Another Olympics is in the bag…

The USA didn’t ‘shine’ particularly well this time around, and the coverage pretty much sucked, but there were still some impressive performances by all the athletes!

We were talking about it at dinner last night, and it’s really about money and viewership…

America is no longer the premier economy in the world, having been overshadowed by the SE Asian combination of China, South Korea, and Japan. And they are the technology leaders, have the most tech savvy kids and the highest viewer numbers for TV, even if there are only ‘state’ channels in China.

And the Olympics are chasing the money and viewers… Plus Beijing gets to reuse all the stuff from 2008. Although apparently the swimming arena will be the new location for curling and who knows what else… Hope that ice doesn’t break, it’s a long way to the bottom of the pool…

It was interesting to watch the closing ceremonies, and see the 4-star CFK standing behind Ivanka Trump, considering the size of the NORK bounty on him.

If there is a bright side, no one was seriously injured (other than the Aussie that broke his neck), nobody got killed participating in their sport, and there were no attacks on the athletes. I’d call that a win for everybody.

I do wonder where the opening/closing ceremony shows are going, considering that each time, they seem to ramp up more and more, with this one having more computer graphics than any I can remember… I wonder if they built a powerplant just to power all the systems running those ceremonies, and all the lights, graphics, etc.

The medal count for the top ten were:

Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
Norway 14 14 11 39
Germany 14 10 7 31
Canada 11 8 10 29
United States of America 9 8 6 23
Netherlands 8 6 6 20
Sweden 7 6 1 14
South Korea 5 8 4 17
Switzerland 5 6 4 15
France 5 4 6 15
Austria 5 3 6 14

And from what I saw, there was pretty good sportsmanship, other than the female Canadian who took her silver medal off during the ceremony for women’s hockey.

So four years from now, we get to watch it all again, and hopefully with better commentators and better coverage…

Comments

Another Olympics is in the bag… — 14 Comments

  1. I lost what little interest I had around the time that the professionals joined the Olympics.

  2. This time around, only one of us is bothering to avidly watch, although we’re usually in the room when the figure skating is on. I don’t know if the Olympics or the coverage has changed that much, or if it’s us, but it’s just not special anymore.

  3. Hey Old NFO;

    I remember reading on Drudge that the olympic team this year was geared toward “diversity”, rather than ability. There was an office at the national olympic level that helped with the selection process. Other nations came here to win, we were more interested in virtue signaling.

    • Bob – that was summed up nicely by the snit fit by the guy who lost the coin toss for who got to carry the US Flag.

  4. I watched parts and pieces. I remember getting so excited about it in years past. This year seemed blah and blah performances. With many of the athletes expressing their political stances, I lost interest. And according to your chart, poo. I wished we had done better.

  5. All- Agreed! Apparently that ‘diversity’ didn’t work too well for us…

    Posted from my iPhone.

  6. Didn’t watch any of it at home. While having diner in a restaurant with relatives, curling was being shown. Don’t understand that sport at all.

  7. Watched the biathlon and a couple other events. The rest of it not so much.
    The reporting was beyond stupid.

  8. I think they need to change from somebody…anybody…except NBC and then I might be more interested. It is sports, folks, and that is why I like to watch. It is not supposed to be political commentary!!
    They need to go crack open a history book, and read why the Olympics were invented by the Greeks in the first place.

    I am so glad I would rather read a book than watch TV. It is much more interesting, and relaxing.

  9. WSF- Curling is an excuse to drink Labatt’s…

    Brig- Agreed!

    Suz- Yep, but apparently NBC locked up at least two more Olympics… sigh

  10. What Brig said. I tried to get interested in the whole thing, as I’ve always loved watching bobsled and downhill, while wife loves figure skating.

    Well, the lack of intelligent reporters was astounding, starting from the opening ceremonies. That would be ‘People in the Netherlands are so good at skating because that’s how they get to work during winter’ and ‘So good to see Korea and Japan as friends and forgetting what happened in the past.’

    And whoever Johnny Weir is, well, need to fire it’s ass out of a cannon into a pool of sharks. Never knew Tara Lapinski was a fag-hag, either. (derogatory term for females who hang around openly gay guys and snark in public – hey, don’t judge me, it’s what gay men call said ladies, seriously.)

    As to sportsmanship, the worst sportmen were many of our Olympic atheletes. Disrespectful bag of snot-nosed brats. Ha, funny how the Trump Curse bit so many in the arse.

  11. It is time to put them to sleep. The Olympics were were supposed to be a non-lethal test for warriors skill’s. Now it is for amusement and advertising. Warriors skills, not sportsman’s talent. Nor kids games.
    The last great U.S. winner was George Patton in the Modern Pentathlon. Down hill ever since.(Grumpy old man steps down from the soapbox)