Winter Olympics

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 completely forgot that in Milwaukee, Speed Skaters used to practice on the Mile Race Track at State Fair Park in West Allis. The Pettit's who owned Allis Chambers-(Tractor's) donated and built an indoor track for speed skaters. It is still located at the Fair Grounds.
 
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 the silver medalist in 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.

WOW, she really was ahead of her time! She had some great moves.

I remember Brian Boitano doing an outside skating show special for TV -- performing the whole show on a glacier. It was gorgeous and we thought a real feat.
 
This just in - this year was the lowest rated Olympics (I assume in the US) ever:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/pyeong...ord-lowest-rated-olympics-ever-215629564.html

And the Olympics still trashed everything else put up against it.

"The Pyeongchang Olympics were still the top-rated program on TV for more than two weeks, beating CBS, ABC, and Fox combined. The NBC-only primetime average viewership of 17.8 million surpassed Fox, CBS, and ABC combined by an average of 82%, the largest such advantage for any Winter Games"
 


And the Olympics still trashed everything else put up against it.

"The Pyeongchang Olympics were still the top-rated program on TV for more than two weeks, beating CBS, ABC, and Fox combined. The NBC-only primetime average viewership of 17.8 million surpassed Fox, CBS, and ABC combined by an average of 82%, the largest such advantage for any Winter Games"

That being said, most networks don't even bother to program against the Olympics - pretty much all prime time shows take a hiatus during those two weeks.
 
This just in - this year was the lowest rated Olympics (I assume in the US) ever:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/pyeong...ord-lowest-rated-olympics-ever-215629564.html
Though put it in context:

~"The time difference was an obstacle, even with the International Olympic Committee and the PyeongChang organizers adjusting the times of some events so they could be carried live in the United States."--I'm interested to see how Beijing games go as there is a time difference there as well (it's 14hrs difference from me here in Central time zone). Could the provider (whoever it is) choose to do live coverage again for those events that are more anticipated in the U.S.?

~"The streaming coverage offered by NBC was buggy and at times unreliable." Now this is something that NBC has to take credit for. A buggy and unreliable streaming service is going to turn off people

~The U.S. didn’t perform to expectations. This is of no fault to NBC.

NBC totally could have done things better for sure and it's been mentioned enough in this thread but still context matters.
 


That being said, most networks don't even bother to program against the Olympics - pretty much all prime time shows take a hiatus during those two weeks.
Most networks choose to do that whenever there is a big event going on same for superbowl, etc. If they can push the episode off to another week it's better than attempting to compete when there is an anticipated large audience watching something else.
 
The thing is though that no other stations (except the ridiculous Celebrity Big Brother on CBS) put up new shows against the Olympics. CBS and ABC both held off until 2/28 to return their shows with new episodes.
 
Yea, the Olympics having higher ratings than anything else is kind of a stat without meaning since nothing was really put up against it. What they are really competing against is people doing something other than broadcast television. How many people streamed something on Amazon or Hulu or just turned the TV off and did something else? More than any past Olympics as a percentage it would appear.
 
NBC really has not have the heart and spirit of ABC Sports who were the best network of sports in the 1960's-2006 as the late Jim McKay was really such a huge presence. Not even Bob Costas could compete with him. Really NBC is indeed shoddy.
 
NBC really has not have the heart and spirit of ABC Sports who were the best network of sports in the 1960's-2006 as the late Jim McKay was really such a huge presence. Not even Bob Costas could compete with him. Really NBC is indeed shoddy.

And very self-centered!
 
And very self-centered!

NBC is self centered, or Bob Costas? Costas wasn't even involved with the coverage this year. I absolutely wish NBC had done several things differently, but I don't understand self centered criticism.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top