't "capture the Olympic spirit" or something like that. The IOC probably prefers places like Lake Placid, which kept the infrastructure as tourist attractions.
It seems like the accommodations are always unfinished lately, as if they had no clue how long it takes to build a building and get it ready. Are they hiring contractors who have never built luxury hotels before or something?
I'm not sure about other networks, but I wish on CBC they could put a small label like "quarter-final", "semi-final", "final", etc. so I know what race or game it is. It's definitely important to know that when you're watching it!
LOL, I was just watching the rowing (women's double sculls) where Canada got silver, and the CBC reporter just cut the lady off while she was saying her speech. The reporter says she's "getting the signal", yet it simply goes to commercial break. Wow :no:
Quote from: vdeane on August 10, 2016, 05:36:11 PM
Part of the problem is that NBC doesn't consider the Olympics to be a sporting event - to them, it's a reality TV show, where the events don't matter as much as their commentary and the athlete's "story". They also engage in censoring in order to make things more "understandable" for Americans (which is code for keeping the US ignorant of the rest of the world).
Reality show -- yes, this exactly. Slate.com is maintaining a website (http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/fivering_circus/2016/08/measuring_the_sappiness_of_nbc_s_olympics_coverage.html) measuring the "reality show"ness of NBC's coverage by counting the number of times reality show-type terms (e.g. dad, mom, death, dedication, passion, dream, determination, journey, sacrifice, tragedy, triumph) are worked into the announcers' scripts.
http://www.tsn.ca/canadian-boxer-convinced-olympics-are-rigged-1.549704
Boxing in the Olympics are facing allegations of a rigged system.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/16/gary-antuanne-russell-boxing-fixing-allegations-rio-olympics
If you saw the Gary Russell fight in the Olympics he fought great except the refs and judges sided with the other guy. Lets just hope Gary Russell becomes the next Pound for Pound Champion in Pro Boxing and good Karma go on his side.
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/sports/rio-2016/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/sports/rio-2016/we-just-dont-know-where-the-head-of-the-snake-is-finding-root-of-corruption-in-olympic-boxing-no-easy-task. The allegations of Olympic Boxing Rigged is just coming to the surface.
Heh. Boxing is the Summer Olympic's figure skating. :D
Lochte Scandal is now getting bigger attention at the Olympics than the games itself.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/18/wake-scandal-us-swimmer-ryan-lochte-has-just-fallen-off-shelf/88962158/
According to this. Now Ryan Lochte and this scandals has really turned the Olympics into a trashy reality show.
Quote from: bing101 on August 19, 2016, 03:33:18 PM
Lochte Scandal is now getting bigger attention at the Olympics than the games itself.
He gave an interview for the ages on my local Philly Fox morning news show in 2013 for a TV show he was starring in (what, you don't remember it?). Google something like "fox 29 lochte interview", or if you have 6 minutes of your life you don't necessarily want back, watch this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnceMoPtVfE .
You know those people that aren't great public speakers? Yeah...
Here's a news story written yesterday about that interview: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/celebrities_gossip/Remember-when-Good-Day-Philadelphia-mocked-Ryan-Lochte.html
I've just found out that, 4 days ago, the county of my birth would be 13th on the medal table. I think we'd be 17th now with 5 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes.
Of course, the countr of my birth is 2nd, and only kept off the top by the fact that the pool exists and the USA got 16x the gold medals there than us.
Quote from: bing101 on August 19, 2016, 03:33:18 PM
Lochte Scandal is now getting bigger attention at the Olympics than the games itself.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/18/wake-scandal-us-swimmer-ryan-lochte-has-just-fallen-off-shelf/88962158/
According to this. Now Ryan Lochte and this scandals has really turned the Olympics into a trashy reality show.
Sounded to me like the original incident at the gas station in Rio, before Lochte started blabbing about it, was "Mr. Nogottabathroom" (something many of us encounter at smaller gas stations) striking again, with a vengance.
Quote from: oscar on August 19, 2016, 04:05:42 PM
Quote from: bing101 on August 19, 2016, 03:33:18 PM
Lochte Scandal is now getting bigger attention at the Olympics than the games itself.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/18/wake-scandal-us-swimmer-ryan-lochte-has-just-fallen-off-shelf/88962158/
According to this. Now Ryan Lochte and this scandals has really turned the Olympics into a trashy reality show.
Sounded to me like the original incident at the gas station in Rio, before Lochte started blabbing about it, was "Mr. Nogottabathroom" (something many of us encounter at smaller gas stations) striking again, with a vengance.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/rio-2016-official-on-lochte-scandal-lets-give-these-kids-a-break-154711650.html. Come on here I have a feeling if Lochte did the same stuff in some parts of America then the Police and in some cases the Gas station employees would kill them and it won't be this international scandal.
Quote from: english si on August 19, 2016, 03:48:17 PM
I've just found out that, 4 days ago, the county of my birth would be 13th on the medal table. I think we'd be 17th now with 5 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes.
Of course, the country of my birth is 2nd, and only kept off the top by the fact that the pool exists and the USA got 16x the gold medals there than us.
Your county of birth would be now 15th on the medal table, ahead of Croatia.
I like the fact my country has less medals than Canada, yet we are higher on the medal table because our anthem has been played more times than O Canada :sombrero:.
Also, I'm trying to find 'Independent Olympic Athletes' on Google Maps. What is that, a team made of stateless athletes? The name suggests so.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on August 19, 2016, 05:30:17 PMI like the fact my country has less medals than Canada, yet we are higher on the medal table because our anthem has been played more times than O Canada :sombrero:.
And you are now beating the Trott-Kenny household - Spain having been the 'their house has more golds here than <country>' target of mockery. With 5 London, 5 Rio and probably 3 more Games they might manage to have more Gold medals than the Phelps house. ;)
Watched the Spain vs USA basketball semis game today. That was the first Olympic event for me to view during this Olympiad. Crowd? Not into it. USA team? Not into it. Despite that, the USA is wiping everyone else out completely in medal count and that is with some of our best staying home over conditions in Rio.
China is such a distant 2nd that they might as well stayed home to save themselves the embarrassment and the UK is right on their heels to boot. On the other hand I wish the drunk American swimmer would have remained here. His poor behavior overshadowed a lot of great performances.
If the Rio Olympics close down without a major terrorist attack, we can all let out a Big Whew. Munich 1972 was not much fun.
Getting the TV schedule cleared of the Olympics means we in the US can get back to our #1 sport: FOOTBALL!!!
Rick
I have important Olympics news to share:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/japanese-pole-vaulter-fails-olympics-8642474 (http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/japanese-pole-vaulter-fails-olympics-8642474)
QuoteJapanese pole vaulter fails at the Olympics - but earns global fame for his penis
As his Olympic dream died, Hiroki Ogita must have been the only man in history wishing his manhood was smaller.
The relationship between a man and his manhood is often a complicated one.
Most of the time, they both want the same thing - and all is well. Sometimes, they have different priorities - and life becomes a bit tricky.
But we're pretty sure no man has ever fallen out with his crown jewels to such an extent... that it has knocked him out of the Olympics Games.
Incredibly, that is exactly what you can see happening to Japanese pole vaulter Hiroki Ogita in the clip above. Trying to clear 5.30m in qualifying for the Rio 2016 final, Ogita goes up...
He comes very, VERY close to clearing the bar...
But at the last second, the vault fails - leaving Ogita in 21st place and out of the competition.
So, what caused Ogita's demise? When so close to clearing the bar, what caused it to fall off?
Yep, his penis. HIS ACTUAL PENIS:
No doubt the Japanese athlete was gutted by the turn of events that saw his Olympic dream crushed.
But we have some news that might cheer him up.
News and footage of Ogita's unfortunate moment has gone around the globe. People everywhere are now aware that his (now world-famous) package is sizeable enough to knock that big bar off its ledge.
So, while he must have wished it had been a bit smaller at the time, Ogita must be feeling at least a little bit proud of his manhood right now...
Quote from: 7/8 on August 19, 2016, 09:19:15 PM
I have important Olympics news to share:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/japanese-pole-vaulter-fails-olympics-8642474 (http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/japanese-pole-vaulter-fails-olympics-8642474)
QuoteJapanese pole vaulter fails at the Olympics - but earns global fame for his penis
As his Olympic dream died, Hiroki Ogita must have been the only man in history wishing his manhood was smaller.
The relationship between a man and his manhood is often a complicated one.
Most of the time, they both want the same thing - and all is well. Sometimes, they have different priorities - and life becomes a bit tricky.
But we're pretty sure no man has ever fallen out with his crown jewels to such an extent... that it has knocked him out of the Olympics Games.
Incredibly, that is exactly what you can see happening to Japanese pole vaulter Hiroki Ogita in the clip above. Trying to clear 5.30m in qualifying for the Rio 2016 final, Ogita goes up...
He comes very, VERY close to clearing the bar...
But at the last second, the vault fails - leaving Ogita in 21st place and out of the competition.
So, what caused Ogita's demise? When so close to clearing the bar, what caused it to fall off?
Yep, his penis. HIS ACTUAL PENIS:
No doubt the Japanese athlete was gutted by the turn of events that saw his Olympic dream crushed.
But we have some news that might cheer him up.
News and footage of Ogita's unfortunate moment has gone around the globe. People everywhere are now aware that his (now world-famous) package is sizeable enough to knock that big bar off its ledge.
So, while he must have wished it had been a bit smaller at the time, Ogita must be feeling at least a little bit proud of his manhood right now...
Welp, so much for the Asian stereotype. :-D
Quote from: LM117 on August 19, 2016, 09:27:32 PM
Welp, so much for the Asian stereotype. :-D
The line at the beginning about being "the only man in history wishing his manhood was smaller" is hilarious :)
--------
Usain Bolt just successfully completed his "triple-triple", winning the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m sprints in three consecutive Olympics. What a beast!
Quote from: nexus73 on August 19, 2016, 08:14:59 PMGetting the TV schedule cleared of the Olympics means we in the US can get back to our #1 sport: FOOTBALL!!!
In the Olympics (and in most of the rest of the world), 'football' means association football, what you call soccer.
Quote from: nexus73 on August 19, 2016, 08:14:59 PMDespite that, the USA is wiping everyone else out completely in medal count and that is with some of our best staying home over conditions in Rio.
Those 16 gold medals in the pool helped a lot - it's a bit unfair that the sport you are dominant in gives out medals like candy*, whereas the sport us Brits dominate at merges events - Laura Trott, if cycling was like swimming, would be walking out the velodrome with 7 medals, 4 of them gold, not 2 - her coming 1st or 2nd in 5 of the 6 omnium events (which are unique to that event and pretty much all of them are separate events at World Championships) gained her one medal.
Outside of the long and shallow pool, GB has one more gold medal than the USA, China one fewer - that's not to say the USA aren't the best team at Rio (though GB's medals come from 16 different sports, whereas the USA and Germany are second most diverse with 9), but that the running away with it does come down to there being way too many events in the pool.
*Seriously it's like an elementary school sports day where they throw in a ton of wacky races so the kids have fun and have lots to do, the hopping race, the running backwards race, the skipping race, the normal race, the do all four race, the do a relay race, the do a relay race over a longer-distance-that-is-still-pretty-much-a-sprint race, the do all four as a relay race.
QuoteChina is such a distant 2nd
3rd is such a distant second that it's not second at all!
Quotethe UK is right on their heels to boot.
GB is clear enough of China that it can make a little nod to the camera.
We like our participation trophies!!!
The 2016 Rio summer olympics closing ceremony is tomorrow. And the next summer olympics will be in Tokyo (Japan) 2020 (actually, 2016 Rio was the 31st, not 30th, summer olympics, my mistake) and the 2018 winter olympics in South Korea. The IOC decidedly gave the 2022 winter olympics to Beijing, China, but I have a strong feeling North Korea might start some war later this decade, and the IOC should relocate all 3 olympics to another continent.
The US olympic team won lots of medals: Michael Phelps has 28 (23 gold) medals now, earns him the title of greatest olympian ever. Congrats Simone Manuel and Simone Biles for their golden victories. And Kim Rhode won her six straight olympics (this time, bronze) in skeet, a type of sport shooting. Locally, Lara Robles from Palm Springs won bronze in weightlifting. And the US men's and women's basketball teams each won another gold against Spain.
Quote from: Desert Man on August 20, 2016, 08:39:17 AMThe US olympic team won lots of medals: Michael Phelps has 28 (23 gold) medals now, earns him the title of greatest olympian ever.
Most decorated modern (lets ignore the Greek period) olympian, sure, but the greatest? Perhaps not - that he did it over 4 Games goes in his favour, and that freestyle, butterfly and medley are slightly different helps too, but as I said above - the swimming has too many events that are too similar - Phelps gets multiple medals for the same thing.
He's up there sure, but just going by bling fails to account for Ben Ainslie, say, only being able to compete in one event and his 4 golds and a silver from 5 olympics shows an equivalent amount of dominance as Phelps' golds in four olympics. Or Steve Redgrave (who competed in 2 events in '88, which was basically unique in rowing and presumably wasn't allowed afterwards) winning 5 golds and a bronze out of a possible 6 events.
Bolt can only get 3 golds per Olympics (unlike freestyle swimming, there's not a 4x100m
and 4x200m relay in running) and he has done that at three games - if he gets them in Tokyo, and Phelps doesn't go/win, surely Bolt's 12 gold medals shows an equivalent amount of dominance and quality as Phelps (and people like Matt Pinsent with four rowing golds from four games), but he has half the bling purely due to the sport he is good at not throwing out medals like crazy.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on August 19, 2016, 03:42:00 PM
Quote from: bing101 on August 19, 2016, 03:33:18 PM
Lochte Scandal is now getting bigger attention at the Olympics than the games itself.
He gave an interview for the ages on my local Philly Fox morning news show in 2013 for a TV show he was starring in (what, you don't remember it?). Google something like "fox 29 lochte interview", or if you have 6 minutes of your life you don't necessarily want back, watch this youtube video: .
You know those people that aren't great public speakers? Yeah...
Here's a news story written yesterday about that interview: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/celebrities_gossip/Remember-when-Good-Day-Philadelphia-mocked-Ryan-Lochte.html (http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/celebrities_gossip/Remember-when-Good-Day-Philadelphia-mocked-Ryan-Lochte.html)
What the Hell is this I never thought being compared to a trashy reality show is that fitting for Lochte. I thought being compared to a trashy really something you say when the scandal is reaching its peak. at now this update has come out that Lochte is the ringleader of the scandal in Brazil. I did not think for one second that Lochte really did have a failed trashy reality show for real.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/swimmer-bentz-lochte-rio_us_57b7c28be4b0b51733a3b942 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/swimmer-bentz-lochte-rio_us_57b7c28be4b0b51733a3b942)
From AP:
Olympic ghost town: Bills due, venues empty after Rio GamesQuoteRio de Janeiro pulled off last year's Olympics, keeping crime at bay and fending off dire forecasts of corruption, environmental degradation, and cost overruns.
Six months after South America's first games, the floodgates have burst.
Rio organizers still owe creditors about $40 million. Four of the new arenas in the main Olympic Park have failed to find private-sector management, and ownership has passed to the federal government. Another new arena will be run by the cash-strapped city with Brazil stuck in its deepest recession in decades.
FULL ARTICLE HERE (http://markholtz.info/1jr)