The Rockwood 2004 Olympic Watch--Thursday, August 19, 2004

Thursday, August 19, 2004

The fluff stays low, but NBC gets caught. Read up!

There have been times during the Olympic Watch this year when I've not counted something as fluff just because it's so short. For instance, at the beginning of events, NBC will sometimes show 30 second fluff-like pieces featuring an athlete about to compete. Because I break down everything into 30 second increments to prevent myself from going insane, it hardly seems worthwhile to count 30 seconds of fluff.

Today, however, the first event was the semifinals of the Men's 50-meter freestyle race, and in between heats one and two, we got to see a short fluff piece on nine-time medalist Gary Hall, Jr. Gary gets himself pumped up for his races by strutting about in a way that could best be described as Johnny-Bravo-like. Anyway, this bit-o-fluff was only 45 seconds long.

But the event Gary was swimming in, the 50-meter freestyle, only takes 22 seconds to complete. If your bio is twice as long as your event? Fluff.
A graphic during beach volleyball encouraged us to check NBC's online Olympic site where we could download playlists from both Misty May and Kerri Walsh. Alrighty. I do feel a little ripped off, because in order to listen, I need to be a Rhapsody subscriber. Sorry, NBC. I'm an iTunes guy.

But if you are a big enough sucker to buy into Rhapsody, you can listen to Misty May's favorite training songs (Black Eyed Peas-"Let's Get It Started," Beyonce-"Naughty Girl," and Usher-"Yeah") or Kerri Walsh's favorites (Sade-"Lover's Rock", Outkast-"Roses," and Usher-"Yeah"). Remember, Usher is the official training singer of U.S.A. Beach Volleyball!
"Chevrolet Olympic Moments" showed Jimmy Roberts back in fine form making fun of the Greek baseball team. You see, the Greek's get to field a baseball team without having to qualify one because they're the host country. But they're not very good, as Jimmy points out with clip after clip of missed grounders and otherwise bungled plays. The Greeks, realizing this, mined American baseball teams for anyone with even a little bit of Greek ancestry to come play for the home team. Jimmy then stated that the Greek baseball team medaling would be a miracle. You know, like the Miracle on Ice!

No, no, NO! The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team did not suck. They did not just stumble into the gold. They were actually a good team. The Greek baseball team, by comparison, is horrible. They have no chance. A medal by them would indicate a Black-Sox-like scandal. I had actually started to warm up to Jimmy a bit in the Athens games, but now that he's sullied the good name of Herb Brooks by insinuating that the Miracle on Ice team was lucky, he's back on my bad list.
Ads. You know that Chevy Malibu Maxx ad, with the kid doing a flight check in the back seat ("Pedals? Check! In-flight movie? Check!")? Don't you think that little brat would get pretty insufferable after a while if that family let him run everything? Oh sure, the dad laughs it up on the outside, but that's probably only because on the inside he's scared of ending up in the cornfield with all of the other children.
Al Trautwig is trying to get us all excited about the Women's Individual All-Around Gymnastics today. A minute-and-a-half clip declared that tonight's competition would result in the crowning of "the queen of gymnastics." I thought queens were born, not earned. Fluff!
Another minute-and-a-half of fluff on how Svetlana Khorkina of Russia got ripped off in 2000 when the Sydney Olympics set up the pommel horse too low. She calls it a black spot on her soul. Yeah, I can see that.
Aaron Peirsol wins the gold in the Men's 200-meter backstroke final. Or does he? As if we needed something else to prove just how good the swimming coverage has been, there's now a controversy! One judge disqualified Peirsol, saying he made an illegal turn. Not only were NBC's cameras with Peirsol when he heard the news, but they even caught 2nd-place finisher Markus Rogan of Austria saying that Peirsol should protest the decision because "that wasn't right."

The decision was overturned, so Peirsol still counted as the winner, but NBC's coverage was once again spot on. Can event coverage get a gold medal?
Amanda Beard wins the Women's 200-meter Breaststroke in Olympic Record time, making her the first person to have three different medals for this one event ('96-Silver, '00-Bronze, '04-Gold). Despite all of that, she still didn't smile or sing at her medal ceremony. I know, I know... I'm harping on that, aren't I?
More Svetlana Khorkina fluff. It turns out that after missing in both 1996 and 2000, she wants to win gold--her words--as much as she wants to mother a child! Wow. I think she wants the medal more. After all, if they were equal, she probably could have had the child by now.
Okay, order is important here, so pay attention. Michael Phelps wins his fourth gold medal, and sixth medal overall, in the 200-meter Individual Medley. There was some talk about whether he took it easy at the end so he could save some strength for his second race of the night, which is coming up shortly. Hmmm....two races, eh? This might be important.
We then go to Aaron Peirsol's gold medal ceremony. Hey! He's singing and smiling! Yay!
Wow. I was impressed last night when NBC showed 24 straight minutes of events. Tonight, they showed 28 straight minutes! They started with more women's gymnastics, then went straight into Michael Phelps second race of the night, the 100-meter Butterfly semifinal. And here's where things get tricky.
Right after Phelps won his semi in Olympic-record time, he was interviewed by Melissa Stark. Stark was obviously impressed that someone could race two Olympic-level events in such a short span of time. She asked him, "how did you pull that off?"

Phelps replied, "During the national anthem I..."

Wait, wait, wait. "The national anthem?" Maybe NBC didn't show 28 straight minutes of events. Maybe I fell asleep. After all, we haven't seen Phelps on the medal stand tonight, have we? Hmmmmm. Curiouser and curiouser!
Back to women's gymnastics, where Carly Patterson is trying to win a medal. Al Trautwig, still high off of Paul Hamm's exciting win last night, is trying to convince us that Carly's upcoming floor exercise will be just as exciting because she was behind earlier. It's her destiny!

Except, she was never as far down as 12th place, like Hamm was, and she only needed a 9.536 on the floor to win gold, not the 9.8-something that Hamm needed. Don't get me wrong, Carly's win was impressive, but for sheer excitement, it didn't beat Hamm's accomplishment.
Poor Al. He sooooo badly wants tonight to be as exciting as last night. Al, it's okay! Tonight was good, too! Al asks Tim Daggett, as Carly gets on the medal stand, "Tim, for someone who's won and been up on that medal stand, what happens now?"

I can't even tell you how much I wanted to hear Tim say, "They sing, Al. Duh!" But Carly did sing and smile during her medal presentation, so she avoids my wrath.
Heeeeey! It's Michael Phelps' medal ceremony for winning the 200-meter Individual Medley! How convenient for it to be held after his second race!

Heh. You know someone at NBC had this whole thing planned out. "Phelps is going to kill everyone in the 200m IM, then we'll show him 30 minutes later in the 100m Butterfly. We'll just edit his medal ceremony onto the end of the show and no one will be the wiser!"

Oh, and it would have worked, too, if it wouldn't have been for an unscripted interview moment with that meddling kid!
We close the show with Bob Costas doing an interview with the new queen of gymnastics, Carly Patterson. Hmmm....two comfy chairs facing each other? Hey! It's Bob's old "Later" set! (Incidentally, "Later" premiered 16 years ago this Sunday.) It's not a bad interview, but you know the rules. Interviews not immediately following the events? Fluff!

Still, this is now the seventh update for this version of the Olympic Watch, and although I'm starting to have some delusions set in, I have to say that I'm really enjoying NBC's coverage of the games. Four years ago...heck, two years ago... I never thought I'd utter that phrase again. If the second half of the Games is as enjoyable as the first, I'll gladly sacrifice the sleep. See you tomorrow!

<< Back to Wednesday, August 18<<

>> On to Friday, August 20>>