As a longtime Olympic junkie, I still enjoy the games and miss them when they’re gone, but I do long for the days of ABC coverage with Jim McKay at the helm. A class act, amazing stuff. There was no streaming and no parallel coverage on other channels, but somehow more sports, more athletes, and more medal ceremonies were shown. All this and they still had time for behind-the-scenes stories — Up Close and Personal, I think those segments were called. I will never forget it. My top vote goes to the Calgary 1988 coverage.
This year’s coverage was mostly awful, IMHO. I did enjoy the gymnastics, skateboarding, synchronized diving, beach volleyball, and swimming, among a few others. Katie Ledecky is a true class act and I hope she does come back in Paris. Despite her talent and fame, she is a humble person and therein lies the greatest achievement, in my book. The low point — hands down — was the lighting of the flame by Osaka. She may be the biggest phony of our time. What an insult to the true Japanese athletes who deserved to be chosen for this honor instead of a whining, overpaid malcontent who never lived in Japan (her mother left after she was born) and who never bothered to learn the language. She asserts that she can’t handle a 90-second press conference but curiously, quickly consents to paid interviews, poses half-naked for the cover of Sports Illustrated (not without considerable photoshopping), and lights the Olympic flame on live TV with almost a billion people watching worldwide. I’m so glad she was taken out in the early rounds. How lucky for her that she can whine about her multi-million dollar employment and simply cut out when she needs a break from working. A disgrace to the great sport of tennis. She whines that Serena ruined her public debut but one can only hope this is true.
I also have a kid who used to compete. What a dramatic competition it was with Russians loosing gold for the first time in 20 years with 0.125 difference between 1st and 2nd places. The rhythmic gymnastics judging is so subjective and always has been.
I saw a few medal ceremonies. But fewer than typical. Part of the reason may have been most athletes wore masks on the podiums so the emotion was tough to see with covered faces. Many took masks off for pics with other medal winners but those are typically all smiles.
Link to US medal winners with some pics from medal ceremonies.
Plenty of athletes born in America (unlike Osaka who was born in Japan) compete for other countries that give them dual citizenship, whether or not they know the language. If Japan wanted other tennis players to compete, they could have chosen them, same with all the other countries who choose players, often Americans, to compete who did not grow up in or live in their country. Check out the Israeli baseball team, for instance. Which is fine.
The rest of your criticism isn’t even worth responding to.
Well said! Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me at all. And if Japan wanted someone else to compete or light the torch, then they could’ve chosen someone else
Apparently not many watchers of the closing ceremonies! We recorded so we could fast forward through the ads - and through the roughly half hour total of watching USA athletes take selfies and pictures of each other. Why NBC thought that what the audience wanted…
Japan did a nice job but there were very few athletes left in town so it looked like throwing a party that no one came to. My favorite part was the traditional Japanese dance. It was fun watching athletes trying to follow along. The commentators said every Japanese school child learned it - which was proven when they showed the Japanese athletes performing it perfectly.
I though the Team USA opening ceremony outfits looked like fake Venetian gondoliers. The closing ceremony outfits (for those who wore the jacket) looked like fake Popeye sailors.
Paris did a decent job with their presentation for the 2024 Olympics. We especially enjoyed the jets circling the Eiffel Tower with colored streams.
We are still watching all the events we missed. We really like the commentators for Rhythmic Gymnastics. They don’t talk a lot during the performance and some of their comments about the music choices are entertaining. We still need to watch rock climbing, trampoline and some artistic swimming.
Did anyone else see Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart’s Olympic commentary? It was available on Peacock but many clips are now available on YouTube. This is one my favorites:
Which commentators are you talking about in rhythmic gymnastics? The ones on NBC prime time (Andrea Joyce?) or the two people (British, I think) who commented on the NBC app. (Peacock?)?
