All posts tagged Vancouver Olympics

The Last Straw

By | February 28, 2010 | Olympics, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

I recently wrote about my dissatisfaction with NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I really and truly thought that I had gotten it out of my system.

Oh, how wrong I was.

So here I sit on the last morning of the games wondering if we’ll get ANY COVERAGE AT ALL. You see, according to the KNBC website and the listings guide on cable, Olympic coverage came on at 9 am. Really? Because all I’ve seen is Access Hollywood (rerun) and Monk (also a rerun.) The hockey game-GOLD MEDAL GAME AGAINST CANADA is supposed to be on, as well as a few other events that are having their final rounds today.

This is absolutely unacceptable, NBC. You say that your ratings are high? Honestly, it can only be because we have NO other options for viewing. Have you polled anyone lately? And, quite honestly, I think I’m done with you as a network, local and national. This has been the final straw.

Here’s how I think national Olympic coverage should look from you, NBC (and CBS, ABC, and FOX should take notice, should there be a change in networks for the next games. Please?!)

Morning show- Fine. Cute stories about athletes, whatever. Depending on the time zone of the actual games, I get this. (The morning crew has actually done a great job of interviewing the athletes.)

Just after the morning show: LIVE COVERAGE

Noon: 30 minutes of local news.

Afternoon: LIVE COVERAGE

5 or 6 pm: 30 minutes of local news, 30 minutes of national news.

Evening: LIVE COVERAGE

10 pm: 30 minutes of local news

THE END.

Seriously, it’s only two weeks out of every two years. There is nothing that can’t be put on hiatus for those two weeks. With everyone having digital television now, if a network or local affiliate feels the need to air their regular programming they can now create a digital 2.0 channel for those programs and leave the regular channel for people to find the coverage of the Olympics easily. If you really need your dose of pop culture and celebrity news there are plenty of other networks and online outlets for that.

Here on the west coast we have had to wait until 11-12 pm to watch the medal rounds and races. Why is this if we’re watching it taped? If we tape it to watch later, the morning shows ruin the results. Watching is just not the same if you already know the outcome.

As for the actual coverage? It, too, has been horrendous. Someone actually made a chart of the time that was dedicated to each category: advertising, special stories, Bob Costas, medal ceremonies, etc. Costas is getting more coverage than replays and medal ceremonies COMBINED. The Olympics are not about you, Bob, they’re about the athletes, their competition, their competitors, and their medals. Last night he actually said “If you’re in the central or mountain time zone you can figure it out for yourself,” which I found pretty lame. I tweeted “Bob Costas is a douche,” and I received the following reply from Glennia: @HeadlessMom Amen to that. A botoxed, toupee-wearing douche at that. #shutupcostas.

Really Bob? As the announcer it’s your JOB to be able to tell the viewers when their national coverage begins and we only have four time zones. I guess we’d really be in trouble if we had something like 11 like Russia does.

Thank goodness today is the last day. I honestly don’t think I could take much more. Here’s to a new network getting the rights for the next Olympic games. One that will commit to getting it right.

(Cross posted at The Adventures of the Headless Family and Inland Empire Family)

Olympic Parenting: Please Stick the Landing

By | February 28, 2010 | Olympics | 2 Comments

A guest post from Alison at Chatty Cricket.

I love the Olympics. So much.

I really was hell bent on writing about the drama that becomes the stuff of Legends at the Winter Olympics (Italian Ice Dancing Death stares in Torino! Jonny Moseley and his amazing Never Ending Dinner Roll! ALBERTO TOMBA). Like, remember last time when Lindsey Jacobellis decided to show off during her winning snowboard cross and then LOST her gold medal spot and OH MY GOD CHILD, what was WITH the HOT DOGGING?!  But as I’ve been watching the 2010 Winter Olympics lo these last two weeks, I’ve been stuck on exactly how to capture the drama. To do it justice. The legendary bitch face (Barbara Fusar-Poli, I’m looking at you. But now I’m looking away because YOU SCARE ME), the gold medal promise that never was (ahem, Bode Miller. Way to rebound there in Vancouver, dude), The Jamaican Bobsled team (you guys, Jamaican Me CRAZY. In a good way)…..and yet, despite all of this amazing material, the post wouldn’t come.

I think it’s because this year, with my three children and my fourth on the way, I cannot get past the Parent Factor. These Olympics in particular have been tugging at my heartstrings left and right. I find myself completely unable to stop watching these games AS A MOTHER. Perhaps it’s because of Proctor & Gamble and their salutations to all of the mothers (and fathers) out there who sacrificed, and encouraged, and supported on the way to helping their children reach their ultimate goals, or even just on the way to letting their kids have a whole bunch of fun playing the sports they love. At five o’clock in the morning. An hour away from the house. Uphill both ways. Maybe it’s because every time the Olympics are on, no matter what sport, my three year old grabs the nearest pirate sword/ruler/drumstick and ball/lego/magnet and starts a pickup game of hockey complete with an imaginary team of players that he encourages to “Skate faster buddy! you can do it” It could be that these Olympians keep getting younger and younger, while I stay exactly the same and do not age at all.

I’m not sure.

As the skiers wipe out, I think OH MY GOD, it is a good thing you are WEARING YOUR HELMET.

As the skaters twirl around backwards and do their loopty spins, I think, YOUNG LADY we need to get you more coverage if you are going to be skating ass first like that. And then I get teary and clappy when they finish their hard fought routines.

I hop up and down out of my seat cheering for Apolo Anton Ohno who may not be crossing the finish for gold, but is setting an Olympic record for medals won in a sport so volatile that even a skater at his level may not medal at all if it’s not his night. And then I think of his Dad who encouraged him to find a sport he loved, and who as a single parent raised a son so mature and determined and focused and GRACIOUS that it makes me hope that I can somehow raise children as grounded. His father must be so proud.

And then that makes me think about Shaun White who isn’t only a kick ass snowboard trickster, but an innovator. Did you know he built his own mad science lab of a half pipe in a secluded location so that he can get away from everyone and cook up all sorts of insane new tricks? I didn’t know that until the other night. And DAMN, but that’s impressive. He is 24 years old. At 24 years old I was someone’s lowly assistant flattered for the chance to share an idea in a client meeting. Shaun White is working on ways to revolutionize his sport. I’m impressed.

It takes a special parent to recognize a talent and a passion in a child and to help foster that interest into something that can be a life fulfilling experience. We get to see a lot of the best of that on display during the Olympics. It ALSO takes a pretty special parent to be able to help their children recognize their own particular strengths without blowing smoke, so to the parents of these elite athletes, I say kudos.

Also, could like a bunch of you get together and write a step by step guide to raising an incredibly confident and well grounded Olympian? Someone needs to balance the Lynne Spears book movement is what I’m saying.

Alison obsesses over parenting and sometimes what to cook and/or to do with the house at ChattyCricket. She has three kids aged 4 and under and is expecting her fourth in June, so you should cut her some slack because she is very tired and only sort of paying attention to what you are saying, you understand. Frankly, she can barely hear you over the yelling. Actually, can she talk to you when they go down for naps?

Ski Jumping Scandal?

By | February 19, 2010 | Olympics | Comments Off

simon_ammannSki jumping is one of many sports that I only see every four years when it’s featured in the Olympics.  Despite pretty much forgetting that it exists in the interim, unless I happen to play it on the Wii Fit, I’m always enthralled by it and it’s one of my favorite events.

I didn’t think there was really much room for scandal in ski jumping. You sit at the top, go really fast down the hill, jump, lean forward at a freakish angle while birds look UP at you and say, “Holy *&^),” then land gracefully. Repeat. But, alas, there is a ski jumping scandal afoot.

Apparently, Austria and Switzerland are BIG ski jumping rivals. And the Austrian team isn’t quite sure that Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann earned his gold medal last Saturday in an honest manner. They informed the International Ski Federation that they suspect Ammann is using improper bindings on his skis, which allow him to be flatter in the air and therefore go much farther. The bindings are also generally considered unsafe.

The Austrian team informed the ISF and the Associate Press that if Ammann does not change his bindings for tomorrow’s event, they will protest the results. Well, they’ll protest if he beats an Austrian, that is.

NBC has the full story and video of Ammann’s gold medal run. Take a look. What do you think? Something not right there?

Only Losers Think Everyone Should Win: Thoughts on Competition from a Graduate of the Billy Martin School of Sportsmanship

By | February 17, 2010 | Olympics, Sports Psych, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Melissa and Josh are watching the Olympics, as they do all sporting events, with very different perceptions of competition. This is Josh’s perspective. Melissa’s is here.

Melissa and I were watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics the other night when an ad came on the television, that said something to the effect of, “Right now, everyone’s tied.*” Melissa approved of the ad. I did not. And we began talking a little bit about how this was reflective of our different views on competition. She likes the idea that for a moment everyone’s tied. Nobody has lost. We’re all here for the warm-and-fuzzies of participating in the Olympics. While that emotion is certainly a nice one, it just doesn’t ring true to me and I suspect for any of the athletes participating in the Games. Every single one of them came to win — even the guy who is fated to come in 25th in a field of 25 believes somewhere in his gut that he could come out of nowhere and shock the world (his brain knows better.) I think the concept of “everyone’s tied” only works as being representative of the hope that everyone, even the Moroccan skier, could be a winner.

But this raised the larger question of how to talk to the kids about competition. I was a very competitive kid. Like, waaaay too competitive when I really got into it. When I was 10 or 11 I got called-out for tagging up at third base before the ball had been caught and I flipped-out to such a degree that even Billy Martin would have been saying, “Whoa, calm down there kid, just a Little League game.” Even writing about it now, I get mad, because I had led-off the inning with a triple and I know, and I mean KNOW FOR A CERTAINTY, that I tagged up properly. That, plus the teenage umpire had a brother on the other team and I think that might have influenced the call. It’s been over twenty-five years and I’m still pissed.

Part of growing-up (and a hard part at-that) has been learning how to positively channel that competitive energy without going over the edge to the dark side. I’ve tried a couple of different approaches. One was to completely remove myself from those situations where I get too competitive. I don’t play video games, I don’t play racquetball or tennis because eventually I’ll get so into it that I’ll forget I was supposed to be having fun. Or, if I participate I have to consciously not care about winning — which usually means I lose, also no fun (plus the people you’re playing against can usually tell, and that’s no fun for them either). I’ve yet to really be able to reach what should be my goal, to try my hardest and be happy with that.

So, I admit that I am perhaps not the best role model for my kids when it comes to competition. I’d like to be as zen about it as Melissa seems to be, but I think that the desire to compete and win is an irrepressible evolutionary trait of men (and many women). Every time I think, “Maybe now I’m old enough and wise enough and mellow enough not to lose myself too much in a game” (particularly a physical one) I find that eventually, my temper and grumpy sportsmanship surfaces. Just recently I lost my temper playing Wii Fit Rhythm Parade. Let me repeat that: I lost my temper playing a game in which my Mii was dressed like a drum major marching to a beat. I thought I did pretty good by only lightly tossing the Wii remote when it was done, but apparently I didn’t toss it as lightly as I intended. Sorry ’bout that, Mel.

But here’s the thing — it wasn’t my parents who either through intent or neglect made me this way. In fact, they were usually pretty horrified by my behavior when I would go all Lou Pinella on some poor 15-year-old who only thought he was helping-out when he agreed to umpire his brother’s Little League game (NEAR-SIGHTED, CROSS-EYED MORON!). So, does anything I have to say really have any chance of influencing how my kids behave in the thick of competition? I hope so. I can already see some of myself in the Wolvog’s fits when he gets frustrated at a game.

And the Olympics is probably the best example of how to conduct oneself with intensity in competition and grace in defeat. So we’ll be watching with the kids and maybe they’ll pick-up on the fact that when you try your hardest and still lose, you can do so with pride and learn from your loss. But I also fear that they’ll pick-up on the truth that winning can be a drug, and when you’re longing for it, you are capable of behaving in ways that you won’t always be proud of. It’s a lesson I’m still trying to teach myself. Because I truly do believe that how you play really is more important than if you win or lose…

But I still think the concept of everyone being tied is kind of lame.

Josh is married to Melissa and writes the recently re-animated blog Not-For-Profit Dad.

* If you know what ad I’m talking about please email me (notforprofitdad [at] gmail dot-com) because it is driving me crazy that I can’t remember and I’ve wasted way too much time on YouTube trying in vain to find it.
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