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2022 Beijing Olympics

Primoz

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@CascadeConcrete they wear pretty much regular thin full size skiing underwear and then lycra race suite over it. When it's down to -5c, most of people go just with boxers and t-shirt style underwear and lycra race suit. And this race suit is nothing like alpine skiing race suit it, but pretty much similar to lycra used for cycling bibs.
Thing is, if you never raced you can't really imagine how it it. You are racing at full speed (regardless if local race or Olympics) and your torso, your legs and arms are sweating, even at -20c, while at same time, some other parts of body, and especially your fingers and toes are freezing. There's not really much chances that you will put clothes on so, that your stomach will be nice and warm while your chest will be cool and not sweating too much (the more you sweat for nothing the less efficient you are). And then there are boots... Race boots are thin and light. You need to have some feeling for ski, and you don't want to carry extra weight. To make it more familiar to some of you, it's similar to alpine race boots. Anyone wish to stand on side of the course in alpine race boots at -20c for 3 hours? I guess not, and every normal person on world picks touring boots for this kind of work... at least if you want to keep your toes ;) But for proper skiing, there's nothing better then real race boot. And when you fight for olympic medal, you pick tool that is fast, not that one that makes you feel comfortable. So maybe "his ability to father children" is not that questionable, as he was there to race, and making safe enough environment for racing is on someone's else. As I wrote, when you go racing, you go racing, and you dress appropriately to this, not for being nice and cozy... and SLOW.
 

neonorchid

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I've been watching Holderness Family videos for a while, always funny and on point.

I found Holderness Family videos during the 2020 lockdown, their videos, Jim Gaffigan's "Lets get cooking", Canadian travel blogger idiots stuck in the Philippines, and a few others which otherwise I would've never looked at helped me through those trying times.
 

Erik Timmerman

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My lesson yesterday was believe it or not the (or a?) Senior VP of NBC who was heavily involved in the Olympics this go around. I told her that probably I watched no more than 30 minutes of the Olympics this year. Certainly the least I have ever watched and far less World Cup than I have watched this year. We didn't talk about it a lot, but we did talk about the travesty that was the women's SL coverage. She said "so I guess you are not a believer in the QB theory, that you want to see his reaction after he loses the game". I told her I like the sport I want to see the other skiers and named a bunch of them. I told her that if the Steelers pulled Big Ben in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl, I'd want to see how Mason Rudolph did. They wouldn't keep the camera on Ben and ignore the game and then at the end go "Oh, btw, the Rams won!". I would have liked to even see Sarah Schlepper's run. I asked her who is the most famous British Winter Olympian? Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but pretty sure it's Eddie the Eagle. He and the Jamaican Bobsled team (and Tonya Harding) are the ones that get wide release movies about them!
 

wiread

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My lesson yesterday was believe it or not the (or a?) Senior VP of NBC who was heavily involved in the Olympics this go around. I told her that probably I watched no more than 30 minutes of the Olympics this year. Certainly the least I have ever watched and far less World Cup than I have watched this year. We didn't talk about it a lot, but we did talk about the travesty that was the women's SL coverage. She said "so I guess you are not a believer in the QB theory, that you want to see his reaction after he loses the game". I told her I like the sport I want to see the other skiers and named a bunch of them. I told her that if the Steelers pulled Big Ben in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl, I'd want to see how Mason Rudolph did. They wouldn't keep the camera on Ben and ignore the game and then at the end go "Oh, btw, the Rams won!". I would have liked to even see Sarah Schlepper's run. I asked her who is the most famous British Winter Olympian? Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but pretty sure it's Eddie the Eagle. He and the Jamaican Bobsled team (and Tonya Harding) are the ones that get wide release movies about them!
That's the problem with all of them. They get people to focus on ONE thing and then create their story around it. It makes for shoddy programming, very poor journalism, etc. It certainly gives them control over their story, which they love. But let the competition create the story, let the athletes create the story, and you cover and report it. That's your job Mrs. VP at NBC.

But the past decade or 2 in all sports, the embellishment surrounding some stories has turned into full on create the drama, control the narrative, pre-write the story, and focus on the main characters in every sport and the only way I could keep watching was to turn it off if you know what I mean.
 

KevinF

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My lesson yesterday was believe it or not the (or a?) Senior VP of NBC who was heavily involved in the Olympics this go around. I told her that probably I watched no more than 30 minutes of the Olympics this year. Certainly the least I have ever watched and far less World Cup than I have watched this year. We didn't talk about it a lot, but we did talk about the travesty that was the women's SL coverage. She said "so I guess you are not a believer in the QB theory, that you want to see his reaction after he loses the game". I told her I like the sport I want to see the other skiers and named a bunch of them. I told her that if the Steelers pulled Big Ben in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl, I'd want to see how Mason Rudolph did. They wouldn't keep the camera on Ben and ignore the game and then at the end go "Oh, btw, the Rams won!". I would have liked to even see Sarah Schlepper's run. I asked her who is the most famous British Winter Olympian? Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but pretty sure it's Eddie the Eagle. He and the Jamaican Bobsled team (and Tonya Harding) are the ones that get wide release movies about them!

After the QB loses the Super Bowl (or whatever game...). The game is over. There's nobody still playing! Affter Mikaela skis out -- there's still a whole lot of people competing.

I fail to see how that distinction (i.e., game over vs. ongoing competition) is so hard for TV executives to understand. Mikaela is not the Olympics. Brady is not the NFL.

The last time I watched the Olympics (a few games ago) I watched for about an hour and saw 20 minutes of commercials, 20 minutes of human interest stories, 19 minutes of announcers telling us about the "next exciting thing" and 1 minute of actual competition.
 

4ster

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The last time I watched the Olympics (a few games ago) I watched for about an hour and saw 20 minutes of commercials, 20 minutes of human interest stories, 19 minutes of announcers telling us about the "next exciting thing" and 1 minute of actual competition.
At least for the Alpine races (except for the team even) we had the option of Britt & the Brit on Peacock which was quite pleasant as they did their best to just cover the competition.
 

Muleski

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Interesting, @Erik Timmerman and agree @KevinF. Must be an attraction to Stowe. Back in the day when we owned a second home there, we would rent it "quietly" a couple of times a summer. A family rented from us for a few weeks three summers in the row. He was a childhood/school friend of my wife's and he shortly thereafter became the President of CBS sports. Another frequent visitor of ours was a college friend who at the time was being promoted to run NBC sports. Both very good guys who took themselves out of those jobs in time, as they pretty much hated them.

I don't pretend to understand TV sports of those days {early to mid 90's}, let alone today, but we did have and have had some pretty interesting conversations. It's obviously a business, and while today we have a bunch of different revenue streams, form good old cable to all sorts of steaming, etc. I think the gig is largely driven by advertising revenue. And that is very much a data driven sale, I imagine, to the buyers.

I can recall hearing from these guys, dozens of times, "But you are NOT the average customer or viewer. Not close." They're trying to attract more and more eyes on the screen, anyway possible. And it's a big country. One of them laughed with me and said: "OK.....look at this house. Look at that ski room. Look in the ski clothing closet. Look at the winter only old Wagoneer in that garage. And you ski, what, 50 days a winter. Every weekend form Thanksgiving until they close? Had what do you tell me you spend on this for your two kids {who were then 3 and 6}". Let alone that my parents were ski racers as was my father in law, then you you have me and my siblings....

So I get it. In our home I had the typical ski family "wall of fame" with a lot of pics. Some Americans...Like Stowe's Billy Kidd. Pics with some pretty well known racers: JCK, Karl Schranz, through Klammer, the Twins. I joked with one of these guys that maybe even he didn't know who any of these people were. True.

My expectations of Network WC coverage are essentially non-existent. My expectations for the Olympics are very, very low and I no longer go off when somebody like Dan Hicks is flat out WRONG 4-5-6 times per broadcast. I know a fair amount about a lot of the human interest stories that are most often all blown out of proportion.

BUT, I'm a real sports fan. Always have been. ALL sports. My wife is the same. So at the time of the Olympics, I'm one of those people watching to "likes" to see it all. Do I really know a thing about curling? No. Do I know enough about hockey to be a fan? I guess so. Do I like the athleticism of some of the figure skating? Yep. Hate the judging? Yes, and don't choose to grasp it. I like to watch XC and Biathlon, along with ski jumping. Bobsled, Luge. Skeleton. BUT, I have no doubt that if I were involved or "into" any of those sports to a fraction of my involvement and experience with alpine ski racing, I would probably be equally disappointed and occasionally up in arms.

And least NBC has Peacock which has worked pretty well for a lot of us. I really don't need commentary. I enjoyed Britt Janyck, and when he's on I get a kick out of Ed Drake. But I'm fine just watching the screen.

I used to be a partner in a business based in Atlanta , and it was very funny to listen a lot of our people try to grasp this ski racing thing. When the Olympics rolled around, they all got it a bit. "So this is what your kids do? Are they there? Did they make the Olympic team?" So, maybe they don't get it. But at least they are watching. And in the grand scheme, even more very clueless eyes on the screen helps USST revenue. So I pretty much bite my tongue. I have become much better over the years.

But yep, my two TV buddies clearly got it, and tried to get me to understand the business model. It's a big country with a lot of people who may have "skied" a few times in their lives, and others who hope to give it a try, maybe take a family vacation when all can "learn to ski."
 

KingMouth

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At least for the Alpine races (except for the team even) we had the option of Britt & the Brit on Peacock which was quite pleasant as they did their best to just cover the competition.
Peacock! :(
I had high hopes that I could watch some Olympics on it. I never watched a single second on NBC. Every time that I turned on Peacock to watch an alpine race, the results story (spoiler) is on the front page. I couldn't NOT know what happened. Since Mikaela skied out, it was splashed everwhere with the post-mortems. I just couldn't get excited about watching and turned it off again. SMH.

The Olympics is sports for people who DON'T watch sports, hence the obsession with a basic primer, the prepackaged narratives and irrelevant human interest stories at the expense of the actual competition. The pressure on the athletes is overwhelming with the way all the sports federations do their fundraising around an every 4 year event. I know Mikaela was overwhelmed with it this time more than the past two (and it showed). I would have loved it if she boycotted it this time around and rested her body, mind & psychy, and trained a little. Give the youngsters with no expectations a chance to enjoy it.

I just accept the fact that there is no (relevant) Ski racing for a couple of weeks during the Olympics. Now, I can get back to watching, preferably the raw feed with no announcers.
 

KevinF

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Good points @Muleski .

I take back one portion of my initial comments; my girlfriend and I watched part of the "team" skiing competition.

My girlfriend doesn't ski and she was getting amazed as I was predicting winners, crashes, etc. and started getting curious about how I "knew". It's not like I have a practiced eye, but I gave her a primer on a few basics: how skis turn, why their ass is an inch off the snow, why skis going sideways = slow, why ski tips in the air = "about to crash".

Her final question was "why don't the TV people go over this stuff? Watching a sport you know something about is much more interesting".

Big missed educational opportunities on the part of the TV execs with their coverage. I have no clue what an "axel" or a "lutz" is in figure skating, no clue how skeleton or luge racers steer, no clue if there are actual rules in short-track speed skating (demolition derby as far as I can tell), no... List goes on. So why watch TV coverage of an event they won't show that I don't understand?
 
Thread Starter
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James

James

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The team races were terrific and fun however From my perspective the way NBC announced the Team Parallel race reflected a problem with USST at the moment. Dan Hicks repeatedly and persistently referred to the US team as “ Michela/ Shiffrin and Company”. All other teams were referenced according to the country they represented.
And therein is a current and potentially future problem : MS IS the USST … everyone else are perceived as supporting players at the moment.
I like and admire MS. But at some point Ski Team and media need to adjust the approach, dollars , and other resources to support overall team development or the feast / famine results and handwringing based on the fortunes of the one designated hero or heroine will continue every OWG cycle.
During one of the races this weekend on Peacock, the women’s super g March 5, at about 7:30 Porino and Schlanger had some banter about that. It was during the black screen period of an interruption where I guess they put in commercials, (but Peacock can’t even be bothered to pay someone to do that, which really makes you wonder what is going on). So the audio is left on and they mention the parallel or team event and Schlanger says “I try to not watch the parallel because Nbc announcers don’t know what they’re talking about”. Then there’s some oblique comment about Nbc protocols, and also that Schlanger didn’t get the game notes for the event they were broadcasting that morning.
Most of it is still there on the replay.
 

Andy Mink

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Paralympics sledge hockey. My old coworker's nephew is number 8, Wallace. Pretty cool stuff.
 

neonorchid

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