> Or not seeing it at all. One of the criticisms of the coverage of the Olympics (particularly the Summer games, but it happens in both) is that there is such unequal coverage of the different events. In summer, it really does seem like the ONLY thing they broadcast is the swimming races. Last time, there was some very brief coverage of the equestrian events that Leen is obviously interested in, and that was up from previous times when they've gotten no television coverage at all.

They basically pick what sports to cover based on how well the US is expected to do in that event. So get some good US equestrian people in the Olympics and you'll see lots more equestiran coverage. Why do you think NBC is showing like EVERY ONE of the X-Games sports (snowboard-cross, halfpipe, moguls, aerials, and all that) and hardly anything of many other events? It's because we invented those crazy X-Games sports, and we dominate them. The casual US viewer wants to see US people winning medals, not strange Norwegians winning boring nordic skiing events. You'll see whatever the US is expected to be good in, and they'll bring you the finals of anything the US unexpectedly does well in (such as men's curling!) and that's all you're getting.

Personally, I can't really say which Olympics I like better. I think the Summer games has more tradition--not only do the modern Summer Olympics date back to 1898 while the Winter Olympics date to the 1920s, the Summer games have sports that date back to the Ancient Olympics in Greece, whereas the Winter games have... curling. I love Olympic ice hockey, even though I despise NHL hockey (take the same players and put them on the bigger international rink and take out the fighting and it suddenly becomes exciting to me!) but I think the Winter Olympics have a higher proliferation of sports that require judging to find out who wins, and I absolutely cannot abide "sports" like that. It may not be true that the winter games have *more* of these events (the summer games have more events period, so it seems logical they'd have more "judged" sports than the winter games) but look at the big sports that always get coverage at each Olympics. The Winter Olympics has figure skating. That's like, Sport Number One that they *always* show. And not only is it a "judged" sport, it's a fricking corrupt one too, and everybody knows it. The Russians have won gold in pairs figure skating every single time for the last 9 Olympics. Sure, they had to buy off a judge or two (and got caught at it in 2002!!) but hey, that's just figure skating. It's so obvious that as long as the favorite doesn't fall, the favorite will win. That's just how it works. It's boring as hell to watch a "sport" like that. You're just watching to see if the favorite wipes out or not. If not, everyone else is skating for the silver.

The Summer Olympics have marquee events like track and field (I can't name a single track and field event that's judged, can you?) and swimming. You know who won. The guy across the line first won. It doesn't matter if he was the favorite or not. If he ran/swam fastest, he wins! Sure, one of the marquee events of the summer games is gymnastics. I feel gymnastics is about as rigged as figure skating. Any sport where a "judging error" can cost someone a gold medal isn't a real sport. Gymnastics doesn't seem as completely rigged as figure skating does to me, but still, it always feels like you know who is going to win going in.

So I watch the Winter Olympics, and I see the events they're showing over and over, like figure skating, half-pipe, moguls, and all that, and they're all judged events. Judged events are stupid. I love watching the half-pipe, but you can't tell me you can make any objective measurement of who did "better" unless someone makes a completely obvious error such as wiping out. And even *falling* isn't so bad in half-pipe. If it were up to me, I'd only allow non-judged events in the Olympics. That means figure skating is out. Half-pipe, moguls, aerials, all out. Gymnastics, diving, synchonized swimming, and that awful, awful rythmic gymnastics are out of the summer games, too. Some events can be fixed. Ski jumping, for instance. Who ever thought "style" points for ski jumping was a good frickin idea? How about this? Build one massive frickin jump, and the guy who goes the farthest wins. That's it. You went 100m and your nearest competitor only went 95m? Congratulations, gold medal! I don't care if you looked like a wounded duck in the air, you win! Snowboard cross is the only one of the X-Games sports I can think of that gets to stay, since you actually race against other people.

That's my feelings, anyway.

-- Dave