There are 15 sports at the Winter Olympic Games. Each sport, including ski jumping for the first time, has a mens and women's competition. Almost every sport has multiple events within its umbrella category and each of those events often times feature qualifying rounds, semi-final rounds, and medal rounds. On top of all this, there are 89 countries represented at the Sochi games - more than ever before. This means there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of combinations and permutations of airable sport over the 17 days of the games. I'm not sure NBC is aware of this.
- Alpine Skiing: 5 events
- Biathlon: 6 events
- Bobsleigh: 3 events
- Cross Country: 6 events
- Curling: 1 event
- Figure Skating: 9 events (maybe more, I can't tell)
- Freestyle Skiing: 5 events
- Ice Hockey: 1 event
- Luge: 3 events
- Nordic Combined: 3 events
- Short Track: 4 events
- Skeleton: 1 event
- Ski Jumping: 3 events
- Snowboard: 5 events
- Speed Skating: 6 events
This is the one time of the year where the world comes together peacefully to celebrate athleticism and patriotism. I am an American. I have a Canadian mother and an English father and a greek grandmother and a Belgian grandfather. I have traveled through most of Europe and hope to see more of the world in my lifetime. I love that there are so many countries participating in the games and I love each is especially good in one area. I love the tiny countries like the British Virgin Islands or Bermuda that send 3 athletes. I love learning new facts about the various countries and boning up on my geography skills. I even love the "people watching" and observing how different an elite athletes body can look depending on their sport - these people are finely tuned machines!
I love the Olympics and I hate NBC's coverage of them. I didn't want to be force fed stories attempting to build up an "American Hero" where there isn't one - point and case that girl figure skater...something Gold: it was "Gold going Gold" every bloody night and at the end of the day she fizzled out. Not to say she isn't an incredibly talented skater, but she's not (and never was) a contender for gold medals and stop trying to make it so.
After having lived in Canada for the 2010 games - a Games hosted by that country for Pete's sake - I saw what is possible for Olympic coverage and I miss it dearly this time around. Sure Canada's medal count and athletes led the broadcast, but I'll be damned if they didn't show almost all sports (in prime time) and mention at least 5-10 other countries throughout.
OH! and one last thing: did you see a single medal ceremony where USA wasn't at the top of the podium? No? Good, I thought I just missed them. I guess either America won all the gold medals or the other countries don't have anthems so they don't get medal ceremonies when they win gold. Surely it couldn't be that if USA didn't get gold (or heaven forbid, medal at all) that NBC just didn't air it? Could it? Naaaaah.
Moving to Canada for 2016!
