I've been watching the Olympics all weekend and I have to say I've been loving it. First off they are gorgeous in High Definition. The shots of Italy alone are amazing. And unlike a couple of years ago, it seems everything is in HD. The coverage seems to be showing the actual sport and the human interest stuff that so dominated the coverage in previous years seems to be at a good minimum. There was good drama: Michelle Kwan dropping out and Ohno in the 1500m short track speed skating.
The sports have been interesting. Halfpipe is fun to watch, they just do crazy things. I don't know how they came up with the names for the moves. A McTwisty inverted 540? Moves are called by the number of degrees they turn so you hear "a ten-eighty or a nine hundred." I like diving where it's a "double with a double twist". But like gymnastics and ice skating I think the names of the moves makes it a little harder for people to really get engaged in it. Nevertheless, I was really impressed. And there was drama too as favorite Shawn White almost didn't make the finals.
In downhill skiing we saw really fast runs on a crazy course. A couple of times NBC did cool camera effects showing multiple stills simultaneously so you could clearly see how the skier moved. At the end they showed the two fastest runs with one superimposed on the other so you could see where one skier was ahead of the other. Neat stuff. And you had Americans changing to new skis just before their runs.
Men's Single Luge was also fun, but I think it's impossible for a layman to follow. The announcers kept saying things like "he's stiff here" or "he's not keeping his line" or "his head is up" when every run looked the same to me. I think if they used the same technology that can draw the first down mark in football to draw the line they want through a turn it would help. Nevertheless, guys going 80 something miles down a track on a tiny sled is cool.
I'm having fun. But does anyone else think the medals this year look like CDs on a ribbon?
3 comments:
I enjoyed some of the Olympics too this year. As a kid I would watch as much as I could, but then I sort of lost interest in it.
I saw the men's downhill last night...and agreed...interesting cinematography with the superimposed stills...and the scenery was just gorgeous. That slope was really steep and it amazes me the speed they achieve. It reminded me of Jean Claude Killy (sp?) in the men's Olympic downhill many years ago. He was flying and on the very edge of totally catastrophe ...at a number of spots he crossed that imaginary line where you are out of control on the brink of a wipeout at 75 MPH...yet he just kept pushing it and pointed his skis right down the hill. I got some of that feeling back watching the Olympics this year.
I agree, the medals do look like CD's, I didn't like the way they looked. I think the coverage has been pretty good. The downhill coverage with the two runs superimposed was interesting to watch. Its amazing how little room for mistake there is in downhill competition.
Watched the Olympics yesterday but somehow did not notice the medal... Today saw it. Man, them gots tha bling-bling, yo. :)
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