Friday, August 3, 2012

Week One: Olympic reflections

One week of the Olympics is almost fully in the books and here are my random thoughts on what we've witnessed--or not--in these opening seven days of competition.

- Gabby Douglas made herself a lot of money last night.  I hate to put it in those terms but let's be realistic--the sprite dynamo with the captivating smile is marketing gold, particularly now with a Womens All-Around Gymnastics gold medal to go with her team Gymnastics gold.

- Where is Jimmy Roberts?  I hear that he's appearing on some NBC Olympics programming but it certainly isn't in prime time as he's been replaced by Ryan Seacrest and John McEnroe.  Seacrest is fine and I'm sure was added in hopes of providing some entertainment street cred to the programming.  McEnroe is just a goofy choice--I love Johnny Mac on tennis but don't know that he adds a thing to NBC's prime time coverage.  Roberts was a real journalist who was adept at the profile pieces--something which I think has been sorely lacking in the Olympics coverage I've watched.

- The only thing more painful than the post-swimming race interviews by Andrea Kremer would be if CBS' Leslie Visser was on point with the microphone.  Kremer's questions often repeat what a swimmer just said and the looks on the faces of these athletes says it all.  Kremer has been so bad that she was trending on Twitter two nights ago.  She's no stranger to sideline reporter controversy as she has been publicly outspoken in the past about the "vitriol" (her word) aimed at female colleagues who report from the football and basketball sidelines.  My choice, if we could trade up from Kremer, would be ESPN's Doris Burke or Suzy Kolber.  Neither, of course, have covered swimming in the past but both are good with their coach and player interviews.

- Someone tweeted that Ryan Lochte's dad is the Frank Martin (former Kansas State basketball coach) of Olympic parents.  Lochte's pop was one intense looking dude.

- Can someone help me understand that when there is a tie, in a sport decided by thousandths of points, why both athletes don't get a medal?  Last night, the USA's Aly Raisman and Russia's Allya Mustafina tied in Womens Gymnastics with 59.566 total points but Mustafina won through an odd tie-breaking system.

- Head-scratcher:  Why is synchronized diving an Olympic sport but baseball or softball are not?  I'm just curious...

- Who else is marketing gold on the U.S. team?  You'd be hard-pressed to find a better candidate than Missy Franklin.  The 17-year old swimmer now owns three gold medals and one bronze.  Her bubbly personality and teenage exuberance, combined with yet another winning smile, means that Franklin will join Douglas as two athletes positioned to reap the most notoriety from these Games.

- Most fun event to watch:  Beach volleyball.

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