= To me, the star of the Olympics (aside from the Phelps / Biles / Ledecky / Bolt types) has been volleyball. Apparently, Brazil takes to volleyball the way they take to soccer, even to the point where their stadium is called the Maracanazinho. The crowds at both the indoor volleyball events, and the Copacabana Beach Volleyball set-up have been so good, leading to a ridiculously riotous atmosphere. I'll talk about the play in a second, but arguably the best part of the whole thing has been the great music played between points, to the hilarious 'Monster Block' chant after a block, to the high use of 'This Girl' by Kungs vs. Cookin' For Three. They said Brazil and Rio would be one big party, and for every single volleyball event, especially if the Brazilans are playing, has been just that
= As for the actual play, after watching a lot of volleyball the past ten days, easily more than the rest of my life combined, you do start to get an appreciation for just how good of athletes these players are, and the timing, skill and strategy it takes to win. Set aside beach volleyball, where the idea these players could move like that on sand is just ridiculous. As for the indoor game, the passing and play design is all so imaginative and great. I obviously have a very limited understanding, but I find it a far more fascinating game than I could have imagined, especially when I think back to the time of me playing it in gym. Also, I am more shocked than I should be that all the best players are basically the height of NBA players.
= The normal 'favorite random sports' haven't done it for me as much this time, like the non-tennis racket sports (table tennis, badminton), or the traditionally loved odd team sports (handball, water polo). Both handball and water polo, to me, suffer because they are a little too slow. Both have very little end to end action, with teams generally keeping the ball until they miss or score. Water Polo is basically a slower version of handball. I much preferred my friends and my version of water polo which was basically just tackle football played in the pool, where we jumped and tackled each other for hours and probably burned thousands and thousands of calories.
= These shooting events are just crazy. How these people can shot air rifles and trap shoot over 50 meters to a centimeter wide target. Or the archers getting 10 ("TENNNN!!!" sreams the announcer) points from 150 feet away. That is just nuts. These shooting sports are almost more incredible and impossible to comprehend than the more 'athletic' sports. The best part of these Olympics often times are watching things that you would never watch, or more likely, can't even attempt to watch, during the 47 other months the Olympics are going on, and nothing fits that better than shooting, which gets a very, very different coverage the other months.
= Diving is pretty fantastic, huh? All forms, whether it is the synchronized version in Week 1, or the platform, or the 10 meter dives. I used to be scared jumping off the diving board, and now I watch these people do gymnastics-level flips and twists while knowing they are going to be hitting water hard.
= NBC's coverage has to be talked about, but i'll take the contrarian opinion in that they do a pretty good job all things considered. Let's take the largest issue with them, which is their propensity to tape delay big events that take place during the day to hold for primetime. In practice, it makes perfect sense. There are still a lot of people who can't watch during teh day, and they need to watch in primetime. What makes it worse is finding out the results are so much easier today than it was 8 years ago when Michael Phelps was chasing 8 golds in Beijing. My complaint on the complainers is the further issue to them that they hold off showing tape-delayed Gymnastics until live swimming was over - but that makes complete sense than tape delay LIVE SWIMMING
= Also, let's just remember that online, anyone can see any event live for EVERY SINGLE EVENT. That's every single event. You can watch dressage, synchronized swimming, archery, cycling, and yes, gymnastics, live on the computer with live feeds. And big events like gymnastics even give you commentators that are probably better than the NBC trio that does gymnastics. This will become much more important four years from now when the games are in Tokyo and a whole lot of things ill be taped delay, but streaming should be even more well presented by 2020.
= Finally, I just love how NBC is able to find these people to commentate on all these events that are all so knowledgeable, excited and dedicated. Whether it is the volleyball announcers, the archery and shooting announcers, the field hockey announcer, the diving announcers. They are all so knowledgeable. My bigger question is not how NBC can find these people to announce and give color commentary for all these different events, but what are these people actually doing the rest of the time when the Olympics is not going on? Can being a water polo color commentator actually have much traction when the Olympics are not on? Like what do these people do all the other 47 months? I really want to know this.
= As for the actual play, after watching a lot of volleyball the past ten days, easily more than the rest of my life combined, you do start to get an appreciation for just how good of athletes these players are, and the timing, skill and strategy it takes to win. Set aside beach volleyball, where the idea these players could move like that on sand is just ridiculous. As for the indoor game, the passing and play design is all so imaginative and great. I obviously have a very limited understanding, but I find it a far more fascinating game than I could have imagined, especially when I think back to the time of me playing it in gym. Also, I am more shocked than I should be that all the best players are basically the height of NBA players.
= The normal 'favorite random sports' haven't done it for me as much this time, like the non-tennis racket sports (table tennis, badminton), or the traditionally loved odd team sports (handball, water polo). Both handball and water polo, to me, suffer because they are a little too slow. Both have very little end to end action, with teams generally keeping the ball until they miss or score. Water Polo is basically a slower version of handball. I much preferred my friends and my version of water polo which was basically just tackle football played in the pool, where we jumped and tackled each other for hours and probably burned thousands and thousands of calories.
= These shooting events are just crazy. How these people can shot air rifles and trap shoot over 50 meters to a centimeter wide target. Or the archers getting 10 ("TENNNN!!!" sreams the announcer) points from 150 feet away. That is just nuts. These shooting sports are almost more incredible and impossible to comprehend than the more 'athletic' sports. The best part of these Olympics often times are watching things that you would never watch, or more likely, can't even attempt to watch, during the 47 other months the Olympics are going on, and nothing fits that better than shooting, which gets a very, very different coverage the other months.
= Diving is pretty fantastic, huh? All forms, whether it is the synchronized version in Week 1, or the platform, or the 10 meter dives. I used to be scared jumping off the diving board, and now I watch these people do gymnastics-level flips and twists while knowing they are going to be hitting water hard.
= NBC's coverage has to be talked about, but i'll take the contrarian opinion in that they do a pretty good job all things considered. Let's take the largest issue with them, which is their propensity to tape delay big events that take place during the day to hold for primetime. In practice, it makes perfect sense. There are still a lot of people who can't watch during teh day, and they need to watch in primetime. What makes it worse is finding out the results are so much easier today than it was 8 years ago when Michael Phelps was chasing 8 golds in Beijing. My complaint on the complainers is the further issue to them that they hold off showing tape-delayed Gymnastics until live swimming was over - but that makes complete sense than tape delay LIVE SWIMMING
= Also, let's just remember that online, anyone can see any event live for EVERY SINGLE EVENT. That's every single event. You can watch dressage, synchronized swimming, archery, cycling, and yes, gymnastics, live on the computer with live feeds. And big events like gymnastics even give you commentators that are probably better than the NBC trio that does gymnastics. This will become much more important four years from now when the games are in Tokyo and a whole lot of things ill be taped delay, but streaming should be even more well presented by 2020.
= Finally, I just love how NBC is able to find these people to commentate on all these events that are all so knowledgeable, excited and dedicated. Whether it is the volleyball announcers, the archery and shooting announcers, the field hockey announcer, the diving announcers. They are all so knowledgeable. My bigger question is not how NBC can find these people to announce and give color commentary for all these different events, but what are these people actually doing the rest of the time when the Olympics is not going on? Can being a water polo color commentator actually have much traction when the Olympics are not on? Like what do these people do all the other 47 months? I really want to know this.
