And the Torch is Out

So the Olympics are finally over. Overall, I'd give them a B. There were some quite good moments, but there were also some bad ones as well. Obviously there was the Paul Hamm incident, the insane Irish attacker during the marathon, the brief disqualification of the American backstroker that was later reversed, the moron in the pink tutu, and a couple of other gymnastics flubs that didn't get quite as high a profile as the men's all-around did. We won't bother to discuss the doping stuff because that happens at every Olympics and just isn't news anymore.

There were some good moments. The Moroccan runner getting double gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, Michael Phelps helping to lead the USA to one of the best swimming Olympics we've ever had, the women's soccer and softball teams going out well, the emergence of good young talent to take things on in the upcoming years, and the performance of American gymnastics overall. Obviously this is an American biased list, but NBC didn't exactly allow me to celebrate international accomplishments.

As for the coverage of the games, I'd have to give that a B- at best. Obviously NBC knows their audience wants to see Americans do well, but it could have done a much better job in giving a broad coverage of things, even things we stink at, instead of wasting large amounts of time with inane preps and heats. If its only a heat, why are you spending an additional 10 minutes before and after talking about it and getting soundbites from the runners? In the same amount of time, you could have covered what went on with other events and even shown more details where there was obvious cutting. It would have been nice to see some of the other divers, even if we all knew they weren't going to medal. If you're bothering to take the time to show the American who finished 37th, you could take the time to show the Canadian who finished 4th. Occationally you can get interesting stories from non-Americans, even when Americans are competing in the event.

But it made for somewhat entertaining watching. Now we just have to wait until 2006 when I can be bored to death watching figure skating and being reminded about the judging scandal while I wait forever for the few interesting speedskating and skiing events contained in the games.