16 hours ago, The Professor said:

I don’t think the US mens basketball team is going to do very much. From what I’ve seen so far in this game with France it’s not looking like they have their best NBA players in Tokyo. 

Not the best of the best from the US team, but make no mistake. They are vastly superior in talent to everyone else by a mile... despite the talent gap being more narrow than ever. The problem with USA basketball is it is a hodgepodge of talent thrown together over the course of a couple practices and the ball is rolled out to them. The roster configuration is bad. These other teams have been playing together for years and we have Jrue Holiday and Devin Booker playing crunch time minutes in Tokyo, 96 hours after competing in the NBA Finals half way around the globe.

On 7/25/2021 at 11:29 PM, The Raven said:

I realize that these Tokyo 2020 games are very different, due to COVID, with the year delay and the no fans.   But NBC, please, PLEASE, PLEASE stop it with the family interviews via remote hook up.   It has been a trainwreck every single time.   We get it.  Families can't be there and it stinks.   Quit making bad television out of it.

I wonder how many remote hookups are with families of athletes who are expected to win gold medals, but don’t. 

Damn, just watched the short clip about Suni Lee and her dad. His injury that caused paralysis just two years ago.  Crazy.  Good for her and her support group seeing those goals through, pretty damn impressive. So is that community support.  So many ethnic pockets in this country that we would never know exist without the spotlight that Sports can provide. 

I’m really surprised the USA didn’t win a medal in the 100m dash. If Sha'Carri Richardson didn’t make a bone head move we would’ve probably won one.

Loved watching this week.  Womens Gymnastics had some very exciting moments.  My favorites were probably Sydney McLaughlin winning gold in women's 400m hurdles and the women's volley ball team winning gold in beach volleyball tonight.  All 3 women are just tough as nails. 

Their determination and confidence, hope we had lots of young ladies watching because they're inspiring.  This coming from a guy that admittedly watches men's football and basketball more than anything else.  However you turn on some Olympics and it's just different.  So proud of those ladies. 

On a side note there were A LOT of highlights on different levels for team USA but those two are still hanging with me. 

10 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Loved watching this week.  Womens Gymnastics had some very exciting moments.  My favorites were probably Sydney McLaughlin winning gold in women's 400m hurdles and the women's volley ball team winning gold in beach volleyball tonight.  All 3 women are just tough as nails. 

Their determination and confidence, hope we had lots of young ladies watching because they're inspiring.  This coming from a guy that admittedly watches men's football and basketball more than anything else.  However you turn on some Olympics and it's just different.  So proud of those ladies. 

I agree on McLaughlin; that was awesome to watch. Former UK track athlete to boot.

USA has tied China in gold with 38. USA has a chance for 3 more gold while China only has a chance for 1 more.

USA makes history in womens volleyball with 1st ever gold in olympics as well as 1st ever gold in womens track cycling (omnium).

USA takes gold medals lead with 39.

USA finished the Olympics with 39 gold,41 silver, 33 bronze for 113 medals. China finished with 38 gold, 32 silver, 18 bronze for 88 medals.

Another dominating performance by USA in total medals and awesome come back on China in gold.

China stopped everything to prepare for the Olympics while The US continued international competition.

Once again USA Shows we have the best athletes in the world at least in the summer games.

USA men’s and women’s basketball both won gold.

I am assuming NBC will have the coverage rights in the future as well.  If so, they have 3 years to get themselves together.  I found this years coverage to be the worst in recent memory and the ratings appear to show that.   I know that the 13 hour time difference has a lot to do with it.  But there was a lot of other things left to be desired.  If you are going to use multiple channels and streaming to cover the games, break things up.   I tuned into the Olympics channel on my Fioptics and all that channel was covering was tennis, which few people care about as an olympic event.   The up to the minute Simone Biles coverage didn't help them either (That may just be me because I don't watch gymnastics.) I think a lot of people tired on that really fast.  I realize it was a story that needed to be covered, but cut back and spend more time covering actual events.   2024 Paris won't be much better time wise.  2028 LA will work out fine, but then 2032 is in Brisbane, Australia and they are right back in the Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney time issues again.   They will have to work out the issues, or continue to watch the ratings bottom out.

Less than 6 months until the winter Olympics. Not nearly as excited for them but I will tune in. 

12 hours ago, The Raven said:

I am assuming NBC will have the coverage rights in the future as well.  If so, they have 3 years to get themselves together.  I found this years coverage to be the worst in recent memory and the ratings appear to show that.   I know that the 13 hour time difference has a lot to do with it.  But there was a lot of other things left to be desired.  If you are going to use multiple channels and streaming to cover the games, break things up.   I tuned into the Olympics channel on my Fioptics and all that channel was covering was tennis, which few people care about as an olympic event.   The up to the minute Simone Biles coverage didn't help them either (That may just be me because I don't watch gymnastics.) I think a lot of people tired on that really fast.  I realize it was a story that needed to be covered, but cut back and spend more time covering actual events.   2024 Paris won't be much better time wise.  2028 LA will work out fine, but then 2032 is in Brisbane, Australia and they are right back in the Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney time issues again.   They will have to work out the issues, or continue to watch the ratings bottom out.

I watched a fair amount during week one, not as much during the second week.  A couple of my observations...

Mike Tirico was very smooth as the "host".  On par with what I've come to enjoy from former hosts such as Dan Patrick, Bob Costas and Jim McKay.

Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines are hands down the best 1-2 event announcers.  Nobody else is even close.

I really miss Tom Hammond doing the track and field events.  Leigh Diffey (sp?) may be a true professional, but I just felt like I was watching the BBC coverage of the games, with his accent.  

Whoever the lady was that was the color-commentator during the diving portion...REALLY grated my nerves.  Don't know what it was about her, but I had to eventually mute the TV.

Finding when/where certain events were going to be broadcast was often very difficult.  A lot of times I just gave up.