(OT) Olympics Thread

[EOL]

I heard on the radio today that there is a greater US military presence in Salt Lake City than in Afganistan. I live in SLC, and work a couple of blocks from the Olympic Village so for the next couple of weeks I'm in a war zone (metaphorically), pretty hard for me not to be thinking about the olympics. What about the rest of you?

Personally I have enough jingoism left over from 9/11 that I'm glad they're in the US, of course what's ironic is I'm still not sure if I'm glad that they're here. It meant putting up with 5 years of a massive freeway construction project, and enormous amount of political BS and traffic jams up to my eyeballs already.

Still I guess there's no sense whining about it now, it's a done deal, so I might as well enjoy it.

 

[Wormwood]

I predict that the 2002 Olympics will be a flop.

Does anybody out there *really* care about these games (aside from marketers, sponsors and vendors)?

I don't mean sports in general---after all, the Superbowl did quite well. I just don't hear much 'buzz' about this year's Olympics.

I'm probably wrong.

 

[EOL]

Judging by the responses this thread is getting I'd have to agree with you wormwood. I think there's one way for you to be horribly wrong, that would be if there was some sort of terrorist incident. I think if you asked the people in SLC 90% of them expect something to transpire.

 

[Agnostic Paladin]

No one really seems to care around here anymore. The marketers seem to think we all still care though, Coke, for example has a pretty cool ad - but I don't think that it's going to do much for them considering that we all know that they're probably running "$country is so cool at their prefered sport" ads everywhere else too.

 

[MythandLore]

I guess I'm in the minority that can't wait for it to start.
But they just aren't as popular as the summer games to most people.

 

[Castaigne]

Olympics coverage on U.S. TV in the last ten years has been a joke. NBC is advertising the 'complete Olympics' but they're also running the 'My House' ads all over the place, presumably in order to attract the Least Common Denominator.

When I was a kid my family was glued to the TV all day when some Finnish guy rocked cross-country skiing. Nowadays all they show is the token American, even if he's in fifty-first place.

 

[MythandLore]

Olympics coverage on U.S. TV in the last ten years has been a joke. NBC is advertising the 'complete Olympics' but they're also running the 'My House' ads all over the place, presumably in order to attract the Least Common Denominator.

When I was a kid my family was glued to the TV all day when some Finnish guy rocked cross-country skiing. Nowadays all they show is the token American, even if he's in fifty-first place.

Yeah, they didn't cover the last two very well at all (granted they were in a bad timezone for the US).
I too rember my childhood the same way.
1984 games were the greatest (they were right next to me after all) that was a magical time.
I really enjoyed the Atlanta games a lot too, the one is Spain was pretty good too.

 

[Black Omega]

I think that's why I've lost interest so much. I want to see the best, not just the Americans. And the sports they focus on....

Not as bad as the Summer Games though. I'd love to see real coverage of judo or TKD but it just gets skipped totally.

 

[Maerdwyn]

I'm pretty excited for the games to start, though I generally don't watch the opening or closing ceremonies, I really like all the sled-type events, and I'll confess that I do like watching figure skating more than I let on to my wife. I am annoyed however that I only get to see the events on tape delay even though we live only one time zone away from Salt Lake City.

 

[MythandLore]

I think that's why I've lost interest so much. I want to see the best, not just the Americans. And the sports they focus on....

Not as bad as the Summer Games though. I'd love to see real coverage of judo or TKD but it just gets skipped totally.

Yeah, if they wasted less time talking about the people and more time covering the "real" events I would be much happier, fencing, we never get to see the fencing, darn them.

I'm pretty excited for the games to start, though I generally don't watch the opening or closing ceremonies, I really like all the sled-type events, and I'll confess that I do like watching figure skating more than I let on to my wife. I am annoyed however that I only get to see the events on tape delay even though we live only one time zone away from Salt Lake City.

Are you kidding me?
We're getting it tape delayed in CA???
OMFG! What's up with that?!