Today, sports fan Steve Schindler explains why NBC's decision to
air tape-delayed action ruined the Olympics.
Rumors are spreading like wildfire. Word is out that the Olympics ended
yesterday with a dramatic and heartwarming closing ceremony, but NBC is
going to make us keep watching the games, tape delayed hour after hour,
for another week or so. I'll crawl up the wall!
I don't mean to bag anybody, but I bet whatever bloke thought of this
untimely tape-delay idea at NBC is feeling the heat right about now. Who
could have thought this would catch on here in the media-savvy United
States? In this world of CNN, Internet news and 24-hour cable sports
coverage, who wasn't going to know who won before seing it that night on
No Big Contest?
Let's face it, every newsbreak on TV and radio has some flash about the
latest events completed down under. Every morning paper has the latest
medal counts and results. Every sports site on the Internet flashes
Olympic doings updated to the minute, 24 hours a day. How are you not
going to know?
Some people say, "Just don't look. Just don't listen." What a load of
garbage! How can you avoid it? Wear blinders and earplugs and unplug your
computer? No thank you. I want my news. I want my sports. I am modern man,
and you can't take my unalienable news rights away from me.
NBC is not helping this one wee bit. The network can't help from
joining the "you heard it here first" media frenzy. NBC is covering these
Olympics for the richest TV sponsors in the world. How can they get
scooped on the results of their own Olympiad?
If you are accustomed to watching NBC's "G'day" morning news show
before going to work, then you've seen all the winners and heard every
gory detail before you even think about getting home to settle in for some
dinner and Olympic reruns. And believe me, some of these details have been
very gory.
A perfect score in these games is quite rare. I never have seen so many
people fall off of so many things in Olympic competition in all of my
life. I've seen fiery gymnastic battlers fall off of balance beams and
vault onto their faces, butts and knees. I have seen them fall onto the
ground, face down from the parallel bar. Ouch! But no worry, mate, they'll
be apples!
About the most awe-inspiring example of true Olympic spirit I haven't
seen live so far involved Eric the Eel, an Olympic swimmer who can't swim.
Eric the Eel is really Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea. Since
Olympic rules say that every competing country can enter two swimmers,
Eric raised his hand at the meeting and said he would go to Sydney and
swim for his country. What a wag this bloke is, eh?
Eric's mother said he really didn't like swimming. All of Eric's
friends laughed and thought he was kidding when he told them where he was
going. But there he was in Sydney. He was going for the gold.
By a stroke of luck, the Eel's two competitors in his 100-meter heat
jumped the gun and were disqualified. This left Eric, all by his lonesome,
to fall in the water and leisurely qualify as he saw fit. Fortunately, he
chose not to drown on the way. The overflow crowd at the International
Aquatic Centre boomed its approval as Moussambani choked and gasped his
way to the finish. This is what Olympic competition is supposed to be
about. It's not about beating somebody. It's more about not drowning in
the attempt.
We've winced as we have watched the world's finest gymnasts fall off of
anything they could jump on, off of or over. We have watched as all of the
king's horses fell on top of all the king's men in the dressage.
Now that ratings are in the tank and the sharks have returned to Sydney
Harbor, NBC has to admit that the games were really over a long time ago
and let us get back to our regularly scheduled programming. We want reruns
of "Survivor", reruns of reruns and some "live" aerial Ping-Pong on the
TV. Puleeeze.
