Winter Olympics

[NotUrsula]

For fun for the figure skating fans; highlights of the 1948 Olympic skating events:

Dick Button's historic first-ever Olympic clean double Axel is on this film.

 

[cabanafrau]

Yeah, we don't use Apps -- too hard for us to see or enjoy! If they can't provide full screen coverage for some events, that's their choice -- albeit not a great one in our household LOL.

We used the full-screen NBC sports Olympic app on our television. Some things had no commentary. Some had full commentary, some very minimal.

 

[cabanafrau]

For fun for the figure skating fans; highlights of the 1948 Olympic skating events:

Dick Button's historic first-ever Olympic clean double Axel is on this film.

So funny to look at this and realize, first that this was probably the first Winter Games after WWII, and second, that their "programs" look more like warmups for today's skaters, not really much like the choreographed routines we expect today.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We mostly watch Olympic sports, not usually other sports so ESPN isn't a channel usually watched at our house so it was a few days into the games before I understood that we even had the NBC Sports Network they occasionally mentioned. We had been checking USA & CNBC & very occasionally found curling on CNBC. To my knowledge they never used USA. I believe they also own the Olympic channel, which was supposedly used for "Olympic News" during the games, never saw it showing events. Up until maybe last summer they had another channel they showed a lot of X-Games style sports on. Suddenly there was a message on the channel from our cable provider that NBC had closed down the channel. Thought that was stupid when they have the contract for the Olympics.

They seem to be trying to drive a lot of people to the online app, which IMO isn't set up very well. Unbelievable they still haven't figured out that maybe if someone wants to catch this race or that match they might not enjoy having the result spoiled simply by the header and photos at the navigation point to get to watch the event. It's also rather stupid if they want people to retain any habit of watching television versus online in the first place. It can't be that insurmountable to improve how to deliver the broadcast options to the customer.

For U-verse it was being shown on channel 1041 (which is the local NBC affiliate channel and the main channel) and 1640 which is NBCSN. At least when I search function to record things that's the only channels that were listed. There was over 440 separate listing you could select (though around half was for the SD channel and around half was for the HD channel)

The Olympic Channel used to be Universal HD but was rebranded in July 2017 as Olympic Channel (and I guess it's a franchise of the IOC Olympic Channel). My husband and I were talking about this last night because I had no idea. The channel wasn't useful for us mostly because we were recording things. However, I did notice there was an option to select Medal Ceremonies for example, etc. I do know you could opt to use multi-view.

 

[soccerdad72]

For fun for the figure skating fans; highlights of the 1948 Olympic skating events:

Dick Button's historic first-ever Olympic clean double Axel is on this film.

Love the snow piles on the sides!

Imagine them having the figure skating events outdoors these days!

 

[RedSox68]

Love the snow piles on the sides!

Imagine them having the figure skating events outdoors these days!

I never even knew that Dick Button had a partner -- I always thought he was a single skater. Yeah, they had enough trouble filling the outdoor venues this time with the freezing temps and winds. Can't imagine the skaters doing that well either.

 

[DisneyOma]

Clearly you have much knowledge of the ballet, as well as so much knowledge of skating you're not at all bashful about spreading your opinions about while stating that those of former Olympic competitors in the sport should be ignored.

It was a term used years ago to describe the 'waist up' skaters - and since one daughter was a dancer, and the other was a nationally ranked junior level skater, I think I know a bit about both.

Yea I'm not sure what stories could be told about Sasha Cohen when the poster has likely never even been allowed within 100 feet of her.

See above - and if I can find them, I'll post photos of the autographed skates I have. I've met skaters at Stars on Ice, Ice Chips, and Nationals. I'd have to say sitting with Sarah Hughes was my favorite encounter, at Stars on Ice. And it was great fun staying at the Portland Regency way back when the skaters of SOI used to stay there too. Kurt Browning was great when he had to share warm-up ice with my daughter and other skaters at Ice Chips.

ETA - Jenny Kirk was a great person to meet as well. She spent a long time talking to my younger daughter at Nationals, and has a great smile, and a sweet giggle.

 

[cabanafrau]

For U-verse it was being shown on channel 1041 (which is the local NBC affiliate channel and the main channel) and 1640 which is NBCSN. At least when I search function to record things that's the only channels that were listed. There was over 440 separate listing you could select (though around half was for the SD channel and around half was for the HD channel)

The Olympic Channel used to be Universal HD but was rebranded in July 2017 as Olympic Channel (and I guess it's a franchise of the IOC Olympic Channel). My husband and I were talking about this last night because I had no idea. The channel wasn't useful for us mostly because we were recording things. However, I did notice there was an option to select Medal Ceremonies for example, etc. I do know you could opt to use multi-view.

UVerse for us as well. CNBC was the only other channel I found showing Olympic events outside of NBC & NBCSN . They would occasionally show curling & I believe I saw hockey listed there a couple times as well. It was exceptionally annoying to flip to the guide and find paid programming on CNBC, which is technically a channel I'm already paying for as part of the cable package. We also have the ability here to watch Canadian coverage on CBC, which we've generally preferred in the past. I could tell from watching the CBC coverage that they were showing events on a TSN network as well. They did a nice job of allowing you to keep track of what was on each and what was coming up with a small but clear graphic in the top corner every now and again. I'm definitely hoping that when I try to watch the figure skating exhibition that maybe CBC will have coverage of the whole thing, not the selected coverage I'm reading here that NBC had.

 

[Diznygrl]

You can watch the app on your TV if you have a device like an AppleTV or a Roku or whatever million other brands there are now. I suppose I would be pretty upset about NBC's coverage too if all I had to depend on this time around was the regular TV channels. They really dropped the ball on the lack of footage on all of their affiliate channels. Also, there was no "NBC Late Night" coverage with Mary Carillo that usually airs after the news and shows other events not seen in the Primetime coverage, as well as little cultural mini documentaries about the host country.

However I do still like watching the regular primetime coverage. Mostly out of tradition, but also because I actually like seeing a variety of events on one single broadcast. If it's something I care more about, like curling or short track, then I will watch the whole event on the app. Otherwise I really don't have time to watch the three hour long coverage of each individual event so I appreciate it when someone else just gives me important footage of all the others without me having to switch around all over the place.

Overall I think NBC did an ok job with their primetime coverage, considering what they had to work with. They tried really hard to show as much live footage as possible, and I mean they can only do so much with that. Plus with all of the crappy weather a lot of the skiing stuff was delayed in the first week so it seemed like they were scrounging for stuff to show. And everyone is different and has their own favorite events that they want to see more of than others, but it's hard to please everybody when you have all of these events going on at the same time with only four hours to cover it all. Personally I dislike snowboarding (except for snowboard cross) and I thought they showed WAY too much of it (and all of the events that were exactly like snowboarding except with skis). However I know that other people seem to really enjoy it, and it's also something that the US excels at so therefore it got a lot of air time.

 

[ashley0139]

You can watch the app on your TV if you have a device like an AppleTV or a Roku or whatever million other brands there are now. I suppose I would be pretty upset about NBC's coverage too if all I had to depend on this time around was the regular TV channels. They really dropped the ball on the lack of footage on all of their affiliate channels. Also, there was no "NBC Late Night" coverage with Mary Carillo that usually airs after the news and shows other events not seen in the Primetime coverage, as well as little cultural mini documentaries about the host country.

However I do still like watching the regular primetime coverage. Mostly out of tradition, but also because I actually like seeing a variety of events on one single broadcast. If it's something I care more about, like curling or short track, then I will watch the whole event on the app. Otherwise I really don't have time to watch the three hour long coverage of each individual event so I appreciate it when someone else just gives me important footage of all the others without me having to switch around all over the place.

Overall I think NBC did an ok job with their primetime coverage, considering what they had to work with. They tried really hard to show as much live footage as possible, and I mean they can only do so much with that. Plus with all of the crappy weather a lot of the skiing stuff was delayed in the first week so it seemed like they were scrounging for stuff to show. And everyone is different and has their own favorite events that they want to see more of than others, but it's hard to please everybody when you have all of these events going on at the same time with only four hours to cover it all. Personally I dislike snowboarding (except for snowboard cross) and I thought they showed WAY too much of it (and all of the events that were exactly like snowboarding except with skis). However I know that other people seem to really enjoy it, and it's also something that the US excels at so therefore it got a lot of air time.

My Apple TV NBC Sports app has updated and no longer has the Olympic events.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The first thing that pops into my mind reading this is -- it seems at least half of our Olympic swim team in Rio were attending Stanford. That doesn't seem to fit with what you're outlining about young athletes coming up and their education. To be clear, I'm not suggesting you're at all wrong. I'm simply questioning how challenging it is for students on an academic path to get into a school like Stanford and the amazing coincidence how many of our elite swimmers apparently have no problem making the grade.

Athletes in NCAA sports, including swimmers are not placed in the same entry pool as regular applicants. There's a certain minimum requirement they have to make. But to be honest, regular applicants are well above that at places like Stanford. Also figure skating is not an NCAA sport. It's just a club sport.

 

[RedAngie]

Love the snow piles on the sides!

Imagine them having the figure skating events outdoors these days!

Hockey used to outdoors too. There were a mixture of outdoor and indoor venues until 1960 when both figure skating and hockey permanently moved indoors for the Olympics.

Long track speed skating was outdoors until 1984 at Sarajevo. Indoors at Calgary in 1988. Back to outdoors at Albertville in 1992. Back indoors at Lillehammer in 1994 and has remained indoors ever since.

 

[RedAngie]

You're not wrong and that comment made me too. I don't imagine too many Greek people would actually find the common idiom offensive, since the emphasis is put on the speaker's own ignorance, not a slur against Greece or Greek language or culture.

Many other languages and cultures have a similar idiom expressing the exact same idea. This little chart shows them. Some of the translations are a hoot!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me

Yo, you calling me ignorant???!!!

Thanks for providing the list. Now I can be rude in dozens of other languages.

 

[ronandannette]

Yo, you calling me ignorant???!!!

Thanks for providing the list. Now I can be rude in dozens of other languages.

LOVE the one about the chicken guts - can you help me learn Cantonese so I can use it?

 

[SirDuff]

LOVE the one about the chicken guts - can you help me learn Cantonese so I can use it?

One of my favourites

I hadn't realised that the phrase came from Shakespeare (good trivia to know).

 

[ronandannette]

One of my favourites

I hadn't realised that the phrase came from Shakespeare (good trivia to know).

I hope I didn't offend any chickens...

 

[RedAngie]

LOVE the one about the chicken guts - can you help me learn Cantonese so I can use it?

Sorry, can't help with that one.

A nun in Catholic grammar school used to admonish kids with poor penmanship by saying their handwriting looked like 'chicken scratch."

 

[NotUrsula]

I never even knew that Dick Button had a partner -- I always thought he was a single skater. Yeah, they had enough trouble filling the outdoor venues this time with the freezing temps and winds. Can't imagine the skaters doing that well either.

Up until the early 1950's it was common for skaters to compete both in singles and pairs, though they usually only did really well in one discipline. Maribel Vinson [Owen] did both as well, before her marriage. (She and both her daughters died in the 1961 Sabena air crash. Her daughters were the 1961 US champions in ladies singles (Laurence, age 16), and pairs (Maribel Jr., age 20, with partner Dudley Richards, who was also killed in the crash). Maribel Sr. coached nearly half the team that year; most of the members who skated out of Boston.

In the 50's and early 60's major competitions in the US were sometimes indoors and sometimes outdoors; it depended on what club was hosting. At the time you had to be prepared for either type of surface, just in case. The first Zamboni machines were sold in 1950, but there were only 4 of them then; they didn't come down in price far enough to get really popular until the early 60's.

Incidentally, the US ladies' bronze medalist that year, Rhode Lee Michelson (who also was killed in the Sabena crash) did a free skate that was much more modern in style:

At the time, she was chided by some critics for being "too athletic", and she also reportedly was a bit weak in the school figures. I often wonder if she might have changed the style of US ladies' skating much sooner had she lived.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Love the snow piles on the sides!

Imagine them having the figure skating events outdoors these days!

They used to have the speed skating long track outdoors too. Not only did they have snow piles on the sides, they had snow piles between the lanes except the finish line and where you were supposed to cross.

 

[soccerdad72]

They used to have the speed skating long track outdoors too. Not only did they have snow piles on the sides, they had snow piles between the lanes except the finish line and where you were supposed to cross.

I vaguely remember that for some reason. Damn, I guess that means I'm getting old.