An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People

[Psychopoesie]

It's not so much of a problem with the Winter Olympics, but I'm always irritated during the Summer Olympics that they don't cover all the sports. Fewer 'human interest' stories, more coverage of events like fencing and equestrian events!

Yes! Australia is OK at swimming internationally, I get it. But if you watch Olympic coverage, the first 6 days are the back of someone's head swimming up and down the pool. Heats, semi-finals, finals - every stroke of every race.

I want to see the hammer throw!

Same. Bring on the hammer throw. Or the archery. & never being able to find out when they're going to broadcast those events is so frustrating.

One of the reasons I enjoy the Winter Olympics is that there's more variety in the coverage because there are fewer Australians competing. This will be the first Olympics where I've got the tv channel (10) app on iPad & hope to be able to catch up on the stuff I really care about. Still early days though.

[jaxsue]

Sorry, but I want Canada to win at hockey just so Team USA doesn't win. :p

I remember going to see the USA vs Canada hockey, there were a lot more cheers for Canada.

Hockey is a religion in Canada (my family is Canadian, even though I was raised in the US), not so much in the US. I know you know that, just commenting to add that. My mom's first cousin is a relatively famous hockey player (at least in Ontario), and his town named a hockey rink after him. 

[Jocelyn]

This will be the third Olympics I haven't watched the coverage has been horrible and the TV Guide worse. I just want to watch some gymnastics. Putting Olympics (list of 20 sports including gymnastics) 8am - 12pm doesn't make me want to watch for four hours instead of 15 minutes, it makes me go do something else instead.

I'm confused. This is the Winter Olympics- gymnastics are part of the Summer Olympics.

[MommyPenguin]

I just wish it were easier to watch Olympics coverage if you don't have TV.  We don't get a broadcast signal and don't subscribe to cable.  It would be really nice if NBC would put *all* of it online, instead of just the bits and pieces they feel like doing.  I would particularly have liked to show my girls the Parade of Nations.  It's one of my favorite parts of the start of the Olympics, but I can't find it at all.  I don't have a cable account, so I can't log in to see anything.  I'd be happy to watch a bunch of commercials if I could then actually see the Parade of Nations.  I wouldn't even mind it being broken up with a commercial between every few countries, I just wish they'd show it somehow.  We never got to see it at all in the summer Olympics, which was sad as we were in the midst of studying world geography and it would have been really nice.

(And yes, I've seen plenty of directions for how to see the Olympics illegally, but I can't find any *legal* way to do it.)

On the plus side, my parents have a DVR and have been recording, so maybe when we visit them they'll still have it and we can watch it.  Not ideal, as it would be nice to be visiting with them when we're there.  But it's an option.

[Hmmmmm]

I agree with you guys that I do not like the way NBC presents the Olympic coverage. With the London Olympics, it was very irritating to be watching a competition, they'd show the American and other leaders but break away from coverage to switch to human interest. I expect to deal with the same issue with ice skating coverage this year. In my opinion, NBC is over "producing" and is way too proud of their coverage.

[PastryGoddess]

I just wish it were easier to watch Olympics coverage if you don't have TV.  We don't get a broadcast signal and don't subscribe to cable.  It would be really nice if NBC would put *all* of it online, instead of just the bits and pieces they feel like doing.  I would particularly have liked to show my girls the Parade of Nations.  It's one of my favorite parts of the start of the Olympics, but I can't find it at all.  I don't have a cable account, so I can't log in to see anything.  I'd be happy to watch a bunch of commercials if I could then actually see the Parade of Nations.  I wouldn't even mind it being broken up with a commercial between every few countries, I just wish they'd show it somehow.  We never got to see it at all in the summer Olympics, which was sad as we were in the midst of studying world geography and it would have been really nice.

(And yes, I've seen plenty of directions for how to see the Olympics illegally, but I can't find any *legal* way to do it.)

On the plus side, my parents have a DVR and have been recording, so maybe when we visit them they'll still have it and we can watch it.  Not ideal, as it would be nice to be visiting with them when we're there.  But it's an option.

Are you in the US?  Because everything IS online. I woke up this morning to see that an American had won the first gold medal. So I watched the full event on the Olympic site.

 If you are not in the US then what is available to you may not be up to NBC but May have to do with their contracts in various countries.

[athersgeo]

It's not so much of a problem with the Winter Olympics, but I'm always irritated during the Summer Olympics that they don't cover all the sports. Fewer 'human interest' stories, more coverage of events like fencing and equestrian events!

Yes! Australia is OK at swimming internationally, I get it. But if you watch Olympic coverage, the first 6 days are the back of someone's head swimming up and down the pool. Heats, semi-finals, finals - every stroke of every race.

I want to see the hammer throw!

Just as a small point, but the athletics (including the hammer throwing) doesn't start until the second week of competition, while the swimming is in the first week. (Roughly, at least - there's a bit of crossover.) /pedantry

On a more general point, you guys are really making me appreciate the BBC coverage of the Olympics. Granted, they really did go all out in 2012 (I still believe that sailing lacks something as a televised sport!), but they do seem to show coverage of most events and regardless of whether we (the UK) are likely to win something.

[Julian]

Today I was talking with two coworkers: one Australian and one American. We were all discussing the Olympics and the Australian said that he was always a little disappointed that he didn't get to watch his own country's athletes on tv: rather he had to hunt for videos online. Our American coworker was surprised that:

A) Australia has a winter Olympic team (But it's summer there now!)
B) That an Australian wouldn't automatically want to watch all the American competitors (But we're the best!)

We set him straight and he left us with the classic line "Huh, I never thought of that before!"

At least we get some snow here in Australia.  Not like Jamaica - and their bobsled team qualified this year too!

[Slartibartfast]

I just wish it were easier to watch Olympics coverage if you don't have TV.  We don't get a broadcast signal and don't subscribe to cable.  It would be really nice if NBC would put *all* of it online, instead of just the bits and pieces they feel like doing.  I would particularly have liked to show my girls the Parade of Nations.  It's one of my favorite parts of the start of the Olympics, but I can't find it at all.  I don't have a cable account, so I can't log in to see anything.  I'd be happy to watch a bunch of commercials if I could then actually see the Parade of Nations.  I wouldn't even mind it being broken up with a commercial between every few countries, I just wish they'd show it somehow.  We never got to see it at all in the summer Olympics, which was sad as we were in the midst of studying world geography and it would have been really nice.

(And yes, I've seen plenty of directions for how to see the Olympics illegally, but I can't find any *legal* way to do it.)

On the plus side, my parents have a DVR and have been recording, so maybe when we visit them they'll still have it and we can watch it.  Not ideal, as it would be nice to be visiting with them when we're there.  But it's an option.

Are you in the US?  Because everything IS online. I woke up this morning to see that an American had won the first gold medal. So I watched the full event on the Olympic site.

 If you are not in the US then what is available to you may not be up to NBC but May have to do with their contracts in various countries.

As far as I can tell, NBC still does require you to be a cable subscriber to see more than five minutes a day on their site.  There will probably be YouTube clips of things in the future, if you know where to look, but it's not the same as actually getting to watch something when you know what you want to see.

[dawnfire]

Today I was talking with two coworkers: one Australian and one American. We were all discussing the Olympics and the Australian said that he was always a little disappointed that he didn't get to watch his own country's athletes on tv: rather he had to hunt for videos online. Our American coworker was surprised that:

A) Australia has a winter Olympic team (But it's summer there now!)
B) That an Australian wouldn't automatically want to watch all the American competitors (But we're the best!)

We set him straight and he left us with the classic line "Huh, I never thought of that before!"

At least we get some snow here in Australia.  Not like Jamaica - and their bobsled team qualified this year too!

Tonga has a one person team.

[PastryGoddess]

I just wish it were easier to watch Olympics coverage if you don't have TV.  We don't get a broadcast signal and don't subscribe to cable.  It would be really nice if NBC would put *all* of it online, instead of just the bits and pieces they feel like doing.  I would particularly have liked to show my girls the Parade of Nations.  It's one of my favorite parts of the start of the Olympics, but I can't find it at all.  I don't have a cable account, so I can't log in to see anything.  I'd be happy to watch a bunch of commercials if I could then actually see the Parade of Nations.  I wouldn't even mind it being broken up with a commercial between every few countries, I just wish they'd show it somehow.  We never got to see it at all in the summer Olympics, which was sad as we were in the midst of studying world geography and it would have been really nice.

(And yes, I've seen plenty of directions for how to see the Olympics illegally, but I can't find any *legal* way to do it.)

On the plus side, my parents have a DVR and have been recording, so maybe when we visit them they'll still have it and we can watch it.  Not ideal, as it would be nice to be visiting with them when we're there.  But it's an option.

Are you in the US?  Because everything IS online. I woke up this morning to see that an American had won the first gold medal. So I watched the full event on the Olympic site.

 If you are not in the US then what is available to you may not be up to NBC but May have to do with their contracts in various countries.

As far as I can tell, NBC still does require you to be a cable subscriber to see more than five minutes a day on their site.  There will probably be YouTube clips of things in the future, if you know where to look, but it's not the same as actually getting to watch something when you know what you want to see.

I just posted the link to all of the event replays for Saturday in the Winter Olympics thread.  I'll try and post a link each day.  Ping me if I don't remember   Those of you in other countries may have some media encoding issues.

And no you don't have to be a subscriber to view the olympic videos.  Regular NBC and Universal sports, maybe.  Olympics, no. 

[Luci]

I would like to quietly remind us that this not an Olympic thread but "Silly things you've had to tell people" - oh.

[Coruscation]

This will be the third Olympics I haven't watched the coverage has been horrible and the TV Guide worse. I just want to watch some gymnastics. Putting Olympics (list of 20 sports including gymnastics) 8am - 12pm doesn't make me want to watch for four hours instead of 15 minutes, it makes me go do something else instead.

I'm confused. This is the Winter Olympics- gymnastics are part of the Summer Olympics.

I got fed up with the last Summer Olympics, didn't watch the Winter, Summer and this Winter Olympics.

[Katana_Geldar]

DH told me the other night told me that until I told him, he though Leningrad became Stalingrad when in fact they're two different cities. I used to think that and it'd an easy mistake to make.

[jedikaiti]

One of them went back to being called St Petersburg, right?