Watching the Olympics? Disappointing so far.

Sunny

Sunny

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I usually enjoy the Winter Olympics, especially the opening ceremony. So I tuned in last night. I found it strangely depressing and not at all enjoyable; in fact, I was glad when they finally got to the end of the parade. Partly it was due to the masks; without faces, all the marchers look like automatons. And partly it was due to the "world leaders" who were present. Not at all the warm, fuzzy, "brotherhood" ambiance that usually goes with the Olympics.

The best part of that entry, IMO, was the good classical music they played.

Maybe the actual sports events will be better. I hope they don't make them wear masks while competing.
 

Sunny said:
I usually enjoy the Winter Olympics, especially the opening ceremony. So I tuned in last night. I found it strangely depressing and not at all enjoyable; in fact, I was glad when they finally got to the end of the parade. Partly it was due to the masks; without faces, all the marchers look like automatons. And partly it was due to the "world leaders" who were present. Not at all the warm, fuzzy, "brotherhood" ambiance that usually goes with the Olympics.

The best part of that entry, IMO, was the good classical music they played.

Maybe the actual sports events will be better. I hope they don't make them wear masks while competing.
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It did not have that feel of peace to me. Not really because of where it was being held or because of the leaders who were in attendances. It was because of the coverage. They had these two political advisor/experts talking about China politics throughout the Opening Ceremonies and it seemed to me that the focus was more on that more than what the games are suppose to be about. They even brought up when the Ukraine athletes walked in about Russia possibly attacking Ukraine during the Olympics. That is not what I tune in to hear when I watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. If I want to hear that I will tune into CNN or other news stations. I was also disappointed in the coverage.
 
I agree that the opening ceremonies were dismal. Couldn't watch the whole thing.

The figure skating so far (the team event started a day or two before) was great, as usual. More tonight! ⛸
 
I do not watch the Winter Olympics in China because I refused to watch masked people. It's bad enough that masked people now have become "media darlings" over the last 2 years. Beside, there just might be World War III coming up that is more interesting than the Chinese show. China has a terrible human rights record if you follow the news.

Anyway, I'm more interested in the rising interest rates, global warming and the high inflation in the news than what I call "entertainment for the masses." Yes, I know the men/women there trained for years and years and they should get our support. It's just that "China thing" that bothers me!
 
I watched the luge competition this afternoon. No masks, but they did have transparent face shields, probably because of the freezing air they are speeding through, nothing to do with Covid. The announcer said they go up to speeds of 90 mph!
 
I have been enjoying the ice dancing. I don't know why we are there either but I am going to enjoy the events I like to support our people there.
 
Only able to watch on our local OTA NBC broadcast channel since I never have cable nor use a streaming service. Watching bits here and there and not invested in any specific athletes. Note am a long time bump skier. The men's moguls judging was a joke.

Shows how politics within the International Ski Federation FIS comes into play when choosing judges. In moguls there are 7 judges, 5 of which are just there to evaluate turns, that is the highest weighted element. Yet on a day when the sport is being watched by more of the world than any other, the judges are so influenced by what they perceive their FIS peers expect out of them favoring well known athletes that they so fail to judge without bias fairly, that anyone with even the shallowest understanding of the competition can see how obvious it was. Of course the same game has played out over decades in numbers of other judged competitions with figure skating and gymnastics usually the most obvious. Like if someone is a coach or former star athlete or long time judge in whatever sport, if they don't judge that way, sadly they probably won't only not be selected to judge in the future but probably haven't a future in the FIS.

Otherwise the men's snowboarding slopestyle and men-s downhill ski racing (actually live) and Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s free skating performance have been high points so far. I'll watch ski racing and dabble some as they show on NBC.

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I only glanced at it in passing. If I come upon something interesting I'll stay awhile. I think a lot of the surrounding area has no natural snow and they are using artificial which hits me as fake. It feels more like a winter Olympics to me when it's held in Alpine and Nordic regions.
 
I don't like anything to do with winter. Don't care for snow or ice games. If I could force myself to watch, then maybe curling would be exciting. ;)
 
I said I probably wasn't going to watch. Then I wound up watching a couple of hours of women's freestyle snowboarding and skiing over the weekend and really enjoying it. It's too bad all the politics and posturing gets in the way of these kids doing their thing.
 
That's true, JimBob. The expertise of the athletes is wonderful to watch. The endless yakking and analyzing, not to mention the politics, I could do without. It helps to turn off the sound.
 

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