Usain as in Bolt, the world’s most eccentric fast man. Or is that fastest most eccentric man? Whatever.
As we all know, NBC tape delays all the biggest-n-sexiest Olympic events and airs them on prime time so Bob Costas, not Al Michaels can introduce them. That’s not why but that makes as much sense as the policy itself. We all know who won via the interweb so the only reason to hold something is viewership levels. This may be semi-defensible on a week night but the 100 Meters took place on Sunday. Everyone else in the world but us watched Usain run but us. This is taking American exceptionalism a bit too far for my taste…
NBC compounded the error by lollygagging in showing the race. I eventually gave up and watched my hero Russell Edgington on True Blood. It was more satisfying than canned events or the fake Saints game…
I actually think, on the whole, NBC does a decent job with the Olympics. Yeah, there’s a bit too much flag waving but people are going to root for their own countries athletes withour prompting. The Wimbledon crowd howling for Andy Murray is evidence of that. BUT they need to drop this “tape delay everything awesome” thing or we might need to put some ferrets down their trousers.
Finally, this post title has given me an earworm. Mercifully, it’s a pretty darn good late ’80’s pop tune:
yeah. the speed events,, must we see the eliminations rounds? and HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU SWIM??? did they use to use real canoes? where’s the weird sport? yeah, volleyball all sports meh. and the syncronzed swimming. HA! america is out of the MEN’S beach volleyball! go lithuania!
i mourn the loss of softball, but the canoe and kayak events have been around since at least the 60’s, when i became sentient. OH NO, HE’s TAKING TOO LONG TO NEGOTIATE THAT REVERSE! to a landlubber kid like me, they were fascinating. and i’m sorry, but volleyball is the shit (my particular beef is with the constant focus on Misty/Kerri; I’m rooting for Ross/Kessy for the upset) Dig a ball on your stomach and then get up in foot deep sand to get to the net in time to jump for a spike/block, not for the weak. But most people agree with pp, which is why volleyball is perpetually relegated to the C grade sports channels.
I like the boating ones too, paper. Track is my favorite: it’s straight forward and not subjective.
This story is awesome:
http://gawker.com/5932120/some-asshole-threw-a-bottle-at-usain-bolt-right-before-his-race-yesterday
So some crazy guy (British hooliganism at its paunchy best) is going around muttering nasty things about Usain Bolt before the big 100M race, and then actually throws a beer bottle at him right as it’s starting. He didn’t hit anyone (and I don’t think Bolt or anyone else knew about it when it happened), but he got noticed by a person near him in the stands, who happened to be the Dutch women’s judo team champion, who gave him just a bit of a beatdown and then security threw him out. HAHAHAHAHAHA. And then she tweeted about it.
Live streaming of events available on the internet. And (for track at least) you can choose a stream with or without announcers. The British play-by-play guys for track aren’t great and aren’t horrible, but *anything* is better than Tom Hammond.
NBC STILL SUCKS. tho, i saw field hockey. BUT ENOUGH W/ BEACH FUCKING VOLLEYBALL.
excuse me, canoe padding is a medal sport??? funny canoe nobody could sit in. and kayak rowing???