Watching another medal chance slip through their fingers
I heard rumors of what happened to the U.S. track team at Beijing's Bird's Nest Wednesday, but I had to see for myself Thursday night.
It was like watching back-to-back high-speed trainwrecks.
Dwight Schrute thinks the decathlon is for wimps.
The fictional character in the brilliant comedy The Office is known for his intensity and lack of traditional social skills. In this NBC promo he campaigns for the inclusion of the centathlon (100 events) in the next Olympic games. Some of Dwight's suggested events include back jump, animal mimicry, boat repair, cabinet making and haircutting.
As awesome as Dwight's centathlon might actually be, it's probably not feasible within the two-week period the Olympics are held. But what about 25 events? That might actually be interesting -- especially if they go beyond track and field. If the biathlon in the Winter Games features both rifle shooting and cross country skiing, why can't we combine swimming, weightlifting and boxing with running, jumping and throwing?
Either way, I'm hoping murder checkers is added to the Olympics as a medal sport on its own merits.
I've been coming into work this week with bags under my eyes thanks to the fact that all the exciting Olympic action happens after 10 p.m.
Tuesday night's broadcast of the women's gymnastics balance beam finals wasn't even live, but I still sacrificed beauty sleep to watch it after the men's diving and women's track events.
Shawn Johnson finally got her gold medal. She stuck her routine and was awareded with the highest score on the apparatus seen during the 2008 Olympics -- a 16.225. Her smile could have lit up the arena by itself.
Her teammate Nastia Liukin also performed beautifully and earned a silver medal, her fifth of the Beijing games. Overall, it was a nice ending after all the the gymnastics drama that went down recently.
I guess I can just catch up on my sleep next week.
There are really no words for this.
And, just like that, there's another scandal (if you wish to call it that) regarding that dazzling opening ceremony last Friday.
According to telegraph.co.uk: "At the last moment a member of the Chinese politburo who was watching a rehearsal pronounced that ... Yang Peiyi might have a perfect voice but was unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth. So, on the night, while a pre-recording of Yang Peiyi singing was played, Lin Miaoke, who has already featured in television advertisements, was seen but not heard."
More on this story here.
James Hibberd of The Live Feed delves into some of the questionable aspects of NBC's coverage thus far and separates the fact from fiction.
Writes Hibberd: Mixing real and CGI fireworks during an Olympic event is visually misleading, though NBC did try to address the issue. The question is, during a spectacular-looking shot, do the phrases "cinematic device" and "almost animation" really convey that the image wasn't real? It seems more to hint that something about it wasn't quite literal, while coming shy of saying -- in far more clear and simple terms -- "this is a digitally manufactured shot to represent what's happening right now outside the stadium."
Blogger James Hibberd writes that: NBC's "coverage of the Games got off to a roaring start Friday with an opening ceremony that's trending as the highest-rated non-U.S. summer opener ever. The four-hour Beijing ceremony received a 21.5 (37 share) overnight household rating from metered markets."
What did you think of NBC's tape-delay broadcast of the opening cermeony? E-mail us and we'll post your comments.
Here's a report on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, which was held this morning. You can watch the tape-delay broadcast of the spectacle beginning at 7:30 tonight on NBC.
Fierce Olympic fashion
Olympic fever is popping up everywhere, including Bravo's reality fashion design competition "Project Runway." (Not surprising since Bravo is affiliated with Olympic station NBC.) Wednesday night, skating star Apolo Ohno was the guest judge. The challenge: Design a Team USA outfit for the opening ceremonies.
I had a hazy memory of being a 13-year-old and watching the closing ceremony of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. And I sort of remembered that there was a "UFO." But as the years passed, I didn't trust my memory as much.
Fortunately, there's YouTube to refresh everyone's memory. Yep. There was a UFO.
How very Spielbergian of them.
