2020, uh, 21, uh, who knows Tokyo Olympics thread

Toronto did put on a pretty good Pan Am Games in 2015 but that's nothing like the Olympics, both in size and expense.

 

Line was U.S. -13. Of course I had Spain to cover and the under and it loses on the final basket. Sigh.

 

This discus gold medalist must not be a mom.

 

"Hard to keep people's attention" just doesn't cut it for a broadcast entity that showed literal hours of dressage.

 

Have there been any PED DQs in Tokyo yet? I realize "Russia" isn't "Russia" - but they're still "Russia." I can't believe people are suddenly not doing PEDs anymore. Kind of like the lack of NCAA investigations doesn't convince me that big time sports programs are suddenly clean.
Side note - Do the Texas Longhorns cheat like everyone else, but they're just not as good about the money they spend?

 

NBC primetime started last night with a straight hour of another interminable quarter final (I think) of beach volleyball.

 

Volleyball is tough watch. Probably loses the most without a crowd. I'm curious how much their coverage decisions are determined by their ad inventory. If you have sponsors who buy four to six spots featuring a particular sports' athlete - odds are you will be seeing a bit more of that sport. Liked what I saw of the Telemundo track coverage. It got through a bunch of different sports quickly.

 

The volleyball coverage is a bit inexplicable. There's so much of it. And I stand by my assertion if they would package track and field better, it would have big time ratings. It is hard to watch field events in real time, particularly the throwing events. But there is a way to edit it that makes sense and to get more than 30 seconds of the story in.

 

It has already happened to the extent that far fewer cities bid on it, but the Olympic sites continue to move. What I'm thinking is that it gets to a point that very few bid, and that some of those are authoritarian countries that come with a lot of baggage and the IOC is reluctant to award to. I was stating my opinion that the time will come when a lack of top grade bidding cities and the economics of building an entire Olympic complex will lead to fewer permanent sites.

For every L.A. Olympics that made bank there's a Rio that lost their ass on them.

 

Not sure what your deal is. Last night, I watched the women's long jump final, prelims of the men's 1,500, women's 400 and men's 200 prelims (until it came on the mother network). And I saw an American woman -- Maggie Malone (couldn't remember her name and had to look it up) hit the qualifying mark with her first throw in the javelin prelims.

 

No one wins bronze. The winner gets gold.

 

She is a former dancer, though.