Olympics

[tornado]

Well the Olympics are starting - I hope things turn out with some exciting competition & US success

..but is anyone else getting perhaps just a little tired of all the of reports of possible safety concerns (no safety issues have yet arrived), some hotel problems (some toilets didn't work but we've had that in the US as well), and some dogs rounded up - even killed (so just let 'em roam and bite people? - seriously every city in the US rounds up wild dogs and kills them - why is this big news that ESPN reporters break down and cry on-air about?)..

I hope we actually start getting reports on sports soon...tonight NBC covers the Opening Ceremony..starting at around 6PM although the ceremony actually begins at 10AM our time

[Da Coach]

If there was any doubt that NBC was going to use their broadcast of the Winter Olympics as a political tool for the Obama administration, it was answered tonight. Their Olympic Coverage started at 6:30 tonight, and they have so many hours of coverage of the opening ceremonies (which actually happened this morning so there is no excuse for any delay) and well over 500 hours of various sports that even with several other networks, they have to spill their coverage over to online sites. But instead of showing what they claimed would be shown, the first 23 minutes so far have been nothing by a long political message, accompanied by a 15 minute interview with Barack Obama. Now they are showing a long segment with scenes of Sochi and interviews with Maria Sharapova.
If this is what their Olympic coverage will be, I'm out.

[tornado]

the media clearly have an agenda...

[Da Coach]

If anyone watched the opening ceremonies, they saw a malfunction when 5 massive hanging snowflakes were supposed to have expanded into the 5 Olympic Rings, followed by pyrotechnics coming from the rings.
However, one of the rings malfunctioned, and never opened, and the pyrotechnic never happened. Anyone watching the NBC tape-delayed coverage saw it, but the millions of TV viewers in Russia saw an altered version that edited out the malfunction.
The officials controlling the information that the Russian viewers are allowed to see edited the ceremony by cutting out the malfunction, and splicing in video of a rehearsal where everything worked fine.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/07/russian-tv-olympic-rings-doctored_n_4747852.html?ncid=webmail2

Malfunction and the edited Russian TV version-


Notice the backdrop is much different.

[tornado]

US wins first Gold Medal

http://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2014/snowboarding/story/_/id/10422719/2014-sochi-olympics-american-sage-kotsenburg-wins-sochi-first-gold

[Da Coach]

Another controversial editing decision-

NBC decided to edit out the IOC President's anti-discrimination statement from his speech in last night's opening ceremony so as not to offend or embarrass Vladimir Putin-

http://deadspin.com/nbc-edits-out-ioc-anti-discrimination-statement-from-op-1518727938?

It was reminiscent of the editing job NBC did during the opening ceremonies at the London Summer Olympics in 2012-

http://deadspin.com/5929778/heres-the-opening-ceremony-tribute-to-terrorism-victims-nbc-doesnt-want-you-to-see

NBC also aired a video prior to the ceremonies in which Russia's communist revolution and the millions who suffered and died under the failed 70+ years of imposed communist totalitarianism just a "pivotal experiment".

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/02/07/nbc-refers-soviet-communism-pivotal-experiment

[tornado]

OLYMPIC HOCKEY

USA beats Russia!! Patrick Kane & gang rally USA in OT Shootout

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/02/15/zawaski-usa-defeats-russia-in-shootout-thriller-what-we-learned/

[tornado]

Olympic Men's Hockey

US beats Czech Republic 5-2
US plays Canada in one semifinal, but in the other semifinal it will be Finland and Sweden, as Finland surprised and upset the Russians and caused quite an uproar among home-nation fans.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-olympics-2014-us-tops-czechs-will-face-canada-in-olympic-hockey-semis/

http://www.cbssports.com/olympics/eye-on-olympics/24448255/russias-national-nightmare-hockey-team-done-after-3-1-loss-to-finlandrussias

[Da Coach]

Don't sleep on the Finns. They are a very good team with exceptional goaltending.

[tornado]

NBC missed a huge opportunity, IMO- I looked all over to see if they would have any of the hockey games in prime time ...but I didn't see it...not on their flagship station NBC, nor CNBC nor NCSports..
what the heck - I know lots of people would have loved to have seen the US quarterfinal win or the Russian loss...but all they had was women's bobsledding and other nations' curling, and figure skating!

I have come to the conclusion NBC is doing a terrible job and not showing the very sports people would watch in prime time

[Da Coach]

They did show highlights of the US-Russia game and other US hockey games on their nighttime coverage, but since the games were broadcast live early in the morning on the NBCSortsNetwork cable channel to record ratings, they chose not to tie up too much of the primetime space with replays.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/nbc-sports-network-hockey-olympics-usa-russia-record-ratings-sochi/

By the way, the figure skating always draws the highest ratings for any Winter Olympic sport, thus many hours of it, including re-broadcasting warmup skating and other non-action content.

[tornado]

US Women's Hockey had the Gold Medals literally in their bag then had an epic meltdown and gave it away

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/02/20/u-s-collapses-in-gold-medal-womens-hockey-game/

[tornado]

interesting how little coverage it is getting but...
at the Sochi Olympics - Russia had a MAJOR, institutional cheating system in place that is only now getting media attention....

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/olympics/blogs/reports-allege-russia-orchestrated-successful-doping-scam-at-sochi/article_4ea70f3b-4fe8-50a5-8023-9078c4e7ce7b.html

[tornado]

Studies show that Russian cheating and doping went way beyond the Olympics...
They've been cheating at every international competition in almost every sport for years - likely decades...

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20160718/russian-inquiry-finds-cheating-went-beyond-sochi-olympics?rssfeed=true&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

I guess some people must be surprised by this, I am not...
..and in other news, the sun came up this morning...

[Da Coach]

The Rio Olympics start Friday, August 5. And this weekend, some of the first Olympians are arriving and moving into the apartments in the athlete's village.

One of the first teams to arrive in Rio ahead of the Olympics are some of the Australian athletes.
But already there is trouble being reported-
The Australian Olympic Committee has complained to the Rio officials and to the International Olympic officials about deplorable conditions in their athlete's apartments. They are refusing to stay there!-

http://www.kingstonguardian.co.uk/sport/national/14639240.Australian_Olympic_Committee_says_athletes__village_in_Rio__not_safe_or_ready_/

The apartments are not finished, water pipes leak, gas pipes leak, wires are exposed, some apartments don't have electricity, the hallways and stairways are not illuminated and they fear for their athletes' safety, and they say they are filthy.

Instead of working hard to fix all the problems, the mayor of Rio inflamed the situation further by first saying the accommodations in Rio were better than the ones in Sydney. Then he offered to put a kangaroo in the Australians' apartments to make them feel at home!

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-australia/rio-olympics-2016-mayor-offers-kangaroo-in-athletes-village-for-australians-20160724-gqct15.html

What a buffoon. This Olympics should be fun.