<p>We’ve been flipping back and forth during the evening coverage but CBC has coverage virtually all day which is nice when I happen to have some time to watch. This afternoon was the pairs figure skating and it was wonderful to watch it live instead of hearing or reading what happened before it’s on tonight’s coverage.</p>
<p>I also am one who loves the stories on the athletes and on the host country. There was an interesting one today on a man who runs an eatery in Turin and who lost much of his business in the midst of pre-Olympic construction. It seems that business has picked up since Friday and hopefully, he’ll recoup. The shots of the city and surrounding area make me want to book a trip to Italy for this summer!</p>
<p>My son, who rarely sees snow and has never worn ice skates loves curling! In fact I’m taping it now for him to enjoy on the weekend (when he has time to watch).<br>
I’m the sentimental type ad always enjoyed the up close and personal stuff - especially on non-US athletes about whom I would otherwise know nothing.<br>
Wish I lived closer to Canada.</p>
<p>We have cable, but my friends who don’t have cable or a dish can pick it up in our area. I can be in Canada in about 45 minutes (assuming customs isn’t backed up), so I think in our case it’s just a matter of proximity.</p>
<p>I’ve thought of a solution for the Up Close and Personal problem: put them all on one channel. NBC is covering the games on three channels. They could makeover one channel into a fluff piece ghetto –> just wall-to-wall athletes’ sob stories and quirky Italy/Turin tourist “local color” segments and devote another channel to showing us all the actual competition, 24/7. </p>
<p>The third channel could be The Yank Channel – where non-American athletes are merely background props. It would show performances, fluff pieces, interviews, and medal ceremonies of Americans only, which I guess is pretty much what NBC is today.</p>
<p>they have 4 channels and they can’t show hardly anything live? Gimme a break. The games from the last World Cup (soccer, not skiing) were live, and they started at 2:30am, 5:00am, and 7:30am East Coast time. At least then if you were interested you could watch. Now if you’re interested in an olympic sport, you have to close your ears all day so you don’t here the results until the primetime show.</p>
<p>I agree that NBC’s coverage is awful times three (NBC, CNBC and MSNBC). Coureur’s suggestion is inspired. I certainly do miss the “up close and personal” segments too. The coverage has gotten so extremely myopic, that I’ve not felt inclined to watch much of it. It seems that the only competitors they’re really much interested in covering are the Americans athletes, which in many events, doesn’t leave much to say. There ought to be a way of letting NBC know how badly they are dropping the ball on the Olympics. In years past, I spent many hours watching the Olympics. Now, I just yawn.</p>
and getting worse all the time … from what I read the strategy basically goes like this … if they show more sports the viewers who want more sports are happy and they lose a lot of the marginal viwers who like the entertainment portion of the show … if they show more entertainment they keep the marginal viewers and tick off, but also keep, the viewers who want to see more sports. More viewers, more bucks … so more entertainment.</p>
<p>I love the Winter Olympics (big ski nut), but…</p>
<p>Is anyone else tired of the Michelle Kwan story? Enough already - Saturday, Sunday, Monday, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.</p>
<p>First, she gets special dispensation to be on the team bumping the person who earned the right to be there, and then she withdraws because she had an injury that should have kept her out in the first place. If you get on the team because of past accomplishments, lets just bring back Peggy Fleming. Never has so much credit been given to failure. Geeeze!</p>
<p>That’s because Kwan’s pullout has left a huge hole in NBC’s planned coverage. She was the Princess, and they were preparing to annoint her Queen. They’ve been warming that story up for eight years now. But the injury ruined all that, so they’ve had to scramble to fill the gap. The first filler story was Kwan’s pullout. The second is/will be Emily Hughes. She may be good for several days, depending on how appealing she is on camera and how well she skates. But even so, this is still a huge blow for NBC. They have a lot of ads to sell, and without mondo ratings (spelled K-W-A-N), their price per minute just went down.</p>
<p>“There ought to be a way of letting NBC know how badly they are dropping the ball on the Olympics.”</p>
<p>Actually, some networks do listen to complaints/suggestions. Years ago, one of my co-workers and I were huge volleyball fanatics and there was limited coverage on TV. At the time it was done by ABC and Roone Arledge was in charge of the sports arm of ABC. I suggested to my co-worker that we call ABC and ask to speak with Roone Arledge. We didn’t get directly to him, but we got to his secretary. That night as they went over what they were going to cover, they mentioned the telephone calls that they received requesting more volleyball coverage and that they were going to add it to the regularly covered sports.</p>
<p>Also in the spirit of college and the Olympics, while noting all the athletes with Dartmouth connections, I took note of the fact that if you want your kid to get into Harvard, be sure they are a female hockey player! The 09 phenom notwithstanding, at least half of the womens’ team called Harvard their college home. Now if all you folks out there can figure out which comes first - the spot on the Olympic team or the spot on the Harvard hockey team?!</p>
<p>Also of note, I believe Johnetta Flowers is back on the bobsled - go Blazers - first Af-Am to win a Winter Olympic gold, isn’t that correct?</p>
<p>FS, while I agree that Sarah is a very talented player, I think it’s very premature to call her ‘the greatest woman ever to play the game’. Hayley Wickenheiser might have something to say about that. ;)</p>
<p>Although I enjoy hockey, I’m afraid the womens’ hockey is so unbalanced that it isn’t much fun, and won’t be, until the final which will likely be between Canada and the U.S. Canada has outscored their first three opponents 36-1. That isn’t fun for ANYone.</p>
<p>Certainly, many think Parsons will be the greatest <em>American</em> female hockey player ever.</p>
<p>More importantly, I can tell you who <em>will</em> be the greatest male hockey player ever: my brother, Tristan [no one his own age can play with him]; and I am not the only person to say this he says it too;)</p>
<p>Check out <a href=“http://www.curlingbasics.com%5B/url%5D”>www.curlingbasics.com</a>. It does a good job of explaining the finer points of curling.</p>