Should Have Taken That Nap

[kevin_standlee]

Had I realized that NBC's prime-time Olympic coverage last night was going to spend so much time on the men's Halfpipe Snowboarding, I would have gone to bed early and set an alarm for midnight so I could watch the opening round of Curling.

I should not have been surprised. After all, Americans dominate the "hot dog" snow sports -- all sports that I would toss out of the Games if I managed them.

Downhill skiing was good, and I really don't care whether an American won or not. The bit of drama with the last-second changing of skis suggests that the Americans were not all that sure of themselves, and that equipment really makes a difference, as USA alpine skier Daron Rahlves had what looked to be a fine run down the hill but was nearly two seconds slower than the leader and finished tenth. Controversial Bode Miller came fifth.

Short-track ice skating has a fair bit of excitement, considering that the racers are so close to disaster, such as the slip that prevented Apolo Ohno from advancing to the final of the 1500m event.

For some reason, curling seems fascinating to me. It's clearly trickier than it might first appear. I watched the first part of the USA-Norway match, but it was almost 1 AM and I had to get some sleep.

As with the previous Summer Games, most of the really interesting coverage is going to be on the late night show. I don't expect to get much sleep these next two weeks, except for Friday-Sunday, when I'm going to be in Oregon. Lisa doesn't even have a broadcast TV in the house. She has lots of video monitors and equipment, and plenty of videos. We've got enough material to set up our own version of Big Time Television out there in the woods of rural Oregon. And I bet we have enough radio equipment there to set it up, too; we could put the transmitter up on McAuley Mountain, where the local radio club's repeater that Lisa sometimes helps maintain is located.

Comments

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out Halfpipe Snowboarding. As far as I can tell, the whole point of the exercise is to slide up and down the pipe and twirl in the air. Um, yeah? So? I mean, I certainly can't do it, but I'm completely missing why this is particularly interesting or a sport. I'd be much more impressed if they did different things in the air than just how many degrees they, well, twirl.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

This is a sport that came over from the X games -- it started out as "not acceptable" to the more formal Olympic Games -- and has gained in popularity over time.

As for degrees -- being among those who Can't, it is clear to me that that kind of work, whether on snowboard or skateboard, is exceptionally difficult. That it isn't interesting to watch is, I suspect, a matter of taste (for instance, only Kevin could stay up to watch Curling :>).

It'll be interesting to see how this sport develops over the next few years.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

A lot of my objections to the X Games-sourced sports is that they're all "judged" sports, not refereed. Remember, I'm slightly skeptical of ski jumping, due to judged style points being part of the score. The sports that are timed or scored by an objective system have more respectability to me; the ones where a panel of judges sits and subjectively measures your style are suspicious.

For example, snowmobile racing would probably be on my "approved" list -- it's the winter sport version of motocross. I'm not sure if it's Olympic level, but I wouldn't look upon it with the same disdain I have for snowboarding.

Note that I do not deny that all of those judged sports require considerable athletic ability. I could never do any of them myself.

I probably could do curling. Not very well, but I could do it without breaking my leg or something like that.

Overall, I tend to lean toward agreeing with gridlore's Viking Test.