I Despise the Olympics

-----Original Message-----
From: my brother
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 9:08 AM
To: [doofus]
Subject: Olympics

I think I am already tired of watching the Olympics on NBC. Coverage in Japan is not as slanted, I guess because not as much money is involved, and more time is devoted to showing an entire competition.

ORTO, Olympic Radio and Television, was cool. It provided images and sounds of all competitions, and broadcasters, as part of their fees, could tap in and use any they wanted. That was a nice feed to watch at the Nagano broadcasting center.

The North American media now has all the fat ugly housewives here in an uproar about the evil Russian pair skaters vs. our nice neighbors to the North Canadian pair skaters. I really wish they would stop.

What I want to hear more about is the Men's 500m race outcome, but the media is satisfied with that result so I am not going to get more info! Shimizu, who really is great at this race, lost first place by .03 seconds. The 500m is now run twice, in different lanes, so it is actually 1000m! He was in second place the first day, but couldn't make up the time difference the second day. 2nd place is a disappointment for him.

It now appears the American, who took 1st, false started in the first race, but it was not called. Rumor has it that Shimizu was waiting for the false start gun, but it never came. He had a good race, but not a great race. He is a class act and has not complained or asked for review, but guys like me can't be fooled. I know what happend, but fat, stupid and ugly housewives? Yes.

Timing for speed skating is great, but I think the starts are still visual. Unfortunately, there are no starting blocks with sensors to determine false starts.......

****
To: my brother
cc:

Subject: RE: Olympics

My Olympics Fan brother,

I have watched exactly 15 minutes of Olympics coverage so far. I saw a 50 km (?) XC skiing race the other day that was 1-2 Finnish.

I heard this morning about the (surprise!) fixed judging at the pairs skating last night. Well, I know I will get in trouble with you and [your wife] by saying this but ice skating is not a sport since it is not measured by objective means. Therefore, there is no controversy (or is NBC using the word "tragedy"? I half-expect them to) since there is no competition.

The coverage is not reliable; I don't believe that I will see what the schedule says I will when it says I will see it. I've already missed at least some if not all of the ski jumping and the downhill events, which are among my favorites of the Winter Games. I want to see some luge and bobsled, but I get the feeling that unless there is a USian in the top 10 (which there never is) then I won't see much of it.

NBC insists that this is the way USians want their Olympics; emphasis on USian competitors and USian "up close and personal" stuff. Personally, I could not care less about how hard some stupid 18 year old snow boarder thinks s/he worked to get to the biggest corporate-sponsored party on the planet. It seems that the Sydney debacle 18 months ago would have given NBC a reason to re-engineer the approach, but apparently that's not the case.

One other thing I don't like about the Olympics is the total control they exert on participants; in the past athletes were allowed to write about their experiences for their local paper; sort of a public diary. Nowadays, with the contracts the IOC signs with the TV networks for complete exclusivity, no one is allowed to do that and certainly no one is allowed to write on a web site or other freely accessed media. Can you imagine? I am in the Olympics but I am not allowed to publish MY THOUGHTS about MY EXPERIENCES at [my personal website with a weblog]. CNN/SI can't even publish results until authorized or until some period of time has passed. The contracts have been negotiated years in advance and in some cases were before the Web and the internet became so important. But, given the mind-set of the IOC we won't see any web-streaming broadband video or immediate web-based results for another 20 years or so.

Personally, I think the Olympics suck and have sucked since 1988. LA's were the last good games and those didn't have the entire Soviet Bloc attending.

Your cynical Tour de France and World Cup watching brother,

[doofus]

-----Original Message-----
From: [my brother]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 11:24 AM
To: [doofus]
Subject: RE: Olympics

Oh, I don't think I am really an Olympics fan, but there are certain events I like to watch. Especially when snowboarding was forced into Nagano, I knew the Olympics was no longer geared to my age group...

The more I learn about Eric Heiden, the more I respect the guy. He is the team doctor for speedskating at SLC, and was asked if he would be part of the torch relay inside the stadium. He replied that he wanted to be 'the last guy' to light the cauldron. In the end he told the organizers that he was busy when he discovered that that role had already been determined. The media has never liked him and he the media.

****
To: my brother
cc:

Subject: RE: Olympics

I like Eric Heiden, too. He is such an exceptional person; Olympic multi-gold medalist and record holder, excellent bike racer and also an MD. He is a cool guy because he isn't a dumb jock or a spoiled brat prima donna.

He should be a good symbol to light the torch because of his accomplishments; those hockey player guys got lucky ONCE and never did shit with their lives afterwards, but since they beat the fucking Russkies 22 years ago in a Cold War Olympics and because we are now in a hot war on terrorism with an "Axis of Evil" then they win the honors.

God Bless America.

	Hitler was robbed (1936 Berlin olympics) (none / 0) (#1)
	by Anonymous Reader on Fri Feb 15th, 2002 at 01:44:11 PM PST

	I've seen the films, the ringside judges were bought. Yeah, Owen had Hitler on the ropes and was landing quite a few good crosses, but Adolf was just biding his time and would have come back for a decisive KO if the judges would have allowed another round.

	Canadia (none / 0) (#2)
	by Anonymous Reader on Fri Feb 15th, 2002 at 04:45:52 PM PST

	Atleast Canadia is getting it good right now.

	OT sorta - Thank Ghod for OLN (none / 0) (#3)
	by jvance on Fri Feb 15th, 2002 at 10:56:48 PM PST

	We get to see Lance vs. Jan Round 3 this summer! -- Adequacy has turned into a cesspool consisting of ... blubbering, superstitious fools arguing with smug, pseudointellectual assholes. -AR

	No Contest (none / 0) (#4)
	by doofus on Fri Feb 15th, 2002 at 11:22:34 PM PST

	The Uni-Testicular Wonder will be the unstoppable machine, version 3. Also: No Alpe d'Huez this year. But, you know what? I miss Greg L. and Andy H.

	Insulting! (none / 0) (#5)
	by walwyn on Sat Feb 16th, 2002 at 07:01:20 AM PST

	I think it is extremely unkind for the spectators in the skiing, snowboarding, and luge events, to ring cow bells during the female compititions.

	Olympics (none / 0) (#6)
	by Anonymous Reader on Sat Feb 16th, 2002 at 08:09:15 AM PST

	I havent seen the olympics this year. Didnt even know it was on. I dont watch tv. TV is for retarded people. It's a known fact that tv makes people stupid. I get all my intertainment through the computer. I download shit off the internet. I read lots of stuff onm the internet. Sports are for retarded people. I dont play sports. Sports are stupid. I prefer to exercise my mind. Smart people exercise their minds. Stupid people exercise their muscles. Smart people are more attractive. Chicks dig my computer skills. I often goto bars to look for women. With me i bring an sgi machine ( an indigo 2) and i set it on the bar. And blam. Bitches be droppin their panties at the sight of me and my machine. Let this be a lession to yall

	Exercise (none / 0) (#7)
	by jvance on Sat Feb 16th, 2002 at 10:50:18 AM PST

	Smart people exercise their minds and their muscles. Smart people know they gain an hour of life for each hour spent exercising. And if you enjoy the exercise, well, bonus. By the way, your last sentence should read "Let this be a lesion for y'all" -- Adequacy has turned into a cesspool consisting of ... blubbering, superstitious fools arguing with smug, pseudointellectual assholes. -AR

	Bars. (none / 0) (#10)
	by hauntedattics on Sun Feb 17th, 2002 at 03:56:53 PM PST

	<I>Bitches be droppin their panties at the sight of me and my machine.</I><P> Presumably because all the cool, real women there are hanging out with the cool, real men, having drinks and laughing at your sorry ass.<P>

	Bars. (none / 0) (#11)
	by hauntedattics on Sun Feb 17th, 2002 at 03:57:42 PM PST

	Bitches be droppin their panties at the sight of me and my machine. Presumably because all the cool, real women there are hanging out with the cool, real men, having drinks and laughing at your sorry ass.

	Hey doofus (none / 0) (#8)
	by Anonymous Reader on Sat Feb 16th, 2002 at 10:51:07 AM PST

	why do you refer to yourself as 'USian'? Do you loathe yourself so much that you use that hateful term? And what's with the fashionable 'I'm not really american' attitude? I think we can all see through it fairly easily. I'm familiar with the syndrome as an older brother of mine once went to Europe with his high school chior. When he came back talking about the superiority of French pastry and Itialian espresso that he looked like a fool...

	Who's the fool ? (none / 0) (#12)
	by dmg on Mon Feb 18th, 2002 at 07:31:21 AM PST

	I realise I sometimes come down pretty hard on the Europeans, but as another USAian, I would have to agree on the superiority of all kinds of European food to the genetically modified processed crap we eat here in the states. What saddened me most about my sojournes in Europe was to see just how far the McDonaldization of the world has come along. We have exported the worst excesses of our culture to societies far more advanced than our own, and in doing so, we are destroying them. time to give a Newtonian demonstration - of a bullet, its mass and its acceleration. -- MC Hawking

	Naming rights (none / 0) (#13)
	by Anonymous Reader on Mon Feb 18th, 2002 at 05:33:54 PM PST

	I didn't like the Olympics until Steven Bradbury won Australia's first ever winter gold when all of the other competitors fell over on the last corner of the short track speedskating, and Steven (who appears to be a modest and amusing chap) went from last to first. Many Australians appeared amused by this. At least the winner wasn't called Apolo Anton Ohno.

	Leave it to the Japs... (none / 0) (#9)
	by Mint Waltman on Sat Feb 16th, 2002 at 07:55:25 PM PST

	It now appears the American, who took 1st, false started in the first race, but it was not called. Rumor has it that Shimizu was waiting for the false start gun, but it never came. He had a good race, but not a great race. He is a class act and has not complained or asked for review, but guys like me can't be fooled. Look, if anyone is going to be able to recognize a sneak attack when it happens, it's an American. The wounds left by Pearl Habor are still raw, and here we have the Japanese media essentially accusing an American of sneak attacking their country in the speed skating finals? Those people have some nerve. I can't believe anyone would be so cynical. I'm not really surprised that this is how it would be played out though. Anyone who knows anything about Japanese culture would know that by losing, this skater Shimzu, has dishonored not only his ancestors, but his emperor as well. According to thier twisted value system Shimzu would have to drink tea and then commit ritual suicide. By inventing this story about the American skater cheating, he has maybe found a way to avoid his fate. Highy dishonorable...