2012 Summer Olympics - London, England (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

I wish the CBC was still handling the Canadian coverage, but this is better than the alternative.

My grandmother lives about 40 minutes south of the border, and gets both the Canadian and American stations. Growing up, I was in town for a couple of the winter Olympics and was struck both times how superior the CBC's coverage was to whatever American network had the rights at the time. The sport always came first, the personalities a very distant second.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england/30#post_3956456
My grandmother lives about 40 minutes south of the border, and gets both the Canadian and American stations. Growing up, I was in town for a couple of the winter Olympics and was struck both times how superior the CBC's coverage was to whatever American network had the rights at the time. The sport always came first, the personalities a very distant second.

Moreover, when there was a genuinely interesting human interest story, they were typically reserved for the "off" time, when no events were live. This was generally in the mornings or evenings, before and after competition. It was actually a nice way to start or cap off the day.

 

[Malcolm R]

My grandmother lives about 40 minutes south of the border, and gets both the Canadian and American stations. Growing up, I was in town for a couple of the winter Olympics and was struck both times how superior the CBC's coverage was to whatever American network had the rights at the time. The sport always came first, the personalities a very distant second.

Definitely. I was very disappointed to find that CBC didn't have the coverage from London, as I usually watch their coverage over the fluff-fest that's playing on NBC. I want competition. I don't care about the personal "stories."

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Enjoyed watching the women's team gymnastics final tonight, even though the result had made headlines across the 'net well beforehand, but it highlighted some of the basic deficiencies in NBC's coverage. First: not always providing the score for each participant. I still don't know what Aly Raisman's score that cemented the gold was for her floor routine. Second: only showing the US in full. If you're going to tape delay the event for prime time, take advantage of it and show us each athlete for each event from all of the top performing nations. China won the gold in 2008, and we barely saw them on screen tonight. Romania got the bronze, and we only saw a couple of their athletes. I don't even think we got to see the complete Russian performance. Third: cutting to the medals ceremony after the other teams have already been awarded their medals. Just a general lack of class from NBC. And while Tim Daggett and Elfi Schlegel are fantastic informative commentators, when it comes to gymnastics Al Trautwig is a moron. He's got a great voice, but he contributes next to nothing to the conversation, and he's reaching for that iconic moment seemingly every five seconds. I kept wanting him to shut up so that Daggett and Schlegel could talk and I could learn something about what I was watching.
Their tennis coverage on Bravo is equally frustrating. The Laura Robson-Maria Sharapova match had a 98th-ranked teenager on home soil giving the World #3 a real run for her money for a stretch, but it was second position to one of the men's matches so Bravo only caught bits and pieces during the lulls in the men's match. With the gazillion cable channels Comcast has, you think NBC could have devoted a separate channel for each match.
On the plus side, the photography has been phenomenal. I really felt like I was in the stadium tonight. The sound work is equally phenomenal, I'm catching bits of chatter between the athletes and the coaches I've never caught in past Olympics coverage. It's like the veil is pulled back a tinsy bit between the athletes and the spectators behind our TV sets.

 

[Citizen87645]

I had to laugh at the two judges to the gymnast's left. And she still got docked tenths of a point!

 

[Ockeghem]

I had to laugh at the two judges to the gymnast's left. And she still got docked tenths of a point!

I'm certainly no judge of gymnastics, but my daughters know the sport better than I. We watched Maroney's vault several times and couldn't find anything wrong with it. I told them that since it was the beginning of the competition, the scores are generally lower in order to leave room to score higher. This was IMO one of those times when a '10' could have been awarded at nearly the beginning of a competition. I also told them that since Maroney has on occasion vaulted to the edge of the troposphere, this was sort of a letdown and that the judges expected better of her. Seriously, that girl is crazy on the vault. I've never seen anything quite like that before on this apparatus. I hope she takes gold in the individual event final.

If you're going to tape delay the event for prime time, take advantage of it and show us each athlete for each event from all of the top performing nations.

I was wanting very much to see the Romanian team, and whether Iordache was going to be able to perform (particularly on the beam and floor) due to the possibility of her having plantar fasciitis. I think she did, but I was really looking forward to seeing it as the beam is my favorite event.

On the plus side, the photography has been phenomenal. I really felt like I was in the stadium tonight. The sound work is equally phenomenal, I'm catching bits of chatter between the athletes and the coaches I've never caught in past Olympics coverage. It's like the veil is pulled back a tinsy bit between the athletes and the spectators behind our TV sets.

Agreed. I can't wait for the photography during several of the track and field events. In past Olympics, the second replay is what really catches my attention, since the (at times extreme) close-ups of the various athletes is such that you can almost 'feel' the speed of their movement in the lanes. I hope this particular camera work / technique used in recent past Olympics is used at London.

 

[Steve_Tk]

We didn't use Twitter, Drudgereport, news sites, or Facebook last night so we could watch the Women gymnastics and Phelps Live. In such a connected world, it was damn hard to do!!

 

[Citizen87645]

Hoping to catch the women's saber final without spoilers today...

 

[Walter C]

/t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england/30#post_3956705
We didn't use Twitter, Drudgereport, news sites, or Facebook last night so we could watch the Women gymnastics and Phelps Live. In such a connected world, it was damn hard to do!!

I managed to stay unspoiled with Phelps, but not with women's gymnastics, as the headline was plastered in large font on the MSN web site and Yahoo. Also, I tried to watch the swimming finals live on the NBC Olympics site, but it ended up freezing after seeing Missy Franklin fall short of a medal in one of her races. Refreshing did not work either, so I had to put some effort to stay unspoiled, which I did, when it came to Phelps becoming the all-time leader in Olympic medals.

It does make me wonder if staying unspoiled is just unavoidable, regardless whether NBC shows the events live or not, because for me, there are times when I can't watch the event in real time for whatever other reason. The time zone difference just can't be erased.

 

[Ockeghem]

Walter and Steve,
Yeah, I hope I didn't spoil anything for either of you. I was very careful to say (above) that it was going to be a lot of fun watching the women's gymnastics team event tonight without (hopefully) giving anything away.
Walter,
As thrilled as I was that the U.S. women took the gold, I too wanted more of the Russians and (especially) the Romanians. I was trying to explain to my children that since we live in the United States, we're going to get a ton more coverage of U.S. athletes than those from other countries.

 

[Walter C]

Scott,

Your posts did not spoil anything for me, so no worries there. I was commenting on how the result is pretty much in our faces when surfing the net, rather than try to hide it. I

In other news, Britain has finally won gold. For a little while, I thought they would go through these Games without one, as they did not win one at all in any of the swimming events.

 

[Ockeghem]

Walter,
Glad to hear it. Yeah, I saw that Great Britain has two gold medals.
I wish I could see more archery, martial arts, and weight-lifting. When I was a child, weight-lifting seemed to air a lot more than it does today. I miss seeing the days of watching Vasily Alekseyev and others competing. Maybe these events have been on the other NBC channels and I've just missed them.

 

[Brian Sharp]

In the UK we have 24 HD channels covering just about every every second of every event.

 

[Ockeghem]

In the UK we have 24 HD channels covering just about every every second of every event.

Brian,
Thanks for your offer to pay the air fare. I'll be right over.

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

CBC (Canada) has the rights for future games. Some of you have chimed in that you prefer us Canadian's covering and CBC is our best broadcaster for sporting events:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/2012-summer-games/wins+back+Canadian+media+rights+Olympic+Games+2014+2016/7024913/story.html

 

[Walter C]

/t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england/30#post_3956773
I wish I could see more archery, martial arts, and weight-lifting. When I was a child, weight-lifting seemed to air a lot more than it does today. I miss seeing the days of watching Vasily Alekseyev and others competing. Maybe these events have been on the other NBC channels and I've just missed them.

The only time I saw weightlifting was during one of their late night coverage on Saturday. I don't ever remember if it ever aired on prime time, which back then, used to be the only way I could watch the Olympics. But seeing the women's event was something, even seeing one of them strain a muscle after lifting the thing the wrong way.

I did watch the semifinals and finals of fencing today online, and can't believe Muriel Zagunis lost the way she did, blowing a huge lead after I thought she would win the semifinal easily. It's as if she suddenly forgot how to fence.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Jason Kirkpatri /t/322614/2012-summer-olympics-london-england/30#post_3956864
CBC (Canada) has the rights for future games. Some of you have chimed in that you prefer us Canadian's covering and CBC is our best broadcaster for sporting events:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/2012-summer-games/wins+back+Canadian+media+rights+Olympic+Games+2014+2016/7024913/story.html

Came here to post that exact update. The CBC officially won the bid for 2014 and 2016, which is tremendous news. Ron MacLean is the best sports anchor there is: hopefully he's back in the driver's seat.

 

[Nelson Au]

Wow Scott! I remember those days of weight lifting being shown! That's right, they don't show that as much today. I guess it was more a part of the Cold War days.

 

[Stan]

Hoping to catch the women's saber final without spoilers today...

Got to watch part of this earlier today. Had an American guy against a Korean, followed by several women (who were much more agressive than the men). At first it seemed kind of silly (particularly the guys), but once I started paying attention it was really pretty cool.
Don't know the first thing about the sport, but enjoyed it. I was on a treadmill at a gym and that happened to be the HD screen in front of me, so stuck with it for an hour. The bad part is they have about 50 different HDTVs playing, all closed captioned, and the captioning is about 10-15 seconds behind the actual action. The good part is it was MSNBC and if there were commercial breaks, I barely noticed them, must have been very brief.
Got womens kayaking last time, it's amazing some of the things you don't even consider Olympic events that get shown.
Won't mention any results. With all the time zone things, I may have been watching something from Monday, or maybe it was live.

 

[Citizen87645]

Disappointing turn in the women's saber final. I only had time to catch the events around lunch time and by the time I tuned in, Mariel Zagunis had already been upset in her path to gold and was trying to eke out a win for bronze. Then that she got picked apart by her opponent there too. In interviews she said she rushed it, which I think has been part of her style of play, but her competitors seemed to know how to deal with that sort of aggressiveness.