The Rockwood 2004 Olympic Watch--Sunday, August 15, 2004

Sunday, August 15, 2004

So, three days in now, and we've only had a combined 40 minutes of fluff. By comparison, the first day of the 2000 Olympic Watch had 49 fluffy minutes. I'm giddy. On with the count.

NBC jumps right from the opening title to rowing. Let me repeat that. They went straight to an event! It's like someone at NBC actually wants to watch the Olympics!
And instead of bludgeoning us at each commercial break with "coming up next" blurbs, NBC is relying more on little graphics that pop up during other events. For example, during the rowing, a graphic noted that volleyball would be up in seven minutes. Very nice, Peacock network!
Mmmm...volleyball chicks are hot.
Beach volleyball analyst Karch Karily is doing excellent work. Not only did he explain what the referee's call of "double contact" was, he also explained how you could tell it had happened just from the way the ball moved. Double contact, by the way, is when you don't hit the ball with both hands at the same time, and you can tell it happened because the ball will have a lot of spin. Thanks Karch!
"Chevy Olympic Moments" with Jimmy Roberts. Beach volleyball player Misty May tore a stomach muscle a few months ago, and was under a lot of scrutiny by many on whether she could actually play in the Olympics. I found this out once they came back to the beach volleyball event. What did Jimmy tell us? He took five minutes to say how Misty May and teammate Kerri Walsh really like each other. Oh, and he got them to pose dramatically, too. You know, maybe Jimmy just thinks volleyball chicks are hot, and his brain just shut down when he was with them. I'd think that if it ever appeared "on" at other times. Five minutes down the tubes.
Off to women's gymnastics. Al Trautwig's spin on all of the empty seats is that it's really a good thing, because it allows the U.S. coach to move around the arena and watch her team from the stands! Nice try, Al.
It's the night of gymnastics fluff. Or rather, the first night. I'm sure there will be more. Anyway, tonight I've found out that the U.S. and Romanian teams train real hard, and that the Russians train real hard in a building that looks like an abandoned Chernobyl bunker, and that U.S. gymnast Carly Patterson once fell off of a balance beam. Yawn.
U.S. gymnast Mohini Bhardwaj gets her own special fluff piece. The 25-year-old delivers pizzas and has had bake sales to try to raise money to get to the Games. And did they mention that Pam Anderson kicked in $20,000 to support her? NO! They didn't! NBC passed on a chance to get a gratuitous shot of Pam Anderson in their Olympic coverage! Okay, so they haven't completely figured it out yet.
More swimming. Let me say right now that if anything gets better than NBC's swimming coverage, I'm probably just going to fall down and weep with joy. It's technically near-perfect, the announcers are great, and the events themselves have been spectacular. I've literally put down the La-Z-Boy several times just so I could sit on the edge of my seat. It's that good. The only flaw? In Sydney, the swimming coverage had a line that would move ahead of the swimmer (like the first-and-ten line in football games) that showed what the world record pace was. There have already been several world records at this Olympics. Where is that line? A small complaint in otherwise excellent coverage.
Amanda Beard, a U.S. swimmer who finished fourth in the heats in the Women's 100-meter Breaststroke declared that event to be "a warm-up" for her favorite event, the 200-meter Breaststroke. What must it be like to be so good at something that you can finish fourth in the world and call it a "warm-up?" Wow.
The U.S. gets beaten badly by South Africa in the Men's 4x100-meter Freestyle Relay. Bob Costas pins the blame squarely on the first U.S. swimmer Ian Crocker, whose time on his leg was the slowest lap of all 32 swimmers in the competition. Ouch! That hurts, Bob! But yet, it's clear that he's right, and sometimes the truth hurts. Nice call.
Finally, Bob strikes again by calling out the "Dream Team." Maybe I should quote that differently. How about the "Dream" team. Perhaps they're more like the "Bad Dream Team," or the "Nightmare Team." Anyway, Costas essentially picked them apart for not playing in a team-like way, being apparently more concerned with driving the lane and getting a dunk as opposed to hitting an outside shot. Bob's right, but I just have to say, "duh." Have you seen an NBA game recently? There's not a team in the league that could set up a basic play (with the exception of the Pistons who--hey! What a coincidence!--just won the NBA title). I hope they turn it around, because I want the U.S. to win, but I fear for the no-defense, no-team-offense Dream Team. Sure they can all win a slam dunk contest, but how can you expect them to hold up against world powers like...uh... Puerto Rico? Oof.

So, that's it for today. And I'll give credit where credit is due. NBC is doing an excellent job. Hopefully, they'll keep it going. See you tomorrow!

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