I thought the Olympics was supposed to be about the world coming togther, but for some reason this board has turned into a very hateful place.:disapp:
I'm watching Olympic coverage on American television, which gives me a very valid excuse for expressing my hate. If I could choose a commentating team that wasn't so biased and actually respected and appreciated all the world's athletes equally maybe I wouldn't be suffering from male PMS, mkay.
You both raise valid points. My Olympic excitement is at an all time low and part of it is the nastiness on the boards and part is the biased reporting on NBC/Universal.
I thought the cold war ended years and years ago but NBC is hellbent on fanning the flames and keeping the hatred going. And even though Plushenko's programs (Lysaceks as well to be honest) weren't particularly inspiring I do like him as a person but I'm disppointed that he (Evgeny) doesn't mind playing into NBC's portrayal of him as the evil Russian. The other night Bob Costas was interviewing Lysacek and proceeded to read a list of all the things Plushenko had said since the mens event had ended. Why not ignore that and allow Lysacek to talk about his skating and his coach.
Part of the reason so many NA's believe that any good result by European and especially Russian skaters is all bloc judging is because of the years the American networks have spent drilling that into their heads. Look at how NBC was trying to rile up people before and during the pairs event. "The Russians" were finally going to lose their "stranglehold" on the pairs event. Will "The Russians" manage to keep their hold on the pairs title?
Even before the event began I think everyone knew the answer to that would be no. K&S are good but are just starting out and were contenders for bronze if they had good skates but they were not gold medal contenders. Of course why tell the truth when being so OTT dramatic might be more interesting. Even here people would rather upset themselves by getting all dramatic over something that wasn't going to happen. I lost count of how many times I read about people being disgusted that the Russians were going to cheat poor S&Z by pushing unworthy K&S onto the top of the podium.
Don't get me wrong, there have been instances in which teams were helped along or held up in the past but IMO most of the Russian and European triumphs in the past were deserved. The Russian had a "stranglehold" on the pair title because the Russian federation gave the same attention to their pairs that the U.S. has given to their own ladies skating program. I recall Peter Carruthers back when he was allowed to do pairs commentary explain why the Russian teams were almost always ahead. The basic skating skills and speed and polish of those teams were first rate. I remember reading an old copy of Blades on Ice and one of the American coaches stated that in the U.S. the kids wanted to do the big tricks but didn't pay as much attention to the basics.
Now with the influx of Russian coaches into the U.S. that dominated of course has ended and thus the pairs are good and have potential but aren't as good as their predecessors. Thus no Russian team on the podium in Vancouver. No drama required.
I wonder if Peter Carruthers' fairness and failure to automatically hint that certain teams were being cheated is one reason why he doesn't do color commentary anymore.
Even on the message boards the nastiness began. Automatically Russian D&S must have been held up if they are first in the CD. I got the feeling that some people just saw a Russian team and didn't pay attention to what was on the ice. I've seen some descriptions of D&S's CD last night that bear little or no resemblance to what I saw on my own television.
I'm American and for the most part am proud to see my country men and women do well but ever since I've become a figure skating fan I've also loved and appreciated the style of the European and Russian skaters.
It's sad to see so many nasty comments flung at the skaters and each other.
