2018 Olympics - South Korea

[Scuzz]

Doping in a curling event? Doesn't it strike anyone as rather excessive? But leave it to the Russians. I'm sure they've made their nation proud.

Beta Blockers to help with nerves? Golfers have been accused of that in the past.

[El Guapo]

I mean I think additional strength is going to help in pretty much any event (even if it just lets you broom faster or move the stone more easily), though the marginal benefit (and thus the risk-to-reward calculus) I'm sure varies wildly from one sport / event to another. But I doubt that there's any event in which steroids / PEDs would be of no benefit.

[Isgrimnur]

[Rumpy]

Well, it just seems like a whole lot of risk for a low-key sport. This is a sport where a lot of finesse and thinking is involved and where decisions are made before committing to any actions where the shuffling on the ice would be the only real part where any difference would be made. On the other hand, maybe that's exactly why they chose to do it with this sport as they maybe thought it would attract the least concern.

[Moliere]

Russian bobsledder fails drug test at Winter Olympics

But...but she has a shirt saying she doesn't dope.

[Isgrimnur]

No, she doesn't "do doping". She has someone else do it for her.

[Moliere]

[Kurth]

Germany v. Putin’s Dopers. Men’s hockey gold medal match. OT.

Go Germany!!!

[Edited to add: Damn. ]

[tjg_marantz]

Poo

[The Meal]

Pretty great finish to regulation time. Glad it didn't go to the shootout. Was pulling for the underdog here, though.

[naednek]

did he win a medal?

[Bad Demographic]

Great panties on that guy.

I am always ambivalent about the Olympics (US has crappy coverage) due largely to the huge emphasis on the medal count (esp. gold) and, imo, not enough actual coverage of the events. But I ended up watching a lot of the games this time 'round. Curling fascinates me and some of those shots were just amazing. I also really enjoyed the snowboarding events, especially slopestyle. The sliding events blew me away, both in concept (you're going 80+ mph down this course head first???) and in the results - the ties in two events (gold in two-man, silver in four-man). The cross-country ski events were also full of drama.

I need to look into what it would cost to watch some other country's coverage. My parents-in-law used to pay to get Canadian coverage of the games.

Loved the guy from Tonga, and I loved that the Jamaicans and Nigerians had bobsled teams. And Ester Ledecka - what can I say?

[MonkeyFinger]

Just saw that viewership is down from the last Winter Olympics. Depends on the demographic and viewing source, but it would seem that NBC had to give "make-goods" to advertisers for not making their numbers. Thinking that the lackluster showing on the skating side didn't help matters but there's obviously more to it than that.

For me, there's only so much Olympics I can actually sit and watch.

[Bad Demographic]

One thing that I found interesting is that down here, on the channel out of El Paso, we kept getting this ad for a guy running for Probate Judge in El Paso. During the Olympics. In Prime Time. Super simple ad but on a lot.
Not that that has anything specific to do with the Olympics.

[Madmarcus]

For me, there's only so much Olympics I can actually sit and watch.

I've watched every night but I'll do something else also (Skyrim, Reddit, or planning for work). I like almost all of the events but except for a few things (half pipe, the two -cross events, short track relay, and curling which was barely on in prime time) I just can't sit and watch competitor after competitor.

[Isgrimnur]

One thing that I found interesting is that down here, on the channel out of El Paso, we kept getting this ad for a guy running for Probate Judge in El Paso. During the Olympics. In Prime Time. Super simple ad but on a lot.
Not that that has anything specific to do with the Olympics.

The primary is next Tuesday.

[El Guapo]

One thing that I found interesting is that down here, on the channel out of El Paso, we kept getting this ad for a guy running for Probate Judge in El Paso. During the Olympics. In Prime Time. Super simple ad but on a lot.
Not that that has anything specific to do with the Olympics.

So are you voting for him?

[Matrix]

Great panties on that guy.

I am always ambivalent about the Olympics (US has crappy coverage) due largely to the huge emphasis on the medal count (esp. gold) and, imo, not enough actual coverage of the events. But I ended up watching a lot of the games this time 'round. Curling fascinates me and some of those shots were just amazing. I also really enjoyed the snowboarding events, especially slopestyle. The sliding events blew me away, both in concept (you're going 80+ mph down this course head first???) and in the results - the ties in two events (gold in two-man, silver in four-man). The cross-country ski events were also full of drama.

I need to look into what it would cost to watch some other country's coverage. My parents-in-law used to pay to get Canadian coverage of the games.

Loved the guy from Tonga, and I loved that the Jamaicans and Nigerians had bobsled teams. And Ester Ledecka - what can I say?

US has worst coverage. After couple of olympics, i gave mid finger to USA coverage. When i watched US coverage, i feel like i am being force fed non stop drama, advertising, and actually minimal sports. I got out of my way to find good Olympic Chanel.

Last 3 olympics, i watched 2014 Russian stream, 2016 Bristish stream and 2018 Canadain stream. VPN for few bucks and you can watch anything. If you dont like US coverage, dont watch it. I cant watch it, its like drama show with sports lightly drizzled in.

To give example, when i discovered russina app for 2014, it was 2$ for full access to stream of pretty much all olympics with 24 hour recording. For example, Russian stream covered scientific explanation of different ice skating events, explaing different length of blades for different skaters and for ski events, different type of lubrication used for skies for different weather. It was really scientific, and visual. I was blown away, i honestly couldn't believe how much better it was. as it was my first olympics not of US coverage. Level of coverage was not 100% better, it was 500% better. Since than, i made sure to never watch US coverage. Both British and Canadian coverage were miles better than USA. IN summary, worst Olympic coverage is USA.

[Bad Demographic]

One thing that I found interesting is that down here, on the channel out of El Paso, we kept getting this ad for a guy running for Probate Judge in El Paso. During the Olympics. In Prime Time. Super simple ad but on a lot.
Not that that has anything specific to do with the Olympics.

So are you voting for him?

I suppose I could join the legion of illegal voters, cross the state line and vote. But nah. Too much work.
I just wonder who is footing his advertising bill.

[El Guapo]

One thing that I found interesting is that down here, on the channel out of El Paso, we kept getting this ad for a guy running for Probate Judge in El Paso. During the Olympics. In Prime Time. Super simple ad but on a lot.
Not that that has anything specific to do with the Olympics.

So are you voting for him?

I suppose I could join the legion of illegal voters, cross the state line and vote. But nah. Too much work.
I just wonder who is footing his advertising bill.

Well, as long as he is on the Soros approved list you can do it and get a sweet paycheck out of it, too.

[LawBeefaroni]

One thing that I found interesting is that down here, on the channel out of El Paso, we kept getting this ad for a guy running for Probate Judge in El Paso. During the Olympics. In Prime Time. Super simple ad but on a lot.
Not that that has anything specific to do with the Olympics.

So are you voting for him?

I suppose I could join the legion of illegal voters, cross the state line and vote. But nah. Too much work.
I just wonder who is footing his advertising bill.

Affiliates usually get a few local spots to sell. During the Superbowl we had a few governor candidate ads.

[Jeff V]

I like almost all of the events but except for a few things (half pipe, the two -cross events, short track relay, and curling which was barely on in prime time) I just can't sit and watch competitor after competitor.

The only time I saw any curling was the semifinal men's game at 5 am. A few nights ago the channel blurb on Sling indicated the finals indicated it would be on, I stayed up late and they changed the blurb, removing the curling and instead showed reruns of the earlier programming. If ratings are down, this is one reason.

[MonkeyFinger]

For me, there's only so much Olympics I can actually sit and watch.

I've watched every night but I'll do something else also (Skyrim, Reddit, or planning for work). I like almost all of the events but except for a few things (half pipe, the two -cross events, short track relay, and curling which was barely on in prime time) I just can't sit and watch competitor after competitor.

Oh, that wasn't to imply they weren't on all the time at the house. My wife falls into much the same boat, she either is at her computer in the kitchen, "watching" with her back to the screen while she plays HOG or Match 3 games. Or she's on the couch doing the same on her iPad. Now that the Olympics are over, she'll go back to her regular diet of watching those murder-death-kill ID Channel shows.

[gilraen]

US has worst coverage. After couple of olympics, i gave mid finger to USA coverage. When i watched US coverage, i feel like i am being force fed non stop drama, advertising, and actually minimal sports. I got out of my way to find good Olympic Chanel.

Last 3 olympics, i watched 2014 Russian stream, 2016 Bristish stream and 2018 Canadain stream. VPN for few bucks and you can watch anything. If you dont like US coverage, dont watch it. I cant watch it, its like drama show with sports lightly drizzled in.

I watched the British steam in the last couple of Summer Olympics, but I actually don't mind the NBC Olympics app. They had entire length of events on it, and depending on time of day(?) hardly any commercials. I used it mostly to watch figure skating (although as much as I love figure skating, I did get a bit tired of it after 10+ hours).

TV coverage is absolutely abysmal, though, no wonder their ratings are horrible.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, the CBC coverage here in Canada was very good, as usual. Did anyone watch the closing ceremonies? The China presentation looked very Tron-ish.

[pr0ner]

I like almost all of the events but except for a few things (half pipe, the two -cross events, short track relay, and curling which was barely on in prime time) I just can't sit and watch competitor after competitor.

The only time I saw any curling was the semifinal men's game at 5 am. A few nights ago the channel blurb on Sling indicated the finals indicated it would be on, I stayed up late and they changed the blurb, removing the curling and instead showed reruns of the earlier programming. If ratings are down, this is one reason.

So it's bad that NBC decided to switch up their programming to show the Men's Curling finals LIVE rather than on tape delay?

[El Guapo]

Yeah, the CBC coverage here in Canada was very good, as usual. Did anyone watch the closing ceremonies? The China presentation looked very Tron-ish.

I wound up watching several days of the CBC coverage due to being up in Stowe Vermont for half a week last week. It was good, although honestly it didn't strike me as all that different in style from NBC's coverage (although unsurprisingly they focused on Canadian athletes rather than American ones).

Also, I signed up for a trial of Youtube TV to watch the Olympics. It was pretty great - gave me access to NBC SN to watch the Olympics pretty much anytime, and I could use it to basically DVR Olympics coverage so that events were basically available on demand. I was pretty happy with the service. Not happy enough to spend $35 / month on it, although I may use it in place of MLB.tv to watch baseball once baseball season starts again (since the Red Sox station is available on it in the Boston area).

[Rumpy]

I wound up watching several days of the CBC coverage due to being up in Stowe Vermont for half a week last week. It was good, although honestly it didn't strike me as all that different in style from NBC's coverage (although unsurprisingly they focused on Canadian athletes rather than American ones).

I think the difference is that they have a wide spectrum of coverage that lasts for the entire duration of the Olympics, and while they do yes tend to focus on Canadian athletes, they also have plenty of coverage of non-Canadian athletes and the wealth is spread all around.

[Scuzz]

Just saw that viewership is down from the last Winter Olympics. Depends on the demographic and viewing source, but it would seem that NBC had to give "make-goods" to advertisers for not making their numbers. Thinking that the lackluster showing on the skating side didn't help matters but there's obviously more to it than that.

For me, there's only so much Olympics I can actually sit and watch.

I read somewhere in the last couple days that while NBC's numbers were down they did actually meet the numbers promised to advertisers.

[tjg_marantz]

I wound up watching several days of the CBC coverage due to being up in Stowe Vermont for half a week last week. It was good, although honestly it didn't strike me as all that different in style from NBC's coverage (although unsurprisingly they focused on Canadian athletes rather than American ones).

I think the difference is that they have a wide spectrum of coverage that lasts for the entire duration of the Olympics, and while they do yes tend to focus on Canadian athletes, they also have plenty of coverage of non-Canadian athletes and the wealth is spread all around.

Didn't notice any focus on any athletes. Watched every event through website and they just showed every single athlete, every single game.

[Jeff V]

So, the suckage was premeditated..

[Rumpy]

I wound up watching several days of the CBC coverage due to being up in Stowe Vermont for half a week last week. It was good, although honestly it didn't strike me as all that different in style from NBC's coverage (although unsurprisingly they focused on Canadian athletes rather than American ones).

I think the difference is that they have a wide spectrum of coverage that lasts for the entire duration of the Olympics, and while they do yes tend to focus on Canadian athletes, they also have plenty of coverage of non-Canadian athletes and the wealth is spread all around.

Didn't notice any focus on any athletes. Watched every event through website and they just showed every single athlete, every single game.

Well, I mean other than a few athlete stories throughout the two weeks, it's pretty much all-inclusive. It celebrates diversity.

[Matrix]

I wound up watching several days of the CBC coverage due to being up in Stowe Vermont for half a week last week. It was good, although honestly it didn't strike me as all that different in style from NBC's coverage (although unsurprisingly they focused on Canadian athletes rather than American ones).

I think the difference is that they have a wide spectrum of coverage that lasts for the entire duration of the Olympics, and while they do yes tend to focus on Canadian athletes, they also have plenty of coverage of non-Canadian athletes and the wealth is spread all around.

Didn't notice any focus on any athletes. Watched every event through website and they just showed every single athlete, every single game.

The focus on Candian athletes in my experience this olympic was minimal, so if there is Canadian athlete , they will mention it in passing, but they will show all athletes. Sure, if the Canadian athlete was on during its run, they would get supper excited, but that's a given , but there was no preferential filming treatment. They just showed everyone. Even events where canadians were clearly in the back of the pack.
I haven't used NBC app, so cant comment on that. But VPN is few bucks and i dont have cable, so i think i wouldnt be able to watch it even if it was decent since its with TV subscription.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, in comparison, I watched the opening ceremonies on NBC as I couldn't find it on CBC, and I found myself missing it because the focus was all on American athletes rather than the spirit of the olympics as a whole.