NBC hates alpine skiing

[billski]

It was nice last night that all the figure skating was at the end of the broadcast.

It let me mute the tv, and bring up the full event replay of the women's downhill on my laptop. I watched that while keeping an eye on the tv to see if an event I actually wanted to see any of popped up.

-w

Yeah, I was kinda blown away that the SuperC was the first thing shown. Then the dog got sick, so timing was "perfect" :blink:

 

[drjeff]

the most watched winter sports are
1. Figure Skating
2. Ice Hockey
3. Curling.
The first two are understandable. We've talked about curling to beat the band. I still don't get the attraction, even after hundreds of explanations. maybe I should go to the local curling club open house day. Maybe then I'll understand.

I think that curling benefits from the "I bet I could do that" syndrome. Your average person looks at say the figure skaters, or Shaun White in the 1/2 pipe or Lindsey Vonn tearing down a hill at 70mph or a luger going 90mph and knows that THEY COULDN'T do that themselves.

Now curling, if you ask me, looks like it would be something that without having to imagine it too much, you're average person could just slip on a pair of the curling shoes (probably thinking that they're not much different than a pair of bowling shoes) and go either sweep the ice infront of the stone and/or slide the stone. Then the 'I've played shuffleboard before" or "I've played Bocce before" similarity factor kicks in and voila - they superimpose themselves in the uniform (personally I'd choose the Norwegian curling teams pants as part of mine! :lol: ) and the popularity of curling can be explained that way.

 

[WWF-VT]

Now curling, if you ask me, looks like it would be something that without having to imagine it too much, you're average person could just slip on a pair of the curling shoes (probably thinking that they're not much different than a pair of bowling shoes) and go either sweep the ice infront of the stone and/or slide the stone. Then the 'I've played shuffleboard before" or "I've played Bocce before" similarity factor kicks in and voila - they superimpose themselves in the uniform (personally I'd choose the Norwegian curling teams pants as part of mine! :lol: ) and the popularity of curling can be explained that way.

Not only does it look like a sport the average person can do, it's a sport the average person can do while drinking beer !

 

[billski]

Not only does it look like a sport the average person can do, it's a sport the average person can do while drinking beer !

That's what Bode said

 

[billski]

I don't think there are many people who have won a gold medal in the downhill while battling a shin injury. While all athletes have injuries at time, this one was pretty serious. You could see that she was clearly favoring that leg. To win the premier race in all of alpine skiing under those circumstances is a significant achievement. Those criticizing her ought to try it themselves, and see how easy it is.

According to an article in a Swiss newspaper www.nzz.ch,

""Now, such a bruise to the shin is certainly painful, but also quite common. But the American public doesn't know that--they don't understand much about ski racing in general. Most American journalists don't either. That's the only way one can explain how, leading up to the games, they trumpeted how Lindsey Vonn had the opportunity to be the Michael Phelps of the Winter Olympics and win all five alpine Gold medals. That's rather stretching it."

 

[Mapnut]

As long as the subject is stupid TV, NBC showed a stupid viewer poll, "Which is harder, winning 8 swimming gold medals or 5 skiing gold medals?" The viewing public, being what it is, voted for the 8 swimming. Makes perfect sense, seeing that the 8 has been done, while the most in skiing is . . . (please fill in correct answer).

 

[RootDKJ]

I joined also.

 

[jack97]

Hmmm.... curling, reminds me of an oversized outdoor version of pool or billiard. Looks like a game and not a sport.

That said, I'm interested in the breakdown of watched events. I never liked the alpine events and speed skating, both seems too clinical. Ski cross, board cross and short track ice skating, events where they have to race against other competitors that has my interest. For me, its more exciting and it appears to have different strategy when you see racing going head to head.

Alpine racing seems like holding a 400 or 800 meter track event but letting each athlete run the track by themselves and the best time wins.

 

[billski]

NBC is getting bashed pretty bad on it's coverage. The latest I heard this morning on the radio:
- Sunday prime time: in a 60 minute period, there was 31 minutes of commercial advertising.
- In a 30 minute period, 2 minutes were devoted to Ski Jumping.

And now they are whining that they are going to lose $150m. Great business acumen!

 

[jaywbigred]

Hmmm.... curling, reminds me of an oversized outdoor version of pool or billiard. Looks like a game and not a sport.

From comments like these, which I've been trying to defend the sport against, I guess it is one of those "guess you have to try" sports. While a triathlon it is not, it certainly requires more fitness than any "game" and plenty of athletic ability and hand-eye coordination.

Alpine racing seems like holding a 400 or 800 meter track event but letting each athlete run the track by themselves and the best time wins.

The last track meet I went to also saw men and women using their bodies to absorb the forces associated with banking hard turns at high speeds, complete with crashes into netting at 70+ mph. Oh, wait....

 

[billski]

From comments like these, which I've been trying to defend the sport against, I guess it is one of those "guess you have to try" sports. .

Send these guys to an open house...

 

[jack97]

From comments like these, which I've been trying to defend the sport against, I guess it is one of those "guess you have to try" sports. While a triathlon it is not, it certainly requires more fitness than any "game" and plenty of athletic ability and hand-eye coordination.




The last track meet I went to also saw men and women using their bodies to absorb the forces associated with banking hard turns at high speeds, complete with crashes into netting at 70+ mph. Oh, wait....

Just my opinion, lots of sports and games requires hand/eye coord and certain athletic ability. You can add other elements to shuffle board and make it more athletic. Maybe for pool, mandate a heavier cue stick so that it takes more strength to hit the ball... just a game.

BTW, this something I'm still debating within, whats a game versus a sport. Ballroom dancing I think is still an summer Olympic event. :?

In terms of the alpine events, just saying how dry this is when compared to ski cross and board cross. After seeing a couple of alpine runs, looks dry to me but not people who follow the sport. Others would say the same about freestyle moguls, doesn't surprise me, I follow the sport so I'm fascinated with the event. And btw, I don't cheer for the USA athletes, I cheer for certain athletic elements.