The Rockwood 2004 Olympic Watch--Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Today brings the question, does the 2004 Rockwood Olympic Watch give credit for quality fluff? The Russian judge says "nyet!"

At this point in NBC's Olympic coverage, I can only assume that someone on the network's Olympic planning committee actually read the 2000 Rockwood Olympic Watch and was intent of fixing most of their problems (I say "most" instead of "all" because Jimmy Roberts is still here).

Today's belief in this theory comes from the coverage of the Women's Triathlon. Four years ago, Al Trautwig fluffed-up this event so badly that I actually called for his head. Today, the same Al Trautwig actually made this event worth watching. Also, NBC analyst Siri Lindley has apparently even trained with some of the athletes, giving her first-hand knowledge into their styles. Who got competent at NBC?
Whoops. As soon as I get optimistic, NBC brings me back down to Earth. Triathlon front-runner Loretta Harrop of Australia is tonight's recipient of the first three minutes of fluff. Loretta's mother died, and her brother Luke got her into triathlon to give her something to do to take her mind off of the death. Then Luke died in a car crash. Again, this is sad and I feel for her, but can I not cheer on an athlete unless some kind of tragedy has befallen them? This is the Olympics, not a giant pity party.

Oh, and Al asks Siri, "How often will Loretta think of Luke today?" Oh, please. Well Al, let me get out my big mind-reader machine and find out!
Incidentally, just moments after that fluff piece ended, one of the U.S. triathletes missed a turn on her bike and smashed head-first into the padded turn barrier. I gasped audibly. During the Loretta piece I only paid attention because I knew I'd be writing this. Really, I couldn't have cared less. Why does NBC insist on force-feeding us fake drama when real drama exists?
Off to my favorite Olympian, Rulon Gardner. After qualifying yesterday, today he's wrestling for medals. And in the semifinals he...

Oh no! Rulon lost! He can't lose! He's America's sweetheart! Uh...well, that is, if America's sweetheart can be a giant, Pillsbury Doughboy of a man. Maybe America's sweetheart isn't the right term.

Anyway, NBC's tape-delayed coverage allows us to go right to the later bronze-medal match, which Rulon does win. And, in keeping with what he said yesterday, he didn't win the gold, so this is his last match. To signify this, Rulon takes off his shoes and leaves them in the center of the ring. Apparently it's some kind of Greco-Roman wrestling tradition. As he does it, he's obviously very emotional. Or very sweaty. Or maybe both. With Rulon sometimes it's a little hard to tell.

But once again, as NBC has tried to force-feed us who we should like in these games, they've missed out on the genuinely likeable. My mother called me tonight and said, "Did you see the Rulon Gardner thing? It was so sad!" My mom is the target demographic for all of NBC's fluff. She likes gymnastics and figure skating. I'd be willing to bet that if I asked her what kind of wrestling Rulon Gardner competed in, she would say something like, "the big, sweaty kind" (actually, I'd probably say that, too).

But not once did Mom call me after a fluff piece on Carly Patterson, or Svetlana Khorkina, or any other of dozens of people NBC has tried to make us care about. Genuine emotion can't be manufactured, no matter how hard NBC tries. I'll grant that they're doing better this Olympics than last, but there's still room for improvement.
"Chevrolet Olympic Moments" with Jimmy Roberts today featured his best story of the entire games. Was it because it told us all about the Greek work ethic and their leisurely life in The Plaka? No, mainly it was because it was only three-and-a-half minutes long.
Back at the triathlon, Loretta Harrop is in the lead, running far ahead of the pack, but Kate Allen of Austria is gaining on her, fast. Siri tells us that "Loretta is feeling an unknown presence" behind her. I didn't realize that mystical powers were part of the triathlon.
Proving once again that tragedy doesn't get you the gold, Kate Allen passes Harrop right at the end of the triathlon to win the gold. Kate celebrates by running up to the person who got her started in triathlon in the first place, her boyfriend, Dieter.

Dieter?! Now is the time on triathlon when we dance!
Medal ceremony! Joanna Hayes, who won the 100-meter hurdles last night is just now getting her medal ceremony because the race results weren't official until the Russian protest was rejected. But look at her up there! She's smiling, crying, and singing all at the same time. I know it's hokey, but I love it when people get all choked up on the medal stand.
We bump and set our way over to Men's Volleyball, where analyst Mike Dodd says that the American team, trailing the Greeks 20 to 12, has "their backs up against the Aegean." Oooo...geographical references! Very nice!
And excellent coverage of the volleyball match, by the way. Again, NBC uses tape-delay to their advantage by dropping us into the critical parts of matches four and five in the eventual U.S. victory. Yes, I would love to see the whole match, too, but cuts have to be made somewhere.
Four-and-a-half minutes of fluff on Marion Jones and the whole BALCO thing. Really? Did we need to see this much on that? She's only in the long jump. This seems to be overkill to me, even for fluff.
NBC starts rapid-firing all over the track-and-field events. We start at the Women's Long Jump, then go in rapid succession to the Men's 800-meter race, the Men's Pole Vault, and then over to the Women's 400-meter hurdles final. Forty minutes of events! Okay, there were commercials in there, but still, I like it!
And in the Women's 400-meter hurdles, the home team wins! Fani Halkia of Greece makes both the home crowd and herself happy by winning convincingly. It's always fun to see the host country win something, just because the crowd gets excited.

Later, during her medal ceremony, everybody, and I mean everybody, sings! And all was good in Athens.
Off to the pool for Women's Springboard Diving! Woo-hoo! It's Strobe-Motion! Is it wrong to be more excited by a technical trick than by the divers themselves? C'mon! It's not even the finals tonight!
We come back from commercial and Bob Costas promises us over 40 minutes of uninterrupted events. Oh, Bob. You know I've got a clock on you, don't you? Okay....GO!
We finish up the Women's Springboard for the day, where American Kimiko Salduti can't overcome her shoulder injury. She fails to move on to the finals.
No ads yet. We move back to the track. In the Men's 110-meter Hurdles, U.S. runner Allen Johnson takes a fall and gets a DNF. Afterwards, he declines to talk to trackside reporter Bob Neumeier. I can't say that I blame him. Bob's been doing a good job, but what's he going to ask? "What happened, Allen?" "Duh, I fell down, Bob."
Hmmm...the spirit of Bob's promise is broken when we get a minute of fluff on how Shawn Crawford likes the 200-meter run. Apparently Bob only counts ads as being interruptions. Crawford wins his heat.
Grrr....one more minute of fluff on 18-year-old Allyson Felix, part of the "youth movement" that NBC is choosing to hype this year. She runs in the 200-meter Final and finishes second to the mighty-speedy Veronica Campbell of Jamaica. Allyson accepts the silver graciously, knowing full well that she's probably going to kick butt in Beijing four years from now.
Annnnnnnnd STOP! Hmmm....41 minutes. Good show, NBC!
AIIEEE!! Now Tom Brokaw is getting in on the fluff! Okay, I'll give Tom this one. Polish prisoners-of-war in the Nazi Woldenberg camp held their own Olympics starting on July 23, 1944. It involved 6,000 men and took 22 days. They even had their own homemade Olympic flag, tickets, and programs. I'm not even going to try to summarize it from memory. I'd just ruin it. It was a really good story, even though it was ten minutes of fluff.
Finally, Israel won their first gold medal ever. Gal Fridman won the windsurfing event and is dedicating his medal to the Israeli victims of the Munich Olympics. Oh, and his medal ceremony? Everybody singing again. It was a good night for singing along to the national anthem of your choice.

I'm sure NBC had Brokaw's story scheduled to run tonight for weeks, but it's weird how that and Fridman coincided, isn't it? I guess sometimes you get lucky.

I really like how NBC has been turning over a large portion of each night's broadcast to uninterrupted events. Now if they could just do something about Jimmy Roberts...

See you tomorrow!

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