71–80 of 151 posts
No idea how China got to host the Olympics.
> We use to follow the stories of the atheletes The advent of the Internet made it much more widely known that the athletes are being badly exploited and forced to risk getting permanently injured or killed in order to make more money for the corporations that run the Olympics, so it no longer seems ethical to prop it up by paying attention. Especially since several do die each year while training. Also the fact that…
'Forced to risk'? High level training brings many inherent risks that the athletes are presented with, whether it is at the Olympics or at other international/national competition. Sponsorship has been a part of the Olympics for a long time, and not something that came about in the last 20 years. I am not sure where you are getting your death rate statistics, but based on https://www.olympedia.org/lists/59/manual it…
> High level training brings many inherent risks that the athletes are presented with
In the sense that most swimmers eventually injure their shoulders, or most rowers eventually injure their lower backs, then sure. But the IOC is purposely making the sports more dangerous to make them more exciting, which is completely different than overuse injuries -- which often don't even have any consequences in every day life, beyond that the person can no longer do their sport at an elite level.
One aspect is that NBC has a lock on the Olympics for the US. Their streaming service is utter trash - unreliable, bad quality video, confusing menus (couldn't even figure out how to watch live events), rewind and fast forward don't have preview (at least on Roku), so you have no idea where to stop, no overlays describing any details of the stream, no editing of recorded events (i.e. 45 minutes of a zamboni cleaning…
The US has diplomatically boycotted the Olympics this year. That doesn't have anything to do with NBC - they have a first amendment right to cover the Olympics. You're assuming there's some sneaky stuff going on with the State Department pulling the strings, but in this case the simplest explanation seems more likely - NBC recognizes the strong anti-China sentiment around human rights abuses in the viewing public, so…
Also, it's extremely naive to think the US government has no influence over US media. First, there is significant overlap and connectivity in the ruling class that runs the government and runs media companies. Second, there are many examples of the media and the government working together to craft a message. I can provide several references to examples if you were unaware of this.
I 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…
- America has just so many participants so it makes some sense that 100% coverage is on US athletes
- too much focus on personal side of things (X just had a baby etc.) is becuase US gets regular news-people/non-expert commentators. Since they don't often know much about the sport, they make everything into a personal interest stories.
How other countries do it:
- focus on the sport
- former athletes of the sport in question are brought in
When the US allowed Pro Basketball/Hockey etc. players to be on the Olympics, I stopped caring about it then. Yes other nations supported their athletes, but who cares.
Another thing, especially in the US, all you get to see on TV are the sports the Americans can win at. In the past you could see some sports you never knew existed and some were Americans did not participate in. No more.
Also half the broadcast is about the athlete's life. I just want to see the competition, not a complete biography of the people in it. Seems there is more biography then the actual competition.
Also it seems the Olympics committee wants to drop "unpopular" sports. They tried to drop greco-roman wrestling but reneged due to push back (as far as I know).
In the past, the Olympics was a great vehicle for people who were not selected for professional sports to get a second chance, no more. Seems you need to be a pro to even get to go.
Never mind the over Commercialization.
I could go on, but this is enough for me.
BTW, not watching it at all.
Are they terrible? I was tuned into mens figure skating last night in time to see an incredible flawless performance from a young 19 year old man from Japan. Some time later they were doing snowboarding slope style which was really fun to watch. There might be less energy with less people in the crowd due to the pandemic, but the performances from the athletes are nonetheless fantastic. Maybe I'm having a different e…
"Here" I've never felt like Olympics were big deal I'd say that football big events felt bigger than Olympics itself
But I'd speculate that one of the biggest factors is the feeling of postnationalism.
Being from a specific nation means almost nothing anymore. There's basically almost no such thing as a Frenchman or a Brit or a Canadian: these are just treated as arbitrary designations today. If everybody everywhere is the same and the nation is treated as irrelevant, then an international competition means much less.
It made more sense before globalization. It was a chance to consider going to some unexpected destination, bringing people together from all nations. Maybe take your spouse or your kids with you, go on a cruise, hire a tour guide, grab a book with some tips and short phrases in the local language and embark on an exciting adventure. In the 21st century, we interact with the rest of the world on a daily basis. You can…
Now I think I’ve had enough of it, and would rather have familiarity and harmony. I began to resent diversity actually.