Believe it or not, there are still some medal rounds tomorrow— one last cross country race and, of course, the hockey clash for gold.
I’ll be posting for about another week, then winding things up, barring any major late breaking scandals or some athlete telling off Bob Costas. Of course, I’ll be giving my views on the closing ceremonies, and there will be a poll up, so you can weigh in with your favorite part of the closing.
I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have read, commented, questioned and generally made this an enjoyable experience. In case you’re wondering, I will be back for the Beijing Olympics and, then, for Vancouver. We may actually try to make it to those live. We’ve already purchased domains for the winter and summer Olympics, but there’s nothing up yet. Probably in the next week, or so. There’s already early news about both those Olympics available. So, if you’ve enjoyed reading and visiting about the Olympics, make sure to check those sites and bookmark them for your next Olympic viewing pleasure.
Thanks, again and see you soon!
Why do we have to see the Olympics at night ? we could see them in direct . These ads are awful.. and we could have better commentaries. Nothing about Torino, nothing about the foreign athletes . This is very poor coverage.
The idea of the Olympics is exhilarating. To watch people perform at the top of their sport gives us all hope of achieving success through perseverance and passion.
Alas, the media has managed to spoil this excitement by preselecting their “darlings” and promoting them to the detriment of the audience and the other competitors.
Take Mr. Bode Miller, for example. He was on the cover of major magazines, he was the “fair haired boy” who was going to win for the US. Or was he supposed to win? It seems that he talked more than he prepared. He is a shining example of the “ugly American.” Let’s see, he has been paid millions of dollars to represent the United States and certain major sports sponsor, including Nike, Barilla, Atomic skis, etc. If I were his sponsor, I’d want my money back. He was a poor representative for both our nation and the companies who elected to support him.
He was being sponsored to ski. To ski his best and to be a good rep for the USA. Instead, we heard about his philosophy on life, his opinions on matters of no importance, and finally, his opinions that winning was unimportant and that he was not as well prepared for these races. May I ask why not? What else has he got to do, but prepare? What type of role model are his sponsors presenting to America’s young people?
Is it Nike’s intention to support an “athlete” who has no team spirit, is rude, and a general slacker as spokesman for skiing? Isn’t the sport of skiing faltering in demand and isn’t it also true that were it not for snowboarding, many ski resorts would be suffering for revenue? Well, with Mr. Miller’s attitude, we’d be hard pressed to excite kids to ski and/or aim for lofty goals like the Olympics.
It sees to me that the Olympics are about national team spirit, about passion for excellence, for good sportsmanship, and the accompanying good manners. Unfortunately, Bode Miller did not and does not exemplify those aspects of his sport. He has behaved like a spoiled child in need of a good spanking.
My family and I have been skiing most of our lives and have held our top skiers in great respect. As we head out for our next trip to Vail, we will erase all images of that spoiled brat from our skiing imagery.
In summery: Bode Miller is the US embarrassment of the XX Olympiad. His sponsors should rethink their image and notice how be has made fools of them. Perhaps Nike’s new logo should be – “you don’t have to do it…”
There has been a lot of Bode (or bashing any other named athlete who did not perform up to expectations) bashing here and in the media. Here is my question about the whole issue: If Bode had not clipped the gate in the combined by an inch, maybe 2, would we be saying he was a failure? He was headed to almost certain gold. Yes I know he did not perform his second slalom run and anything could happen but with a 1.5 second lead he could almost have fallen down the mountain and won.
Is it fair to criticize an athlete who competes for himself for all but 2 weeks out of every 4 years for not being a team player? On the World Cup skiing circuit, Bode Miller competes for his sponsors and himself. Why is he now expected to be a part of a team that does not sponsor him? (Team USA)
I agree that the coverage of the Olympics has gone from covering a sporting event, to showing a reality TV show. NBC has turned the Olympics into reality TV. Who will get voted off this week? Apparently all the disappointments of Turin.
As an aside, why does NBC call this the Turino Olympics? The English translation of the name Turino is Turin. Shouldn’t they only use Turino if they are broadcasting in Italian?