This time of year the choices for sports on television are few and far between. Sure there’s a lot of basketball being played, but the football season wraps up on Sunday (Super Bowl LX), baseball doesn’t get underway until April, and unless you have the time and patience to watch golf you’re gonna channel surf without catching decent waves. But it’s also something of an illusion, because the Winter Olympic Games kick off tomorrow in Italy. You did know the Olympics are about to get underway, didn’t you?
The 25th edition of the Winter Games comes to your living room in the next two weeks, hosted in Milan, Cortina, and several towns in the surrounding Dolomite mountains. The natural venues of the region look spectacular, and no doubt the Italians will be worthy hosts to thousands of the world’s best athletes. We’ll be treated to sixteen different sporting competitions on snow and ice, from figure skating to bobsledding to ski jumping. Behind the scenes, you’ll get the usual inspirational stories, heartbreaking moments, and thrilling photo-finishes. I just hope you actually hear about any of it.
ESPN.com, where I get my daily dose of sports, includes a list of “Top Headlines” at the beginning of their home page. Today, less than forty-eight hours before the opening ceremonies, there is nothing about the Games. No updates on the American athletes, no projections on when or where the U.S. will be at its most competitive, no “primer” to get you ready to sit down and watch… nothing. You have to scroll way down, past NFL-this and NBA-that before you finally get to anything about what’s going on in Northern Italy. Heck, even the Westminster Dog Show rated more press than the Winter Olympics today (which always begs the question, “Is a dog show considered ‘sports'”?)
I’m glued to the coverage of the Olympics every time they come around (which is every two years, counting the Summer Games). Even with paid, professional athletes, the Olympics are the purest form of global sports competition we have left. The headlines – which will finally include the Olympics for the next two weeks – will speak more positive than negative, more jaw-dropping than ho-hum, with virtually no political undertones. How refreshing is that?
At least ESPN allots some space to the Games, however far down the page it may be. Have a look at any of the major news websites and you’ll be challenged to find similar coverage. Americans are too preoccupied with what’s going on in Washington, Wall Street, and the West Bank. It’s ironic that today’s lead news story is about the Olympics (though not really). Savannah Guthrie – one of the hosts of NBC’s television broadcast – pulled out to be with her family during the apparent abduction of her mother. My prayers are with her.
Since you’ll be hard-pressed to find a primer, here are a few tidbits about the upcoming Games. There are 232 athletes on the U.S. Olympic team, the largest in our history of participation. There are 25 venues for the competition – in four clusters across Northern Italy – making it the most geographically widespread Winter Olympics in history. And for the next eighteen days, you’ll be able to catch all of the action (at reasonable times) on some form of NBC broadcasting, whether streaming or live television. You’ll even get your fill of curling, easily the most misunderstood Olympic sport of them all.
The Olympic Games, as the broadcasters are sure to say over and over, “transcend sports”. The world records, the stories behind them, and the individuals who train tirelessly for these moments deserve our attention. Team USA’s flag bearers this year are speed skater Erin Jackson and bobsledder Frank Del Duca. Think about it – both of these athletes chose sports where their moment of glory (or defeat) starts and ends in a matter of minutes. They are everyday people whose best-in-class performances are brought to the world but once every four years.
Now go read all about it, or better yet… watch. Otherwise I’ll think you’re ignoring my ringing endorsement of the Winter Olympic Games.
Some content sourced from the NBC Olympics website, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.
Life In A Word 
This is the most I have heard of the Olympics. As you mentioned, I look at the headlines, nothing about them. They did mention them a while ago when the torch was being run through Italy. That’s all. I used to love the Olympics, then when they split up summer / winter sports. I don’t know, it was like watching a show you like, the season ends and you have to wait another year or more to see the next season. By then, we’ve forgotten we enjoyed the show.
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You make a good point, in that the Olympics don’t come around often enough to keep them in the back of our minds. I’d also argue the winter sports of the Olympics don’t draw as broad of an audience as the summer sports. I’ll watch the figure skating, speed skating, and some of the skiing, but hockey has never been my thing. Curling isn’t much more than a curiosity. I’ll certainly be patriotic and pull for whichever Americans are contending, but once the Games are over I’ll lose any interest in these sports – again.
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Totally missed that the winter Olympics are starting soon. I like to watch them and tell everyone why you’ll never see me doing stuff like that.
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I’ll bet 90% of your fellow Americans would agree with both of your statements, Andrew. I can stay up on skis (blue runs at best), stay up on skates (until my ankles tire), but that’s the extent of my participation in any of the sports you’ll see in the next two weeks.
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We used to go to a ski resort once a year and the week we chose was often during the Olympics. It was fun to go skiing, then come back to the villa and watch skiing!
Curling is still one of my favourites to watch (chess on ice, as they say.) Having been a recreational curler, I am always impressed with the shots they can make!
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Not many of us Americans would identify with “recreational curler”, Margy 🙂 I did watch some of the (taped) competition last night. It’s a fascinating sport; one I can only describe as a more sophisticated yet much older version of shuffleboard. The commentators are very helpful in explaining the finer points of the strategy. Coincidentally, I chose the first round match of Canada vs. Italy. Your husband/wife duo went up on the host couple 5-0 in the first frame. I’m assuming it didn’t end well for the Italians!
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I have not watched any Olympics yet, but will have to see which stations here in AZ are showing Canadian games! The husband/wife curling duo is an Alberta team!
It has been a few years since I watched much curling – all the old guard have retired, I guess. Lots of new names. Same goes for professional golf. The Phoenix Open is on right now and there are only about 3 names on the leaderboard that I have ever heard of!
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Ah right, you are in the vicinity of the Phoenix Open. Rowdy bunch there. It used to be the Phoenix was the only tournament on the Tour where fans could get a little out of control. Now it’s spilled over to most of the others (except the nearby Masters, of course, where your ever word/move is scrutinized by security).
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I had the olympics on all day with some curling, hockey, and big air snowboarding. I am happy with the time difference. Jon is not super interested in the Olympics so I can watch everything during the day with my little buddy. I told my friend I’m very busy the next two weeks ha! I am also going to be in Cortina this summer so I’m excited to see remnants of the Olympics.
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This may be the first time I’ve ever told a reader you wasted time reading my blog! (because you could’ve been watching more of the Olympics instead). A colleague and I were discussing the Games yesterday and saying how interest in individual sports is a function of your generation. I have no interest in the “X Games” events but only because snowboarding came a little after the time when I used to ski regularly. We also agreed some of the downhill skiing events are literally taking your life in your hands. Finally, I’ll never pass up the figure skating and speed skating. The pressure those athletes put themselves under is amazing, and the competitions are well worth the watch.
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Dave, I don’t have TV/cable, but I do get the Peacock Channel free with my Xfinity subscription so I could watch online. I’m surprised they didn’t send an e-mail touting they are carrying the Winter Olympics. I have not watched the Olympics in a while, but back in the day my mom and I enjoyed watching the male and female figure skaters and we would always watch all their competitions up to the Olympics on a regular channel (maybe ABC World of Sports) on Saturdays. We knew all the male and female skaters, but we did not follow the ice dancing/pairs skating. I follow the weather on an affiliate of NBC and they had been advertising the Olympics for what seemed like months, but I think since everyone has been dealing with weather woes in one form or the other, the Olympics was not a hot topic in the news. Interestingly, I heard an interview this morning with an Olympic athlete on my all-news radio station and he was asked about his favorite food. He said he/team loved pizza and went for pizza daily – pizza, not pasta? A blogger I follow – maybe you – once wrote about how great the pizza is in Italy and there is no comparison to what we are accustomed to here in the USA.
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To me the Olympics are the perfect opportunity for a “non-sports” fan to watch sports. There’s so much more to these competitions than the sports themselves. By-and-large we’re talking about amateurs instead of the paid professionals who dominate U.S. sports headlines. These people could be your next-door neighbors. Inevitably there will be stories of triumph and heartbreak lasting long after the Olympics are done; the so-called “fifteen minutes of fame” moments. As for the pizza, unless you’ve had one of the authentic Italian versions (which vary by region of the country) you’re not in a position to compare to all others. Detroit, NYC thin, Chicago deep-dish – they can all make the claim of “best pizza”, but in the end they’re all just knockoffs of the Italian originals.
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Yes, this is true and by contrast, I don’t think I’ve ever watched a single Summer Olympics event. Sometimes I have watched a video in the luge competition – scary stuff there! I watched Lindsay Vonn take a trial run today to ensure she could compete after rupturing her ACL … she did fine and is ready to go. That trial run was impressive. I remember you traveled to Italy so you would be in the know about the pizza. That’s interesting as I always thought Italy was more about the pasta!
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P.S. – “ringing” endorsement with the Olympic rings. Clever!
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Good title! I will be watching…especially tomorrow with the opening ceremony, which is always good. I like to watch all the countries come in, even the smaller ones, with their 2 or 3 athletes. What a thrill it must be for them. If it’s any consolation, I have not seen much mainstream press about it here in Canada either, but I haven’t had it on the sports network. We will have our own TV Canadian coverage but I’m sure it will ramp up once the games are started. The Canadian women’s hockey game got delayed today because the Finland team has a norovirus outbreak, a hazard of having so many people in one place!
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Thanks for the map! I’ve been meaning to look up where all the places are, as I only know Milan.
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If you map the full extent of the Games you’ll realize the snip I included in my blog doesn’t begin to represent “Milan Cortina 2026”. Some of the venues are a long way away! Having said that I’m told “Los Angeles 2028” (the Summer Games) will be an even bigger spread. It may be a way of keeping the operating costs reasonable, instead of constructing the concentrated “villages” we’ve seen in the past.
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Thanks Dave.
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I heard about your women’s hockey team, Joni. At least it sounded like just a delay instead of a major interruption. I would always expect the Canadian teams to have the inside track to the hockey gold! On the same note it’ll be interesting to see where else your country shows its strengths in the next two weeks. Figure skating probably. Curling definitely. As I told Margy above, I only watched the first frame of Canada v. Italy and your team broke the Olympic scoring record for a single frame. 5-0!
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We usually do better in the winter Olympics than the summer, although they have only recently revived the women’s hockey league here in Canada, as more girls play hockey now. I never would – way too aggressive for me! I haven’t checked out any of the results yet.
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Your country already has something to be proud of. That curling match against Italy ended up 7-2 in your favor. Not only was Italy the defending Olympic champion, but their curling duo was on a 22-match winning streak!
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I thought I heard on the news today that we lost to the US in curling? I enjoyed the opening ceremony, and the entertainment part, but I only saw some of the teams come in. I love that Volare song, but Mariah Carrey sang it way too slow, but then I am used to listening to Dean Martin’s version on my vintage playlist. Tonight on the news there was a map of the towns/venues, and they said it would take 6 hours to get from one to another, so they are going to hand out the medals at the venue right after each event.
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Your curling win over Italy was in the first round of the competition so maybe it was one and done for Canada? As popular as Mariah Carey is, I’m surprised an in-country headliner (even someone the rest of us have never heard of) wouldn’t be the main attraction. I haven’t watched the Ceremonies yet, but I will. That’s the beauty of streaming TV – watch when it’s convenient 🙂
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I think in the Paris summer Olympics they had Celine Dion sing (she’s french but from Quebec) and she did a nice job, so it’s probably a courtesy thing to ask another country. They did have Italian performers too, Andre Bocelli, plus some female opera singer and some music through the decades thing? That part wasn’t so good, but I was surprised that the population of Italy is only 60 million. It’s harder for a smaller country to put on the Olympics. I only watched parts of it live, towards the end, the rest later.
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oh wow, thank you for all this Olympics info – it reminded me to tune in.
I am in awe of all athletes,, but love the skier the most!
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We usually have the Olympics on, at least in the background, while we are at home. We will preempt them for the SuperBowl. I am watching speed skating as I type this comment.
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I approve! Honestly, “in the background” seems to be the way most people enjoy the Super Bowl too. It’s more of an excuse to gather together instead of sports-fan interest in the game. Nothing wrong with that. I do wish the commercials were as creative and funny as they used to be. These days my reaction is more like “How much did they pay for that ad?”
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I’m late here because I was glued to the screen watching the Winter Olympics. Um, kidding. Actually, I had not thought about it until I read this. I will confess that curling and the luge are fun, but have enough things snapping for my spare time that I can’t even watch basketball (which I find fun to watch).
I think we’re not hearing much because Big Media no longer wants to spend money to give original coverage to things like this, at least in most meaningful ways. A Network like NBC (that probably paid for the exclusive rights) is all we’re going to get.
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The challenge I have with the Olympics is they’re almost always in a time zone several hours removed from my own. Italy is six hours later than the U.S. East Coast, so no competition will be broadcast live in my “prime time”. The only medal rounds I’ll be able to see live will be on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It almost makes me long for the pre-Internet days when you’d get home from school or work and have no idea what happened halfway around the world until it was broadcast (tape-delayed) later that night.
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I’m another whose mother made me into an Olympics fan when ABC World of Sports would cover the events. One aspect we always enjoyed were the back stories of some of the athletes.
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