Winter Olympics 2022 - Let the Corruption and Cronyism Begin!

[Jerjo]

Here we go. Once again, the IOC has gone with an authoritarian government in a city not exactly known for winter sports (remember Sochi?). As long as the proper bribes, accommodations, and privileges are provided, who cares about human rights being crushed. Norway was looking like a more likely candidate eight years ago but the gov't refused to accede to all the IOC demands. But I digress. Hey, look at the venues:

Competitions for luge, bobsleigh and alpine skiing will be held in Xiaohaituo Mountain area northwest of Beijing (in the West Dazhuangke village[1] of Zhangshanying in Yanqing District), 56 miles away from the city centre of Beijing and 11 miles away from the town of Yanqing. All other skiing events will be held in Taizicheng Area in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou, 140 mi from downtown Beijing and 81 mi away from Xiaohaituo Mountain Area.

Nonetheless, I'll tune in for most of it. I'll probably skip the propaganda-laced opening and closing ceremonies but who knows. My wife, who was sputtering about "not another Olympics to sit through" remembered that figure skating is on the weekend and cripes, she has already picked out which female skater is her favorite (and by the time the blades hit the ice there will be one who she just wants to drop through the ice). My wife does not get into sports often but when she does it is at a level of emotional involvement that makes Shadow's Baltimore Ravens fetish look tame.

I am going to assume that NBC's coverage will suck - it always does. I'll ignore the sob stories and hope for events where an underdog takes home the gold.

[JKL2000]

Jerol, when is NBC broadcasting the opening ceremony?

[SteveSly]

I am sure I will tune in for some of it.

[markwoll]

NBC's level of suck his very high.
Not enough sports and too much "up close and personal".
I miss the ( almost mythical ) ABC coverage.

[moecurlythanu]

I've watched precious little of the last couple Olympics, and I suspect this one will be no different.

[ronmac]

No love for NBC, huh? I happen to love their coverage. Especially the up-close-and personal stories. I also appreciate that they show only the mainstream competitions during the prime time. I'm hoping they embed ads during live play like MLB has done in recent years. /s

[ronmac]

Here we go. Once again, the IOC has gone with an authoritarian government in a city not exactly known for winter sports (remember Sochi?). As long as the proper bribes, accommodations, and privileges are provided, who cares about human rights being crushed. Norway was looking like a more likely candidate eight years ago but the gov't refused to accede to all the IOC demands. But I digress. Hey, look at the venues:

Competitions for luge, bobsleigh and alpine skiing will be held in Xiaohaituo Mountain area northwest of Beijing (in the West Dazhuangke village[1] of Zhangshanying in Yanqing District), 56 miles away from the city centre of Beijing and 11 miles away from the town of Yanqing. All other skiing events will be held in Taizicheng Area in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou, 140 mi from downtown Beijing and 81 mi away from Xiaohaituo Mountain Area.

Nonetheless, I'll tune in for most of it. I'll probably skip the propaganda-laced opening and closing ceremonies but who knows. My wife, who was sputtering about "not another Olympics to sit through" remembered that figure skating is on the weekend and cripes, she has already picked out which female skater is her favorite (and by the time the blades hit the ice there will be one who she just wants to drop through the ice). My wife does not get into sports often but when she does it is at a level of emotional involvement that makes Shadow's Baltimore Ravens fetish look tame.

I am going to assume that NBC's coverage will suck - it always does. I'll ignore the sob stories and hope for events where an underdog takes home the gold.

Sure, Jerol, go ahead and drag human rights into it.

[JKL2000]

Sure, Jerol, go ahead and drag human rights into it.

For some reason I'm reminded of when my son (about to turn 23) was like five or six years old, and like a lot of other parents we suddenly had to go through all his Thomas the Tank Engine trains and get rid of all the ones that were made in China. Not because of human rights issues but because they supposedly used paint with lead in it and we didn't want our kids playing with them. That's probably the first thing my son remembers learning about China: anything made there is to be avoided! (NOTE: If Amazon or eBay says it's "imported," that means it's made in China!)

[markwoll]

No love for NBC, huh? I happen to love their coverage. Especially the up-close-and personal stories. I also appreciate that they show only the mainstream competitions during the prime time. I'm hoping they embed ads during live play like MLB has done in recent years. /s

The live coverage is ok.
The primary fault I find with it is that NBC focuses on essentially highlights of a competition where an American or highly favored ( celebrity-ish ) competitor is winning.
I get the rah-rah go USA vibe, I'm there. But it is an international competition and that is the draw for me.
Watching some event but only see the runs for the US and maybe other top competitors but cutting away if the US drops below medal is a bummer for me.
And if it is done to make space for the profile puff pieces, nah.
NBC has had a lock for so long I really don't have much to compare, although I sort of remember the last non NBC to be a disappointment as well.

[Jerjo]

I'll tune in. Jerol - What is the temperature in your neck of the woods. It's minue 19 Celsius here.

We're in a brief January thaw, temps around freezing. But we have had weeks of bitter cold. Temperatures at night dropping to minus 25-30F (windchills of even worse).

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Love the winter olympics, will soak in as much as possible, but I do fear the tv coverage will be even worse with NBCSN now gone.

Still can't believe the USA is the defending curling gold medalists.

[Rarebird]

Here we go. Once again, the IOC has gone with an authoritarian government in a city not exactly known for winter sports (remember Sochi?). As long as the proper bribes, accommodations, and privileges are provided, who cares about human rights being crushed. Norway was looking like a more likely candidate eight years ago but the gov't refused to accede to all the IOC demands.

The adventage of holding them in a country with an authorian government is, you don't have problems with an opposition, who consider them a waste of money, or protesters, who don't like them either. I think several democratic countries don't want to organise them, because as big part of the people are against them.

When I was younger I really loved to watch the Olympic Winter Games. I really loved to watch the skiing. Remember the games in Sarajevo (I think there were problems with fog) and Hamar, when I started loving cross-country skiing.

[progmatist]

No love for NBC, huh? I happen to love their coverage. Especially the up-close-and personal stories. I also appreciate that they show only the mainstream competitions during the prime time. I'm hoping they embed ads during live play like MLB has done in recent years. /s

NBC has a long history of bad programming decisions. They canceled JAG. CBS picked it up and spun it off into NCIS. Which then went on to be the top rated TV show.

[moecurlythanu]

Guys, I could be wrong, but I think Ron's /s would equate to #sarcasm.

[spellbound]

Guys, I could be wrong, but I think Ron's /s would equate to #sarcasm.

What is the correct # of sarcasms for the winter olympics?

[ronmac]

Guys, I could be wrong, but I think Ron's /s would equate to #sarcasm.

more like </s>

I figured the MLB comment was a dead giveaway.

[progmatist]

Guys, I could be wrong, but I think Ron's /s would equate to #sarcasm.

Sure, he's being sarcastic.

[moecurlythanu]

Still can't believe the USA is the defending curling gold medalists.

For reasons I don't fully understand, I've enjoyed watching curling on TSN the last couple years. However, I still don't fully understand the scoring, so I'm going to have to look that up online.

[moecurlythanu]

Sure, he's being sarcastic.

Yeah, I picked up on that right away. I mentioned it because the people who replied to his post didn't seem to notice it, based on the reply posts.

[Jerjo]

China no longer selling tickets to events

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/17/10735...ympics-tickets

[progmatist]

^^ Last summer's Olympics must have been a money pit for Japan. China is sure to have the same outcome.

[Scott Bails]

The live coverage is ok.
The primary fault I find with it is that NBC focuses on essentially highlights of a competition where an American or highly favored ( celebrity-ish ) competitor is winning.
I get the rah-rah go USA vibe, I'm there. But it is an international competition and that is the draw for me.
Watching some event but only see the runs for the US and maybe other top competitors but cutting away if the US drops below medal is a bummer for me.
And if it is done to make space for the profile puff pieces, nah.

Totally agree with you, Mark.

^^ Last summer's Olympics must have been a money pit for Japan. China is sure to have the same outcome.

Can't say that I'd mind that.

[Jerjo]

I believe that China is recycling some venues from when they hosted the summer games but yeah, it's going to be an enormous loss. And if they think it will be an opportunity to put a good spin on their regime's international reputation, they really are delusional. I am just waiting for the day when reality finally crashes in on the IOC. The media in the last few host countries have raised a lot of fuss on how much of a bath they took (except Russia and China) and fewer cities are bidding on the games. And if they do, the bids are scaled way back. The IOC should have set a handful of permanent locations decades ago but there's not as much grift to gain with that. Though they will always get the big media contracts to broadcast the games.

[progmatist]

I believe that China is recycling some venues from when they hosted the summer games but yeah, it's going to be an enormous loss. And if they think it will be an opportunity to put a good spin on their regime's international reputation, they really are delusional. I am just waiting for the day when reality finally crashes in on the IOC. The media in the last few host countries have raised a lot of fuss on how much of a bath they took (except Russia and China) and fewer cities are bidding on the games. And if they do, the bids are scaled way back. The IOC should have set a handful of permanent locations decades ago but there's not as much grift to gain with that. Though they will always get the big media contracts to broadcast the games.

Even before the pandemic, most cities hosting recent Olympics have lost money. The IOC may soon have to start begging cities to host the Olympics, rather than "awarding" them to cities.

[Jerjo]

Live from Stamford, Connecticut, it’s the 2022 Beijing Olympics! NBC is going with most of their broadcast team working remotely (except for Alpine skiing and figure skating). It's not a surprise, a lot of the summer games were done this way as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01...-mostly-remote