Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

Been trying to put my finger on why the ratings have been so good. As has been mentioned, NBC may be cooking the proverbial books a bit. Honestly, I think just being straight with people is most of it. Junkies like day sports - that's what the entire first two days of the NCAA tournament is about. Just give the junkies the straight stuff. They already know how to do the soft-focus drama stuff, and the secret thing is, as someone who decided to not take any time off during the Olympics and has full-time employment, the primetime show is a great backup plan for when the big race or moment takes place during a meeting or something.

I don't know why NBC hasn't been doing Gold Zone for 20 years. The Olympics are perfect for that treatment, and the fact that they brought in Siciliano and Hansen in for that? Chef's kiss. It's like drugs (I assume), though I think it's illegal that those guys had to throw to commercials.

I still think Tirico is too bland, and the time zone made Maria Taylor's late-night show basically useless. (Though this segment with Leslie Jones was pretty good. She suggested they make spades an Olympic sport. I'm down.)

I think, compared to all the Summer Olympics I've seen this is probably the least I've felt like I've missed, and I look forward to doubling back to as much of it as they can put online.

I don't know what her life plans are, but considering she really has nothing more to accomplish, and she's already married (and a rather devout Christian) I'm kind of expecting a baby sooner rather than later and then start ramping up for LA in 2026ish.

They got out the Ledecky angle on the back stretch there.

That's kind of a good question. John Carlos apparently told them they could send an army for his bronze after Avery Brundage kicked him and Tommie Smith out of Mexico City. I think we'd all like to see them take that approach but I could definitely see some angry old white folks threaten to sanction her or perhaps even USA Gymnastics if she didn't. One of the reasons they didn't give out the team figure skating golds from Beijing until last week was because the Russians basically said they wouldn't give them back if they were stripped and apparently the IOC doesn't have a good repo man in Moscow. The last thing they want to do is move the Overton window to make this an acceptable form of protest and entice Russians, dopers, or both to tell the IOC to go fuck themselves.

The whole thing is terrible, but to argue the Romanian side for a second, the problem is that though Chiles' performance was better (at least after the re-evaluation), the gymnastics federation broke their own (breathtakingly stupid) rules to fix the mistake in the results. If you were taking a final exam graded on a curve and someone turned in their test 10 minutes after pencils down, you'd probably be pissed even if their test was better.

Ironically, and I've yet to get an expert to confirm this, but American Paul Hamm benefited from a similar scoring mistake they didn't change that screwed a Korean out of the gold in the 2004 men's all-around. I suspect that it's not an accident that the decision the gymnastics fed made benefited the same country.

 

*raises hand*

I think Wade brings virtually nothing to the broadcast beyond “hey, I know these guys.” I think Doris is perfectly fine as an analyst. (Very glad she no longer does the courtside reporter thing. She was not good at that.)

 

Who is the guy in the stands hugging US track medal winners and giving them the flags? Obviously a staffer, but does he have more duties than hugging and handing out flags? How many flags does he take to the stadium each day? Do the Olympians keep the flag or are they recycled in other events?

 

Hs anyone watched the Bob Costas AI deal like at all? I’ve heard nothing about it even as there has been a marked jump in excitement from my friends via Facebook.

 

Random thought I just noticed from an Instagram reel: Michael Johnson could basically voice double for Morgan Freeman.

 

If you told me a month ago that I would be defending Mike Weirdo Tirico, I would have told you that you are crazy. That said, everything I heard from him, he was flawless. I probably know more about wrestling, water polo and soccer than the average joe. Tirico get the descriptions, nomenclature and jargon correct with each sport. Seems like he knows more than just football and basketball. He was ad libbing live events and doing it very well.

 

How soon we forget the Olympics Triplecast.

 

I thought it was Al Michaels, and I never heard about it after it was introduced before the olympics.

 

I was 8 during Barcelona and we didn't even have HBO, much less PPV like that.

 

It is Michaels. But the fact I couldn’t remember correctly kind of makes the point.

 

Curry show was so fun (glad others could see what we’ve seen out West for 15 yrs).

International hoops shows IMHO how teamwork can make up a talent gap. The French and Serbs moved the ball and passed it at least 5-6 times before a shot went up. In the first half, especially the 2nd teamers were playing hero ball. Dribble dribble dribble then jack up a 3. “Turrible”. What was nice is the when LeBron was in, there was none of that. I liked Ant in playoffs but damn he’s a ball stopper.

No one sacrificed more than Booker; guy scored 80 in a game and he’s mugging guys and taking one shot. He’s my new fav.

 

Apologies if these two items have been posted already - Been busy with taking care of the baby today, so might have missed a couple of posts.

This is an interesting story to follow. Ultimately didn't matter, because the 4x400 women's relay team was dominant, but seems like there might have been some mismanagement there. No mention in the ESPN story about who replaced Ellis.

Ellis 'blindsided' by late scratch in U.S. relay final

In other questionable management and grifting news, a bunch of Canadian athletes have taken to posting (mostly) non-pornographic content on OnlyFans, because they couldn't make ends meet otherwise.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/athletics/onlyfans-alysha-newman-canada-olympics-1.7290724