160 replies to this topic

[Quilt Fairy]

Here's a thread to talk about the sports that - unless you're an enthusiast - you only get to see once every 4 years and only on one of NBC's alternate channels. The sports that make you fell you're watching the actual Olympics and not just a special about Michael Phelps and Jordyn Weiber.The most diverse channel seems to be the NBC sports channel. The commentators are also hit or miss. There's always an expert on the sport, but a lot of the time, they don't explain what I'm seeing on the screen.

I love archery, I wish they would give that more prominent airing. I was thrilled when the South Korean women beat the Chinese, mostly because I'm tired of the Chinese winning so many medals.

I watched women's skeet shooting on-demand. It's not very good visually, as all you can see are little pink puffs when they hit the birds. 'Pull', puff, puff. 'Pull', puff, puff. You get the idea.

The weirdest competition I have seen so far is the 10 meter air rifle final. Did anyone else watch that? It's about as interesting as watching paint dry. If you had the commentary off, you would never ever figure out what these guys were doing. They have these strange looking things which look nothing like rifles, and as far as I can figure out, they don't fire a bullet, but they show a target up in the corner of the screen with a little 'x' on it. Is it electronic? It's kinda like a WII game. Oh, and the target only has rings that say 7 and 8, but they get scores like 9.5 and 10.3.

I've also seen white-water kayaking and a couple of rowing events, badminton and some real volleyball. Hey, why do you think beach volleyball gets aired on the main channel every night? Could it possibly be because they play in frickin' bikinis? Except I guess London in July isn't exactly bikini weather. Hah!

Please join in to discuss these and other not-so-popular sports.

[beakermuppet]

I'm looking forward to the triathlon. GB has a real chance of a gold medal and I only get to see triathlons if I'm up in the small hours when it seems to be randomly broadcast.

[MyAimIsTrue]

I'm still surprised at how much I enjoyed the archery team competition as it was exciting! Another "lesser" sport that sucked me in was fencing even though every time the announcer said "parry" I thought of Daffy Duck.

[Kel Varnsen]

Here is something that confuses me. What is with the martial arts events. I know nothing about these types of sports but how do they decide that Judo and Tae Kwon Do are going to be Olympic events but not any of the other martial arts like say Karate?

[Rickster]

My dream Olympics coverage would be to only see all these smaller events, and dump swimming and things like premliminary round matches like US women's basketball vs. Angola.

I really enjoyed the archery, where each match seemed to come down to the last arrow or two. Also, the women's foil, with the competition between the three Italian women for the medals.

Saw the women's skeet and agree it's not really telegenic when all you can see are the pink puffs when the target is hit.

Hoping to see more, but can't see the daytime coverage weekdays when all this happens. Wish they would show some of it in the evenings.

[kwantasy]

Oh man, watching the men's team final for archery live was thrilling, as it literally couldn't haven't been any closer. To beat the US, the Italian men needed a ten on the last shot, and the Italian guy shot almost exactly on the line between 9 and 10. Anyone else see that?

The women's team final was pretty close, too. It also brought some interesting fashions, with South Korea's Hello Kitty-esque uniforms. Whimsical!

[blackburn]

Oh man, watching the men's team final for archery live was thrilling, as it literally couldn't haven't been any closer. To beat the US, the Italian men needed a ten on the last shot, and the Italian guy shot almost exactly on the line between 9 and 10. Anyone else see that?

I loved that moment too. The Italy guy shot in the last second, and I almost thought he'd lose it. It was nice to see how emotional most of the winners in the relatively less popular sports are.

[tip and fall]

I have a question about archery: Why is it that the ranking round consists of a 72-arrow format, when none of the actual elimination/medal rounds do? It feels like testing people on how well they run a marathon when they might actually be better at sprinting. I think that's the reason why the South Korean guys tend to dominate the qualification rounds but not necessarily the eliminations. IIRC, no Korean guy has ever actually won the individual men's gold before.

I was thrilled when the South Korean women beat the Chinese, mostly because I'm tired of the Chinese winning so many medals.

The South Korean women have won all of the team gold medals since it was introduced in 1988. Pretty remarkable record. But the rest of the world is catching up and that record can't last forever. Beijing was the first time that a South Korean woman didn't win the individual gold; it went to China instead. So I predict that in 2016, China will snatch the team gold away, too. They're taking over! LOL.

I just want to see a handball competition. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's more exciting than the handball games of my youth.

[dagny]

I love watching the whitewater canoeing, badminton and table tennis.

Variation on the joke: I went to a whistle contest and a water polo match broke out? I like water polo, primarily because I tend to sink on my own without somebody's help, but the MY GOD they like to drown the other guy. I was able to catch part of the women's match between Hungary and the US. One commentator asked if people had a problem with the high score and the other one mentioned that if she wanted to want swimming, there was another pool for that.

[Kali12]

I love these less talked about events, too, but how do you find them? I have the schedule but flipping between NBC and MSNBC doesn't seem to do much (although I did get a bit of kayaking this morning by luck).

I don't understand why so much time is wasted on swimming preliminaries which is the LEAST telegenic of any event, imo. Since there's so much selectivity involved in the coverage, I'd rather see more events (and more variety of countries).

Anyway, does NBC divulge when/where they're showing these?

[Matt K]

NBC's olympic site will give a more detailed listing of the events. Its not super accurate but gives an idea of what will be on. That said, they randomly showed Judo which was nice and unexpected.

[Rickster]

I love these less talked about events, too, but how do you find them? I have the schedule but flipping between NBC and MSNBC doesn't seem to do much (although I did get a bit of kayaking this morning by luck).

A lot of this stuff is on another channel, NBC Sports (which used to be called Versus), which not everyone gets.

[tip and fall]

You can also catch the live streams online at the NBC Olympics site, but you need to have a cable provider listed on their site.

Edited by tip and fall, Jul 31, 2012 @ 12:17 PM.

[kenyaj]

I've also been sucked in by the archery, but my favorite unheralded event is the canoe slalom. It looks crazy fun, but super hard. I'd love to just go down the course in an innertube, LOL.

[IseutLaBrune]

I'm surprised they don't show more of the whitewater canoe/kayak. I think it's so exciting! Much more primetime-worthy than beach volleyball, I think.

Every 4 years, I remind myself that I just need to schedule a 2-week staycation during the summer Olympics. That's the only way I'd ever be able to catch all these fun sports. "Can't come in boss, gotta watch handball, badminton and trampoline!"

[Matt K]

Every 4 years, I remind myself that I just need to schedule a 2-week staycation during the summer Olympics. That's the only way I'd ever be able to catch all these fun sports.

I just started to work from home and and tried to make sure I started before the Olympics for this very reason. 2 years ago I kept leaving earlier just so I could see the Curling competition.

That said, I haven't been getting a lot of work done, but it looks like there's going to be less of these events this week (they seem to be clustered in the morning and around 4pm).

[trojanchick99]

I am loving archery. It moves fast and there is a lot of tension*. *No pun intended.

Variation on the joke: I went to a whistle contest and a water polo match broke out? I like water polo, primarily because I tend to sink on my own without somebody's help, but the MY GOD they like to drown the other guy. I was able to catch part of the women's match between Hungary and the US. One commentator asked if people had a problem with the high score and the other one mentioned that if she wanted to want swimming, there was another pool for that.

LOL. Yeah, the common foul happens all the time, so I can see people getting annoyed at the whistle there. As for drowning, the battle at the center position is the most brutal part of the sport. It is not unlike trying to get position in basketball.

[FrogsRule]

The skeet shooting woman got a lot of attention here in Los Angeles, because she's local. She is a fairly recent breast cancer survivor (turned out to be benign), and she intends to compete in the Olympics as long as she can.

I didn't get to see any of the Olympics competition, but when they were interviewing her in advance of the games, she was policing her own brass (or whatever you call it with a shotgun) by catching the spent shells with her free hand. Amazing.

I'd love to see Kim Rhode face off against the American man who won gold today. She got 99 out of 100, he 148 out of 150.

[shang yiet]

The weightlifting has been absolutely riveting. The tension as each lifter approaches the weights, can he do it or not?

Field hockey - men play it too. It's serious business for the macho men of Australia, Pakistan, the Netherlands, etc. Badminton - I come from a badminton-mad country.

[MyAimIsTrue]

Every 4 years, I remind myself that I just need to schedule a 2-week staycation during the summer Olympics. That's the only way I'd ever be able to catch all these fun sports. "Can't come in boss, gotta watch handball, badminton and trampoline!"

I hear you! I was actually on vacation last week and had I planned better I would have made it for this week.

[superpole2000]

The weightlifting has been absolutely riveting. The tension as each lifter approaches the weights, can he do it or not?

I love it. The intensity is incredible. Also, ever since I saw that lifter break his arm during a lift in Beijing, I watch the lifts with a genuine fear of dramatic injury.

Every 4 years, I remind myself that I just need to schedule a 2-week staycation during the summer Olympics. That's the only way I'd ever be able to catch all these fun sports. "Can't come in boss, gotta watch handball, badminton and trampoline!"

I do this, and it is always worth it.

[Quilt Fairy]

The weightlifting has been absolutely riveting. The tension as each lifter approaches the weights, can he do it or not?

Not just the men. I think it was this lpast Sunday that they had women in the 106lb class lifting 230-240lbs. Little tiny women, big honkin' weights. (I may be mixing up kilos with pounds, but still, big honkin' weights.) Awesome.

I caught some more archery today on-line. It was the individual qualifications and I found it a little strange because they have this real upbeat music playing in the background when the athletes come out and in-between sets. It's interesting, just odd. And the only commentator they have is the one that's talking to the spectators that you can just barely hear in the background: 'Well, it's looks to be on the line, but from my angle it's a 9, so let's call it a 9 until the judges rule.'

Edited by Quilt Fairy, Aug 1, 2012 @ 12:17 AM.

[kwantasy]

And the only commentator they have is the one that's talking to the spectators that you can just barely hear in the background: 'Well, it's looks to be on the line, but from my angle it's a 9, so let's call it a 9 until the judges rule.'

I found that odd, too! I wonder if they do that in other competitions. In any case, I'm sure that the competitors block that out, because otherwise that could be really unnerving.

[CdnTVwatcher]

There's an advantage to beong a teacher; summers off so I can watch the Summer Olympics! (The winter Games always fall during February break, too!)

I like the variety of sports that comes with the Olympics. Living in Canada, curling is on TV almost every weekend during the winter, so I get my fill of that outside of the winter Olympics, but I don't really get to see diving, gymnastics, mountain biking, or BMX. Plus many of the Field events in Athletics.

[3 is enough]

The Canadian women have advanced to the medal round in pairs badminton because China, South Korea, and Indonesia were disqualified for throwing games.

[kems28]

I tried to watch fencing the other day, but I had to turn it off because there was this almost constant high pitch tone playing in the background. What is that? I'd think sitting in an arena with that going off would give everyone a huge headache.

[CarpingSlav]

I watched the "match" between China and South Korean and yikes....they were not even trying to pretend they were playing. People were really booing and the BBC presenters were shocked. Apparently, according to many other people in the sport, it is quite common for China to try and throw matches like that...and the excuse the other teams used was, "well China was doing so we decided to do it as well"...

[dagny]

One analyst's view was that the round robin "forced" the players to sandbag. If the Olympics did the one-and-done, the players wouldn't have to lose matches.

[SrPab]

If the Olympics did the one-and-done, the players wouldn't have to lose matches.

Pardon me for being pedantic, but a one-and-done/knockout format always means someone loses, right? And even in a lose-and-go-home scenario, there have been a number of examples over the years of teams and individuals throwing matches (usually with illegal betting overtones... follow the money). But I can't recall any instances of a one-and-done Olympic event where one or more persons/teams intentionally tried to lose (especially once play began).

I've read that the IOC is letting the badminton world federation handle this latest scandal.

Edited by SrPab, Aug 1, 2012 @ 5:59 PM.

[Raachel2008]

I tried to watch fencing the other day, but I had to turn it off because there was this almost constant high pitch tone playing in the background. What is that? I'd think sitting in an arena with that going off would give everyone a huge headache.

It's the sound when a fencer touches the other.

Did you see another weight lifter break his arm today? That was painful.