Posted 17 August 2004 - 09:07 AM
While I don't mind the olympics-- and I think whoever was bitching about how long distance runners are no good because they can't sprint is sour-grapesing-- I think it's dumb how they're covered here in the US of A.
Events with no American athletes are rarely covered or even mentioned. I've seen several events with one American athlete in second place, and the American is showered with praise, glory, interviews, information, heart-wrenching featurettes, etc., while the first place winner is pretty much ignored. It's largely the same if the American is in seventh place, but the first place winner is usually at least acknowledged there; and heven forbid they even mention the name of the second-place winner if the American is in third. In team sports, featurettes are usually about a "rivalry" between the Americans and some other team, and filled with blatantly anti-non-American speech about how wonderful it will be if the Americans beat them. Also, when watching team gymnastics-- where one person does each event alone but the scores are totalled for the team-- American athletes would be described using their names, e.g. "Carly Patterson is good at the balance beam," or "Annia Hatch is good at the vault," whereas with other teams, we'd get sentences like "Romanians are good at the uneven bars" or "Ukrainians have the desire to win." Like if you're not American, you don't deserve to have an identity beyond your nationality. Hey, NBC! The Chinese gymnasts are individuals too! And that Zhang Nan is really cute. Also the German volleyball player (regular, not beach) with the red hair. They are Olympic Cuties! WHERE IS THEIR DUE!