Olympics - Olympic Trials | Golden Skate

Olympics - Olympic Trials

A.H.Black

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
I got out my tape of the 1984 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony last night. This is one of my all time favorite memories. I still watch it once a year or so. It always lifts me up. It is not only one of the most patriotic events I have ever witnessed but it is also one of the most moving human events I have ever witnessed. It is mankind at its very best. It still gives me goose bump and brings me to tears.

It is by far the best Opening Ceremony in the history of the Olympics. I think there are two reasons. First - all the music is familiar. Not just familiar in the sense that it is new or popular but familiar in the sense that almost everyone, at least in the U.S., has heard it, knows it, and can probably sing along. Most of it will be familiar all over the World. Second - this ceremony took place in the daytime with natural light. Natural light gives me the freedom to look around and create my own story about what is going on. In darkness I am a slave to what the spotlight chooses to show me. I will always be a fan of full lighting.

So now I'm ready for the upcoming Olympics.

This week's trials included Archery and Cycling. Here's the Google link to lots of articles about them -

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=ascii&q=Olympic+Trials

As for the TV schedule, this week USA network will show rhythmic gymnastics and, I understand, trampoline. That's on Saturday morning.

This is also the week the Gymnastics Trials. They will be shown on Saturday and Sunday evenings on NBC. I'm assuming some of it will be live.

I still find it interesting that we got 2 1/2 hours of Gymnastics Nationals and now we get 4 hours of Trials. In comparison we got 6 hours of Diving competition, of which 3 hours were live. I have this horrible feeling that NBC will treat gymnasitcs the way they did Figure Skating in 2002. That is to say they will make gymnastics a "primetime" only sport, which means we won't get to see very much of it. I really hope I'm wrong.

NBC plans to broadcast over 1200 hours of coverage on 6 channels, including NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, USA, and Telemundo. There will be over 400 hours of HD coverage. YIKES!!
 

bronxgirl

Medalist
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
So why do I have a nagging feeling that the equestrian events that I want to watch will be proudly shown at 3AM on Telemundo (and I don't speak enough Spanish to follow...) :\
 

purplecat

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
United-States
A.H.Black said:
It is by far the best Opening Ceremony in the history of the Olympics.

Well, being an L. A. resident all my life I'm a bit biased, but I totally agree with you! :) My cousin actually was in those opening ceremonies...she was a drill team member who held one of the gold balloons that spelled "welcome", etc. I still kick myself that the Olympics were here and I didn't see any events. I did get to see the Olympic torch though. It was those 1984 Olympics that turned me into an Olympic junkie! Every four years (actually every two now!) I plunk myself in front of the TV and watch constantly! I love it!

I enjoyed the diving trials and am looking forward to the gymnastics this week (which is local too, but I'm not going! :mad: ) I'm particularly looking forward to the rhythmic gymnastics coverage by USA since we hardly get much TV coverage of it and I love it!
 

A.H.Black

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
So why do I have a nagging feeling that the equestrian events that I want to watch will be proudly shown at 3AM on Telemundo (and I don't speak enough Spanish to follow...)

I remember reading somewhere that NBC plans to broadcast 40 hours of equestrian events. Don't know which channel though. I think Telemundo is mostly being used for soccer. Did you see the equestrian trials?

My cousin actually was in those opening ceremonies...she was a drill team member who held one of the gold balloons that spelled "welcome", etc.
The welcome number is one of the coolest. I bet she still has great memories although I bet one of her memories is sitting out on that field in 90 degree weather for hours.
 
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Lucy25

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
A.H.Black said:
This is also the week the Gymnastics Trials. They will be shown on Saturday and Sunday evenings on NBC. I'm assuming some of it will be live.

I still find it interesting that we got 2 1/2 hours of Gymnastics Nationals and now we get 4 hours of Trials. In comparison we got 6 hours of Diving competition, of which 3 hours were live. I have this horrible feeling that NBC will treat gymnasitcs the way they did Figure Skating in 2002. That is to say they will make gymnastics a "primetime" only sport, which means we won't get to see very much of it. I really hope I'm wrong.

NBC plans to broadcast over 1200 hours of coverage on 6 channels, including NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, USA, and Telemundo. There will be over 400 hours of HD coverage. YIKES!!
There was an article in the paper yesterday that said that these gymnastics Olyimpc trials don't determine anything other than who gets to go to a closed camp at Marta's ranch. It will only be after a week or so there that the ladies team will be chosen. I wonder how this fact will affect viewership. I am sure they will really built this event up, but I am not sure how people will react upon learning that the top six girls will not necessarily make the team. The article said that the team will be announced sometime in mid-July.

The men's team will not go through quite a selection process, but they, too, will not know the team at the finish of the trials.
 

RoaringMice

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 1, 2003
A.H.Black said:
I remember reading somewhere that NBC plans to broadcast 40 hours of equestrian events. Don't know which channel though. I think Telemundo is mostly being used for soccer. Did you see the equestrian trials?

Telemundo will be used for soccer, boxing and baseball. These sports may also appear on the other NBC channels, but will definately appear on Telemundo.
 

bronxgirl

Medalist
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
When I singled out Telemundo for carrying the equestrian events, I really didn't think it would be used for that. I was using it as the example of the networks using only popular sports for their primetime coverage. No offence meant to Telemundo (which will do a much better job of covering soccer than English language stations will do I'm sure).
I mised the coverage of the equestrian selection trials. when were they on?
 

A.H.Black

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
bronxgirl said:
When I singled out Telemundo for carrying the equestrian events, I really didn't think it would be used for that. I was using it as the example of the networks using only popular sports for their primetime coverage. No offence meant to Telemundo (which will do a much better job of covering soccer than English language stations will do I'm sure).
I mised the coverage of the selection trials. when were they on?
They were on about three weeks ago on USA. It was almost totally show jumping. I have them so PM me if you are desparate.

I agree with you about the coverage. I am very afraid that we are going to see the same fluff pieces about 12 times. I really hope that we get to see better coverage of the Equestrian 3 day event but I'm not holding my breath. I have tons of coverage of 1992 and pretty good coverage of 1984, but those were the only years they showed much.
 

ouridol

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
Gymnastics coverage on NBC trials:

June 26th - 7-9 p.m. Women Pre-Lims
June 27th - 6-8 p.m. Women Finals
July 3rd - Noon - 2 p.m. Mens Finals

All on NBC, central times :D
 

A.H.Black

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
Bronxgirl - Speaking of equestrian - I just read an article the Whitaker will not be representing Great Britain this year. Even more surprisingly, the UK will not have a show jumping team this year. They didn't qualify. Here are some articles about it.

http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8....bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/3827473.stm

In other sports - Does everyone know the the U.S. will not have a baseball team in the Olympics this year. They didn't qaulify either.

As for Gymnastics, the trials are in San Jose. The Gymnastics link is -

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/

I'm guessing that there will be live scores on that site during the competition.
 

Longhornliz

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
I wish they would do that pay per view thing again where you could purchase 3 networks that show 24 hr coverage of the olympics. I think they only did it one year, but I definately loved it.
 

purplecat

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
United-States
A.H.Black said:
As for Gymnastics, the trials are in San Jose. The Gymnastics link is -

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/

Actually the Rhythmic Gymnastics and Trampoline trials took place last week in San Jose. The Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics takes place this week in Anaheim.

Does anyone have an idea what sports Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC and USA would be covering during the Olympics?
 

A.H.Black

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
purplecat said:
Actually the Rhythmic Gymnastics and Trampoline trials took place last week in San Jose. The Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics takes place this week in Anaheim.

Does anyone have an idea what sports Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC and USA would be covering during the Olympics?

Yikes, thanks for the correction. I was moving too fast.

No word on which sports which stations will cover. I am in constant search of more scheduling info.

If anyone comes across a good forum/message board for general Olympics discussion, I would love to hear about it. I have found boards for some of the specific sports, and one discussing the political side of things, like the bid process, but never a good general discussion board. The figure skating boards seem to be almost singular in their quality. I also hate threaded boards. They are so hard to read it's just not worth it.

Puplecat - I just found this on google -

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=O...TF-8&[email protected]&rnum=6

It's not much but....
 
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A.H.Black

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004

Longhornliz

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
How many times can they possibly show pamela anderson in the crowd??? Its only an hour of coverage, show me more athletics, not more pam.
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
ITA re Pam Anderson. Though she's supporting the cool Indian chick so it's all right by me!

Gosh I haven't seen gymnastics in 8 years and I can't believe how the vault has changed. What a freaky looking thing.

The US women still don't have style though. I really miss the old Soviet gymnasts. At least their programs didn't look cookie cutter and they could dance. I've been spoiled by figure skating, I'm used to seeing real choreography.
 

StillBlueLake

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Mighty Mo!!!!

I think Mohini is AWESOME!!!! I have a new gymnast to root for! :D The Pam thing is cool, especially that she got the money to go to Nats, but they did pan to her quite a few times. Hmm, perhaps appealing to any males watching? :laugh:

I really hope Mohini makes the team, she could really come in handy with the vault.
 
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