I watch the summer Olympics every time they happen. While there are some minor annoyances that the IOC introduces some years, the games are largely just as good as they ever were (except 2021). Culturally in America, I expect people care less because they have been indoctrinated against any form of nationalism. There is also a recent trend in the West of disparaging achievement in general. Where people used to admire and aspire toward greatness, now it seems like an inferiority complex has taken root in them.
Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
121–130 of 151 posts
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#122You grew up.
That's all. This realization of the Olympics being a non-event to you is how most adults have viewed the Olympics for the past 50 years. Seriously, no one cares or has ever really cared much. You're just now old enough to realize that. Oh, and there are still families with kids who are watching the Olympics the way you did while growing up. My teenage kids happen to love the Olympics and are watching every event. See? The Olympics haven't changed. You have.
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#123I don't know where you live, but my experience is that in the US, the network coverage just ruined the Olympics because they don't "get it." I grew up in a different country--not the US, China or Russia. We typically hope to get a half dozen medals and a gold would be a Big Deal. As a result, if you turn on the TV, you get random coverage of any of the hundreds of individual competitions. Modern pentathlon! The one w…
I worked on the BBC's British coverage of Sydney, Salt Lake City and Athens Olympics (2000-2004). The sibling comments here are absolutely right - the US coverage is terrible compared to the quality of the output of other broadcasters. The problem is that US audiences only want to watch American competitors and most popular sports here are ones where the majority of teams and players are American. The Olympics isn't…
F1 has a problem (if you want to call it that) where it's not in my timezone. I wake up on the west coast USA and an entire race will have started and finished while I was asleep.
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#124I watch the summer Olympics every time they happen. While there are some minor annoyances that the IOC introduces some years, the games are largely just as good as they ever were (except 2021). Culturally in America, I expect people care less because they have been indoctrinated against any form of nationalism. There is also a recent trend in the West of disparaging achievement in general. Where people used to admire…
> indoctrinated against any form of nationalism
In America? Every morning in school they make all the kids stand up and recite a pledge of allegiance to the nation
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The Olympics is about setting that aside for a moment https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071 Ah.. just set it aside for just a moment..
You are repeating state department propaganda about Uighur camps. Most of the information about Xinjiang has been coming from CIA contractors and vague satellite photos. They were claiming that 2 million (out of 10 million) people were in camps until it became untenable to maintain this lie. There's no doubt that China is an authoritarian state with major human rights issues there, but it's not at the scale being cla…
> There's no doubt that China is an authoritarian state with major human rights issues there, but it's not at the scale being claimed
Hold on, _you_ introduced the point about scale and then argued against it.
> and they aren't any worse than the human rights abuses the US commits
Your whole comment reads like a joke
> But yeah, China is the one who needs to be pointed out.
The Olympics is hosted in China, you know that right?
> How is it not obvious that this is an intentional campaign by the US government to attack China's image?
I posted a link to the BBC. Is your next conspiracy theory that the US government runs the BBC?
I know I have asked a few questions in this post but please don't bother replying. Any conversation with you is beyond worthless.
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are repeating state department propaganda about Uighur camps. Most of the information about Xinjiang has been coming from CIA contractors and vague satellite photos. They were claiming that 2 million (out of 10 million) people were in camps until it became untenable to maintain this lie. There's no doubt that China is an authoritarian state with major human rights issues there, but it's not at the scale being cla…
I hear you entirely. I tend to think there are countries which have reached the "no-win" stage of public relations. It sort of reminds me of when the UN sent inspectors to Iraq looking for the legendary WMDs-- even transparency wasn't good enough. The fix is in, and there's no reasonable sequence of definite actions they can perform that would get China on the West's good side. They could walk Joe Biden personally th…
What positive story are you talking about? That the Olympics isn't that popular or is "terrible" as the OP describes it?
Who is talking about the people who delivered the event, and who is slandering them in this conversation?
You say "5000km away" but it is the same government.
Have a read through this https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are repeating state department propaganda about Uighur camps. Most of the information about Xinjiang has been coming from CIA contractors and vague satellite photos. They were claiming that 2 million (out of 10 million) people were in camps until it became untenable to maintain this lie. There's no doubt that China is an authoritarian state with major human rights issues there, but it's not at the scale being cla…
> There's no doubt that China is an authoritarian state with major human rights issues there, but it's not at the scale being claimed Hold on, _you_ introduced the point about scale and then argued against it. > and they aren't any worse than the human rights abuses the US commits Your whole comment reads like a joke > But yeah, China is the one who needs to be pointed out. The Olympics is hosted in China, you know t…
Your response consisting solely of sneering and ad hominem says all that needs to be said about the quality of your argument.
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#128I don't know where you live, but my experience is that in the US, the network coverage just ruined the Olympics because they don't "get it." I grew up in a different country--not the US, China or Russia. We typically hope to get a half dozen medals and a gold would be a Big Deal. As a result, if you turn on the TV, you get random coverage of any of the hundreds of individual competitions. Modern pentathlon! The one w…
I worked on the BBC's British coverage of Sydney, Salt Lake City and Athens Olympics (2000-2004). The sibling comments here are absolutely right - the US coverage is terrible compared to the quality of the output of other broadcasters. The problem is that US audiences only want to watch American competitors and most popular sports here are ones where the majority of teams and players are American. The Olympics isn't…
We use a VPN to watch on the BBC for just this reason. The BBC hosts don't over analyze the coverage and the focus is on the competitors and they don't create artificial drama. Their para-Olympics coverage is top notch too.
Forgot to add advertising in the US is out of control.
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#129>When I was a kid, we use to look forward to the Olympics. It was a big deal. The whole family would gather around the TV to watch the events live regardless of timezone. [...] Nowadays, [...] No one cares. Heck, some people don’t even know that the Olympics are even happening. It seems like the macro trend of network television spectacle events is on the decline and probably due to the internet. The decline in ratin…
I think you are spot on. Sports has been one of the main reasons left for many to get cable. I've thought a few times about trying to follow soccer more, but I'd need to get cable or YouTubeTV which is like $60/month. I recently started watching F1 again which is $80 for the whole year and it was super easy to sign up and watch on all my devices. It's even set up in a way where it's trivial to stay away from spoilers. I wonder if all access to sports and live events was that easy if they'd grow more as well.
I predict that the networks will either adapt or die as their remaining audience does as well.
Re: Ask HN: What caused the Olympics to become so terrible?
#130It went wrong because you think anyone you don't like is propaganda. For the likes of you fb is propaganda and twitter is harbinger of truth. Fox news is a lie but the "Russia collusion" nyt is truth. America is the upholder of democracy and china, where there are no daily riots by blm is somehow a bad place
None of those comparisons make any sense. No one thinks like that even in a hyperbolic sense. The final one really takes the cake, simultaneously repeating the right wing propaganda that Black Lives Matter protests were are all riots when less than 5% had any violence, and also implying countries that don’t allow protests about equality are a better place, and specifically a country known to abuse minorities.
[flagged]