The Red Ranger: Well the Olympics are over and I would have to give them a solid “A” rating. I think NBC did a good job overall and I am not just saying that because the Nattering Naybob is a big fan of NBC. Of course, there were some highs and lows but I rarely ever felt like I could not watch them any longer. Unless of course gymnastics were involved, then the TV was programmed to automatically switch to the Emergency Broadcast System. Although gymnastics did give us one of the best moments with McKalya Maroney, I was still not impressed.
Being a track & field fan I wish the US could have provided a stronger contingent in the 400m. The 100m and 200m were a foregone conclusion that Bolt would win. I was surprised to see some US contenders in some of the longer races.
One big question I have is what happened to boxing. I can remember when I was younger that this was a high point of the Olympics. Who could forget the Spinks brothers or Sugar Ray Leonard? I don’t remember seeing any boxing coverage. Not that I am a big boxing fan but is was always interesting to see an American fighting a Russia in the finals of the 165 lb. weight division. I guess this just shows how far boxing has fallen.
I think that the US women overall were far more impressive than the men. I chalk this up to Title IX passed in 1972 where women were given greater access to funding for athletics at the expense of the men. This Olympics had the first generation of female athletes raised with the benefits of Title IX.
Nattering Naybob: I believe boxing was featured exclusively on CNBC, of all places. In between rounds, the analysts probably checked the status of their distressed equities bonds. My sense is that boxing is not as widely popular as it once was, it now reaches more of a niche audience. I used to be a big boxing fan in the 70’s and early 80’s. One of my most distinct boxing memories was when Jimmy Young almost beat Muhammed Ali in 1976, the general consensus after the fight was that Young was robbed. I remember by the 15th round, the crowd was chanting loudly “Jimmy Young, Jimmy Young!!”. Now when I watch boxing I get queasy. Even though the amateur boxers are well-protected about the head area, they are still trying to inflict physical harm on each other, and this is the sole purpose of the sport. I do not condemn anyone for watching, I just don’t understand how they can watch it.
But back to the Olympics. I did not see as much as I would have liked. I did not even get to see the Marathon, which is my favorite event, since it involves the same brand of endurance required to withstand the withering attacks of The Red Ranger in these blog postings. I recently saw a YouTube of Frank Shorter giving an address a couple years back in Chicago, his main theme was the prevalence of performance enhancing drugs in the Olympics. He claims now what he felt would be sour grapes back when it happened–that Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany’s victory over Shorter in the 1976 Marathon in Montreal, was aided by performance enhancing drugs that were widespread among the East Germany athletes by that time. Cierpniski went on to win the 1980 Olympic Marathon as well, becoming the first (and most recent) man to win the Olympics Marathon back-to-back since the immortal Abebe Bikila did it in 1960 (barefoot) and 1964 (only a few weeks after an appendectomy). Ironically, Shorter would have held that distinction instead of Cierpinski, had the “running field” been level.
I am glad to see that you recognize the value of women getting equal access to participating in competitive sports, via Title IX. I guess government “intrusion” for the purpose of providing equal opportunity to traditionally under-served and overlooked groups who would ordinarily not have any means to obtain this equal opportunity, is not always a bad thing, is it Red Ranger?
I have linked to a YouTube video that features perhaps my all-time favorite Olympic memory. Enjoy.
Second Grade Minds 