Does anyone pay attention to the Olympic Games anymore?

[papsrus]

Being that they're in China, everything is going to take place in the middle of the night or in the early morning. Is anyone really going to tune in to the USA vs. Lithuania water polo game at 4 a.m.? Or, worse yet, watch some canned replay of it the next day? ... Does anyone even care about the Olympics anymore now that we're not staring down the big bad USSR, or now that professionals are taking part, or now that we know a not insignificant number of the top athletes are probably doping up in one way or another?

The Olympic Games are nothing more than an enormous waste of money and one giant corporate cluster fuck.

... IMO ...

[JSngry]

Me & the mizzus have always liked us some Olympics, especially the track & field & swimming events (me) & the gymnastics (her).

Didn't care about the politics then nor now, just like the games.

[catesta]

Once upon a time I enjoyed watching, mainly the winter stuff.

Now, I don't care about any of it.

[Peter Johnson]

Funny, Chris--that's my exact feeling. But what's funnier is that I just don't know _why_ I don't care so much. Perhaps it's because they stagger the games every two years, so there's no longer 4 years of anticipation, it just seems like the Olympics are "always happening"?

[catesta]

Funny, Chris--that's my exact feeling. But what's funnier is that I just don't know _why_ I don't care so much. Perhaps it's because they stagger the games every two years, so there's no longer 4 years of anticipation, it just seems like the Olympics are "always happening"?

Yeah, that's a big part of it.

[7/4]

I thought it was because we don't have ABC's Wide World of Sports anymore.

It's been a very long time since I watched the Olympics.

.

[.:.impossible]

I'm really looking forward to the swimming competition.

[ejp626]

I'm conducting my own personal boycott of the Olympics. I haven't found it interesting in a long time, but I think this one will take the cake in terms of the general awfulness/emptiness of the whole thing. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the long-distance runners/cyclists come down with lung disease and try to sue the IOC for their terrible decision to let this go to Beijing.

[Shawn]

Back when Wide World Of Sports was still on the air I used to enjoy watching the winter games...but I probably haven't watched the Olympics in 20 years and don't intend to start anytime soon.

[7/4]

More like 35 years for me. At some point I started using my spare time for other things...

.

[rdavenport]

Being that they're in China, everything is going to take place in the middle of the night or in the early morning. Is anyone really going to tune in to the USA vs. Lithuania water polo game at 4 a.m.? Or, worse yet, watch some canned replay of it the next day? ... Does anyone even care about the Olympics anymore now that we're not staring down the big bad USSR, or now that professionals are taking part, or now that we know a not insignificant number of the top athletes are probably doping up in one way or another?

The Olympic Games are nothing more than an enormous waste of money and one giant corporate cluster fuck.

... IMO ...

The BBC are absolutely flogging this thing to death here, much like they do with Wimbledon. It's probably as much to do with the fact that those two are just about the only sporting events left to terrestrial TV. I always think of the Olympics (like Wimbledon) as sport for people who don't like watching sport.

I totally agree about the waste of money - I groaned when London won the bid for 2012. I really cannot see how any good can come of it - it's already cost the taxpayer billions. It's purely an exercise in vanity, thanks in no small part to Lord Sebastian Coe, IMVHO of course.

So no, I won't be watching any of it.

Edited August 6, 2008 by rdavenport

[DukeCity]

I wouldn't say I have "Olympic fever" or anything, but I'm sure I'll tune in for bits and pieces. Often I'll get sucked in by one event or another, and for a moment or two get interested in who wins. It's still pretty impressive to see such a high level of skill/achievement from the athletes.

We got a new flat-screen TV and hi-def box recently, so I'm looking forward to seeing how NBC's broadcast looks...

[RDK]

Being that they're in China, everything is going to take place in the middle of the night or in the early morning. Is anyone really going to tune in to the USA vs. Lithuania water polo game at 4 a.m.? Or, worse yet, watch some canned replay of it the next day? ... Does anyone even care about the Olympics anymore now that we're not staring down the big bad USSR, or now that professionals are taking part, or now that we know a not insignificant number of the top athletes are probably doping up in one way or another?

The Olympic Games are nothing more than an enormous waste of money and one giant corporate cluster fuck.

... IMO ...

Ask this when the ratings come in. Like it or not, ratings are almost almost huge, which means that millions (if not billions) still "pay attention." This year will be tough for NBC because, as you noted, China is half a world away. Just be glad it's not your money being spent or your company doing the fucking.

[WorldB3]

I did some work for the NBC Olympic Web Site during the 2000 games and it was really fun being in a room with 20 monitors keeping track of all the events as they happened and doing updates in real time. But on my day off when trying to follow at home it was torture with the commercials, the bs movies about the athletes with the cheesy music and how they manipulate everything up for emotional effect to the lowest common detonator of viewers.

It was more about reality TV instead of sport. I haven't watched a single event since.

Its also total bs that we are sending pro basketball players over there. It would be a million times more exciting to root for some college kids who would be having the time of their lives and actually honoring their country instead of their shoe contract.

Edited August 6, 2008 by WorldB3

[papsrus]

I did some work for the NBC Olympic Web Site during the 2000 games and it was really fun being in a room with 20 monitors keeping track of all the events as they happened and doing updates in real time. But on my day off when trying to follow at home it was torture with the commercials, the bs movies about the athletes with the cheesy music and how they manipulate everything up for emotional effect to the lowest common detonator of viewers.

It was more about reality TV instead of sport. I haven't watched a single event since.

Oh man, if they start laying on the syrupy crap with these athletes I'm going to break something.

I read the other day where the Dominican Republic is offering cash payments to athletes who win medals. Right up front they're saying a gold is worth X amount, silver is worth Y, etc. ... This thing hasn't been about "amateur" athletics for a long, long time.

I have to say though, that I do enjoy the winter games much more, maybe because they're a bit smaller in scale, but also because the sports are faster and there's a lot more crashing involved ...

Plus you get to see stuff like curling. ... Who'd a thunk? That's gotta be the biggest beer-drinking sport of all time, I'm guessing.

[paul secor]

I used to watch the Olympics, but I have no interest anymore. The politics, drug aided performances, using under age gymnasts, whatever else teams/people do to win - I'll pass.

[Big Al]

I'll be watching the diving; I've always liked that. Plus, the UT diving coach is there (he's a good friend of my sister, and we stayed at their house one year when our daughter went to a UT swimming/diving camp).

Speaking of all the personal syrupy reality stories, don't be surprised if they do a special interest story on this guy. He and his wife adopted their daughter from China, which is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong. Their daughter is 12 now, and they're taking her to the Olympics as well as her old orphanage.

Oughta be interesting to see how ready Beijing is for these games. They were scrambling back in November when my wife and I went; according to a kid in my Sunday School class, his mom went in February and they were nowhere near ready.

And yes, the air is dreadful. Any athlete dumb enough to go over there and run in that shit, well..... I'm not gonna have much sympathy for them. I agree with the OP: the Olympics and the medals don't hold near the prestige they once did, and risking your health for a shot at a medal isn't worth it, IMO.

[Willard]

Being that they're in China, everything is going to take place in the middle of the night or in the early morning. Is anyone really going to tune in to the USA vs. Lithuania water polo game at 4 a.m.? Or, worse yet, watch some canned replay of it the next day? ... Does anyone even care about the Olympics anymore now that we're not staring down the big bad USSR, or now that professionals are taking part, or now that we know a not insignificant number of the top athletes are probably doping up in one way or another?

The Olympic Games are nothing more than an enormous waste of money and one giant corporate cluster fuck.

... IMO ...

as every space exploration program since the end of Cold War

[WorldB3]

Oh man, if they start laying on the syrupy crap with these athletes I'm going to break something.

The worst was the wrestling gold medal event in 2000. Since NBC knew the outcome they played the syrupy stuff to their advantage. Anyway a kid from Iowa beat the last two time Gold Medal winner from Russia. The pre match hype was out of control. They would show the eventual winner from Iowa walking the fields with his dog and kissing babies while he talked over motivational music. For the Russian athlete

NBC manipulated his voice to talk slower and deeper to make him sound more evil and all the footage was in black and white with menacing music. Short of doing a reenactment of the Russian athlete drowning puppies it couldn't have been more over the top.

Edited August 6, 2008 by WorldB3

[RDK]

Being that they're in China, everything is going to take place in the middle of the night or in the early morning. Is anyone really going to tune in to the USA vs. Lithuania water polo game at 4 a.m.? Or, worse yet, watch some canned replay of it the next day? ... Does anyone even care about the Olympics anymore now that we're not staring down the big bad USSR, or now that professionals are taking part, or now that we know a not insignificant number of the top athletes are probably doping up in one way or another?

The Olympic Games are nothing more than an enormous waste of money and one giant corporate cluster fuck.

... IMO ...

as every space exploration program since the end of Cold War

[papsrus]

OK, other than the schmaltzy presentation and corporate love-fest, here's the thing that really grates on me, I guess:

The big stories in the U.S. leading into the games seem to be whether swimmer Michael Phelps will break Mark Spitz's record of seven golds, and whether the U.S. basketball team will recapture gold (preferably going undefeated in doing so). So, if Phelps doesn't win eight freakin' gold medals, he's a failure. And if that basketball team doesn't win gold, or win every game they play, they will be judged a failure.

Nothing new, I guess. But it just re-emphasizes to me that it's not about competing. It's about the insatiable need to win more than anyone else, at any expense.

My favorite athletes are guys like Eddie the Eagle, the bespecticaled British ski jumper back in the Calgary Olympics who was lucky to make it off the jump in one piece. Or the Jamaican bobsed team -- underdogs, in other words. We used to root for the underdog. Now we expect perfection. I have no desire to watch the U.S. basketball team pummel opponents or, alternately, come apart at the seams and become a national disgrace if they don't. That isn't sport to me.

... I'm sure I'll think of more stuff I don't like about the Olympics, but I'd better stop for now ...

(People say I'm a little grumpier since I quit smoking. I don't know what the bastards are talking about.)

[.:.impossible]

I don't care what you think... the majority of the athletes that are competing in this year's olympic games have put in hours upon hours of training to even qualify for their event(s). Apparently, the folks here that are dumping on the olympics have never known anyone with aspirations to compete at this level.

[JSngry]

Yeah, what are we talking about here, the Olympics, or the bullshit surrounding the Olympics? Don't tell me that you can' separate them, because I'll tell you like Baraka told peeps when they said, they couldn't dance to bebop - yeah, you can't.

It's still the premier international competition for a big bunch of athletes, and if you don't want to dig that because of all the other stuff that goes on outside the moments of competition, fine. Be that way about it if that's all you get out of it. I have neither the time nor the inclinationto watch these sports year 'round, so the Olympics is a fine way for me to see them with most of the main playas in place. If you can find a better deal, take it.

But for me & the mizzus, hey, we have always liked us some Olympics, and I reckon we will again this year. We got us some digital cable and we don't plan on being wholly tethered to to prime time mini-series (whihc is part of the bullshit surrounding the Olympics).

[Jazzmoose]

Funny, Chris--that's my exact feeling. But what's funnier is that I just don't know _why_ I don't care so much. Perhaps it's because they stagger the games every two years, so there's no longer 4 years of anticipation, it just seems like the Olympics are "always happening"?

I know I started losing interest when they started the staggered schedule.

The switch to professional atheletes in the team sports took some shine off as well for me.

Edited August 6, 2008 by Jazzmoose

[RDK]

The weird thing about the Olympics - and I always end up watching far more of it than I expect to - is that I don't give a shit about watching baseball, football, tennis, hockey or any of the other "pro" sports that I might usually watch, but instead I become a once-every-four-years fan of shotputting, archery, discus tossing, curling (!), and all the strange other stuff that I might otherwise make fun of someone else watching. As somebody above said, maybe it's because we no longer see such things on "Wide World of Sports."