Olympic Games in Beijing -- Review #1

Opening Ceremony

Awesome spectacle, but just learned that there was lip-synchronization and part of the fireworks shown were CGI. I don't blame the Chinese at all because they were trying to go over-the-top with everything about these Olympics Games (which so far they have succeeded). My only problem is with NBC, Costas and Lauer, who clearly chose their words carefully:

Lauer: "You're looking at a cinematic device employed by Zhang Yimou here. This is actually almost animation. A footstep a second, 29 in all, to signify the 29 Olympiads."

Costas: "We said earlier that aspects of this Opening Ceremony are almost like cinema in real time. Well this is quite literally cinematic."

Clearly, they could have said something along the lines of, "This portion is a digital effect". My interpretation of their words was that this so awesome, it's like watching a movie.

Onto the parade of nations, and this is where I have a bigger problem with the coverage than the previously mentioned issues: NBC and the Napoleonic Costas (Costas, you are a very good commentator, but also a dangerous man), just like Brian Williams in the Athens games, couldn't back away from taking snipes at Arab countries, specifically the portion about not having many women competitors (UAE), the Iran nuclear problem, laughing at Azerbaijan for submitting a bid for the 2016 Olympic Games, and Jordan being a "relatively modern Arab country" by having actually more women than men competing. Make fun all you want, but the UAE is building the largest skyscrapers in the world and becoming the hub for trade, finance and tourism in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the U.S. is stagnating/declining (hopefully not permanently) and NYC's tallest building was built almost a century ago.

In my opinion, the only political aspects of the game that should be mentioned during the ceremonies are pressing current events, in this case Zimbabwe's Mugabe not allowed in the country and Russia attacking Georgia. Don't take snipes at other countries' cultures. That's simply wrong, it indirectly punishes the people of these countries (by formulating/reinforcing a negative opinion of these nations/people/cultures that could have physical consequences in the real world), and really belittles the Olympic spirit which celebrates our similarities, not differences.

TV vs. Online Coverage

The online coverage has been great on nbcolympics.com. I really enjoyed watching cycling, archery and rowing late at night--events that wouldn't normally be shown on TV. The only problem is that the Internet events don't have voice commentary. Most events have a live blogger that types in his commentary, but it's not the same. And even when the event does have a voice commentator, it's not shown on the Internet. For example, I watched the men's cycling road race live at night on the Internet. No commentary. The next day they show it on NBC in the morning with voice commentary. What the fuck?

Still, overall an awesome job, so two thumbs up to NBC for their online coverage.

Baseball / Softball Out

From the athletes' standpoint who have / would have competed in the games, this sucks. In my opinion, softball was fine since those were the best of the best competing, whereas in baseball, the MLB owners and the player union keep their athletes out (Olympic soccer doesn't have its best athletes either). But baseball is now very popular everywhere except in Europe and Africa, so it's not just an American sport anymore. I presume that's also the case for softball, perhaps somewhat less so. Final judgement: if they have BMX racing, they should certainly have softball and baseball. I think there probably was anti-American bias in the vote to eliminate these two sports.