‘Activities | Gymnastics’ Posts(3)

The quick brown fox jumped over the good, but lazy Parker family.

the olympics so far

Friday, 15 August 2008

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a couple of observations from seven days of olympic coverage so far:

 

  • archerythese bows have technology that rivals most nuclear missle silos. where are the purists that are complaining about the competative advantage of the new swimming suits?!?

 

 

  • badminton — i some how managed to watch the u.s. lose all four of their competitions, and wasn’t able to muster much interest after that.

 

 

  • beach vollyball — i swear. i am rooting for the men’s teams as much as the women’s teams. really. i promise.

 

 

  • cycling — the woman’s road race was held in the worst rain storm i have ever seen. at one point towards the end, you couldn’t tell if they competitors were on a bicycle or a kayak.

 

 

  • equestrian — dressage (the sport of walking a horse around a ring) is the most ridiculous “human” competition i have ever seen. they should give the medals to the horses, not the people holding up the top-hats.

 

 

  • fencing — absolutely addictive. so far, this my curling for the beijing olympic games. bonus: the bulky outfits that the competitors wear helps “prove” that my interest in beach volleyball and field hockey have nothing to do with their sexy outfits.

 

 

  • field hockey — awesome. i never knew this sport existed, outside of seeing girls at my high school in their pleated skirts. the worst player for worst team could put me in a hospital with their pinkie. that’s my kind of sport.

 

 

 

 

  • shooting — my first “cheer out load” moment came when an american snagged the bronze in trap shooting. unfortunately, it happened to be while i was “multitasking” at work.

 

 

  • soccer — the men flamed out in the group stage, the women have advanced to the medal rounds. it’s nice to know that some things never change for the u.s. national teams.

 

 

  • table tennis — despite all of nbc’s attempts to glamorize this sport, it’s still ping-pong. it will *always* be ping-pong. except it doesn’t have beer. (not a good thing.)

 

 

 

the serious winner from the olympics so far is the divine marriage of my tivo to the lady sparkler’s HD tv. it’s amazing how much difference the high-def “experience” actually makes, and (more importantly) how quickly you can watch a 24 hours worth of Olympic coverage when you “tivo” out the fluff pieces, the commercials, and the awful commentary…

nbc’s gymnastics commentators: a disaster of epic proportions

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

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just finished up the olympic women’s gymnastics team all-a-round competition … and we are *done* with the manic-depressive rantings that spew from nbc’s gymnastics commentators.

update: for 2012’s NBC gymnastics coverage — live commentary is here, or follow on twitter.

some snapshots:

  • when Alicia Sacramone fell on a floor routine, it was a “a catastrophe of epic proportions.”
  • when an men’s gymnast fell off the apparatus: “High bar 101, grab the bar.”
  • apparently, japan and romania’s women “don’t show the proper respect for the olympics” by enjoying themselves on the gym floor, and they would be ultimately unsuccessful because they were “unfocused” (romania went on to medal).
  • they won’t shut up about the age of the chinese gymnasts, saying at least three times that “nothing more need be said” about the controversy (if they would only *heed* this themselves).
  • when the chinese started their final routine: “Pick your measure of pressure and multiply it by one point three billion.”

really, people. they weren’t negotiating a peace treaty. they weren’t transporting nuclear waste. this is a sport. frankly, Sacramone going to have all sorts of undeserved shrink bills even without your drama queen commentary. (we still love you, alicia…)

turns out that we aren’t the only haters. their are tons of nasty commentary about NBC’s lousy commentary.

anyway, we’re using the mute button from here on out.