I'm Just Not Into The Olympics

[Marc Morfei]

I generally like the competition. But I am usually dissatisfied of the coverage. It's a little better since they started spreading it over several channels. You can actually see whole competitions from start to finish if you watch on the secondary channels. But the coverage is sometimes too pro-American. Win, win, win. Yeah, you always want to win. But there is something unsportsmanlike about constantly harping on it. And talk about pressure on the athletes... Any time an American doesn't win gold it is presented as some huge disappointing failure. Like Americans are entitled to finish first in everything? No wonder Simone Biles quit. If she finished in second place she would have been crucified.

But on the plus side, beach volleyball. I mean come on. Who could pass that up?

 

[Askwhy]

What does it take for them to cancel it? I mean, if there was a volcano erupting right there, would they still have it? It just doesn't FEEL right this time.

There literally always has been and always will be a reason or reasons to cancel anything and everything. My favorite thing about the current Olympics is that they are happening. Pretty much everything else about them has been compromised if not ruined by the things mentioned by others. Mostly, I'm done watching biased politics masquerading as sports.

 

[dented]

Doggone it, I missed it!

Not so much Turtles but I liked Flo and Eddie.

The last time I commented, my post was deleted. SoOOoo... I like turtles.

Not so much Turtles but I liked Flo and Eddie.

 

[Fendereedo]

Haven't watched it this time around, just not feeling it to be honest. But, I admire the competitors for taking part, they deserve the recognition alone.

 

[stratisfied]

All the snowflakes having melt-downs is enough for me not to watch.

I've see some event "highlights" in the feeds and had a good laugh over some of the fiascos that seem to have a recurrent theme.

In one incident, a track official decided to stroll across the BMX track while a race was in progress and collided with a biker on-course coming up the other side of the hill. The collision was unavoidable but inevitable and unfortunately the reigning BMX champ suffered hairline fractures to his knee going off the bike after colliding with the official.

In another incident, event security stopped a competing bike rider thinking she was a trespasser causing her to fall with a resulting bronze medal finish.

There was also an epic mountain bike crash caused by removal a ramp from the course between practice and competition, turning what was a downhill decline into a downhill jump and an over-the-bars crash for one competitor.

 

[oldunc]

I'm a little slow getting into it, but I will. I've seen bits and pieces; seems like teenagers rule. I'm generally more into women's sports In women's skateboarding the gold and silver went to 13 year olds, and gymnastics always runs young, but lots of kids everywhere. Volleyball looks good so far, but a long way to go.
I had the same trouble with my two main college sports, volleyball and women's basketball. The volleyball season was just a mess, with a few conferences playing in fall (the usual season) and then again in spring, when most played (a couple of conferences cancelled completely). Everybody just played in conference, which removed most of the best matchups. My team, Stanford, after winning 3 of the last 4 championships (and blowing the 4th) was just nowhere; most of their starters graduated, with injuries and covid they never did have enough players for a proper practice, half of their matches got cancelled, and in general there was nothing there. Different in basketball, the season was more normal- still only conference games, but cancellations and missing players was less of a problem. Nevertheless, though my team won their first championship in almost 30 years, and the final was two Pac12 teams for the first time ever, it just never felt that compelling- I haven't even rewatched the final yet. Same feeling with the Olympics, it just doesn't have the usual mystique.

 

[421JAM]

Swimming and running are repetitive, slow, and boring to watch, IMO. Yet they seem to get the most and best airtime.

The events I find interesting get little to no coverage, or are aired during the workday when it’s difficult or impossible to watch. Javelin, discus, shot put, triple long jump, pole vault, high jump.

 

[Controller]

What else would you expect from a forum filled with old curmudgeons that enjoy playing blues and sad country music?

This one's for you!

 

[nickmsmith]

I'm just not feeling it. I mean, I appreciate the work and dedication and talent it takes to get there but THIS one just doesn't grab me.

Same. If the US wins all medals, or zero, my life doesn’t change in the slightest.

 

[chris m.]

After learning about how hosting the Olympics is a giant money loser for the host city, the Games have lost their luster for me. Cramming ever more disparate sports together into one giant event doesn't really make sense anymore in the curated, streaming world we now live in. I think it makes more sense to just follow the sports you care about individually.

For many sports the Olympics have always been second fiddle, anyway. In road cycling, winning the TdF or World's is way more important. In many summer and winter sports it's winning their season-long World Cup or equivalent points race that crowns the best athlete. In basketball it's the NBA championship. Etc. By splitting up the Olympics into individual sports, or clusters of similar sports, spread through the year, I think it would make for easier viewing and would allow more sports to actually not get lost in the chaos of so many things happening at the same time. This is an example of getting Too Big to Succeed.

The debacle of Tokyo is very likely to result in dramatic changes to Olympics in the future, hopefully for the better.

 

[teleman1]

This one's for you!

Thank you for remining me why I always turned off the first few seconds of any carpenters song before it stretched me into blandamonium. This is probably one of the biggest reasons I gravitated to Hendrix instead of this dark drab music.. Please do not play any more carpenters music as I still need to pick up my anti-nausia medicine. Thanks in advance.

But hey, if you want to get into a competition of Nausea, GAME ON!

 

[Whatizitman]

But on the plus side, beach volleyball. I mean come on. Who could pass that up?

I grew up on the West Coast, so volleyball, both sand and court, were in my wheelhouse. I enjoy playing and watching. Mens and womens.

I don't enjoy watching it at Olympics. The reasons for popularity of women's beach volleyball in Olympics has absolutely NOTHING to do with volleyball. Not that they aren't good. Couples and sand is by far the hardest to play. I feel duped and offended that the Olympics think I only want to watch to see tall models in bikinis. I can ignore that, I guess, right up until the next commercial break, where some ad comes on with a volleyball player endorsing beauty products.

I've seen plenty of excellent volleyball players who were clearly not models. Interesting that none of them end up at the Olympics.

 

[Toto'sDad]

This is how I envision the Olympics.

 

[chris m.]

What has been seen cannot be unseen. And it raises interesting questions about dress standards vs. gender.....

 

[Torren61]

What has been seen cannot be unseen. And it raises interesting questions about dress standards vs. gender.....

 

[Mouth]

They shouldn't have advertised the poor team spirit of some athlethes.

I want to see champions, not clowns.

 

[chris m.]

The fact that a YouTube video featuring guys playing beach volleyball, wearing the same bikinis that the women beach volleyball players wear, gets age-restricted by YouTube,
reveals the double-standard in action. They don't block video clips of the women, but they do block video clips of the guys. Ridiculous.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

What has been seen cannot be unseen. And it raises interesting questions about dress standards vs. gender.....

 

[OlRedNeckHippy]

They've politicized it. I'm out. Have not watched one minute of it.
Same with NBA & NFL.
MLB has not alienated me, yet.
NASCAR. I like NASCAR.

 

[_MementoMori_]

What has been seen cannot be unseen. And it raises interesting questions about dress standards vs. gender.....

I fail to see the problem with men wearing trunks and women wearing bikinis. Isn't the general idea with beach attire to be as unclothed as possible while still covering the "naughty bits?"

I have no idea what the male and female Olympic volleyball uniforms look like though. If they're g-strings or something, then yeah, I get the controversy. And I think if a female player wants to wear shorts in lieu of traditional bikini bottoms, that should be an option.