2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing Thread

[HanSenSE]

Something they've been plugging on our local NBC station for a couple of weeks that I just got around to confirming for myself. Winter Games run Feb. 4-20, while Super Bowl is Feb. 13. Have fun, layout guys and gals.

 

[Pilot]

Was the Shiffrin positive on purpose? Assuming she came through mostly asymptomatic, it has to be a load off her mind that she won’t test positive the day before the Olympic slalom.

 

[UPChip]

Something they've been plugging on our local NBC station for a couple of weeks that I just got around to confirming for myself. Winter Games run Feb. 4-20, while Super Bowl is Feb. 13. Have fun, layout guys and gals.

A quick glance at the schedule appears that NBC, which I think is going to have a mini-show after the game, cleared out most of the schedule. The only thing that is happening live Monday morning/afternoon Beijing time (so Sunday night) is the women's monobob final (more of a Shelbyville thing), a little freestyle skiing (women's freeski slopestyle final) and the ice dancing free dance.

 

[HanSenSE]

A quick glance at the schedule appears that NBC, which I think is going to have a mini-show after the game, cleared out most of the schedule. The only thing that is happening live Monday morning/afternoon Beijing time (so Sunday night) is the women's monobob final (more of a Shelbyville thing), a little freestyle skiing (women's freeski slopestyle final) and the ice dancing free dance.

And knowing NBC, they would have delayed ice dancing football or not, or push it onto one of it's cable partners.

 

[heyabbott]

Most expensive bad beat in history, 2022 China Olympics. China starts COVID to attack the west to bring their economy down and make China the #1 Global Super power..
They succeed beyond their wildest dream. But China didn’t anctipte the west and especially Trump could be this ignorant and selfish. Not only did China not anticipate theWest’sability to fight a single disease with unlimited resources but they could not imagine that christians are this inhumane.
So COVID now comes back to bite them hard as the 2022 China COVID games are going to be either delayed or called off and no one is going to care except NBC and half a dozen sponsors who might want their money back..

 

[HanSenSE]

Jamaican bobsled team is back!

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2022...ings-winter-olympics-skier/?utm_medium=social

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Let Japan make everything. Like they used to.

I've got a copy of Steve Hackett's "The Tokyo Tapes" and a Japanese vehicle. Just what else do all of you want?

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Uh, haven’t we had sanitized coverage of the Games for decades now?

 

[playthrough]

NBC will say it's not sanitized because they're sending Lester Holt for on-site Nightly News, but it's not like he's going to be working the streets.

 

[HanSenSE]

NBC will say it's not sanitized because they're sending Lester Holt for on-site Nightly News, but it's not like he's going to be working the streets.

NBC had a bureau in Beijing ahead of the 2008 Games, but shuttered it shortly after the flame went out.

 

[UPChip]

NBC put a "China explainer" in the broadcast booth during the Opening Ceremony, which was a little weird. Didn't stop Costas from making the quadrennial jokes about the wily (and now dead) Omar Bongo.

 

[DanOregon]

NBC will not send announcers to Beijing for Winter Games

It's really too bad - one of the things I enjoy most about the Olympics is learning a bit more about the people and places of the host country. Doesn't look like that will happen unless NBC pre-taped some features back in early 2020 - or maybe they'll just re-use the 2008 stuff.
Announcers, fans - I realize it's all about the money and COVID, but I do remember a time when the Olympics were about bringing people together - not isolating them.

 

[UPChip]

NBC will not send announcers to Beijing for Winter Games

It's really too bad - one of the things I enjoy most about the Olympics is learning a bit more about the people and places of the host country. Doesn't look like that will happen unless NBC pre-taped some features back in early 2020 - or maybe they'll just re-use the 2008 stuff.
Announcers, fans - I realize it's all about the money and COVID, but I do remember a time when the Olympics were about bringing people together - not isolating them.

It's bad, but it's a convenient way for NBC to ameliorate the fact that they're probably going to take a bath on this one due to the bad time zone, the fact that the country's attention is kind of diverted by the latest COVID panic, and the general ickiness of being seen in any way as endorsing the Chinese government. And we can't have Tara and Johnny getting thrown into a Chinese quarantine hotel for a month.

To some degree, this was always a 'rebuilding year' for the Olympic movement. The key is to get this over with, collect the money, hope Xi's cadre even pretends to behave themselves and put the last cycle behind them. Brezhnev's Russia and Tito's Yugoslavia got the Olympics too. Sometimes it's your turn to draw the Olympic equivalent of the ****ty west-coast road trip and let the bad guys be the home team.

After their lengthy experiments in hope-casting like Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 and to a lesser extent PyeongChang 2018, the summer side is now lined up with stable Western democracies for the next three Olympiads (Paris, LA, Brisbane) and on the winter side, Cortina-Milan should be a perfectly fine location for 2026, and there's a good chance we're going back to Vancouver or Salt Lake City for 2030. By then, they should have a better handle on a winter set-up that works (or we just won't be having winter anymore). There's at least an outside chance that the IOC will see the mess that particularly Beijing 2022 has been and realize that there are only so many places that can reasonably hold a Winter Olympics (basically, the Rockies, the Alps and a few other major cities within a day's drive of a significant mountain range) and that they need to behave because folks aren't going to put up with their bull****. OK, maybe not on that.

 

[Pilot]

Now ESPN won't be in attendance...

https://www.espnfrontrow.com/2022/0...espn-will-not-staff-winter-olympics-in-china/

 

[MileHigh]

Now ESPN won't be in attendance...

https://www.espnfrontrow.com/2022/0...espn-will-not-staff-winter-olympics-in-china/

All of four staffers. They didn't exactly bulk up on the Olympics in the past because they don't have the rights and there are major video restrictions.

 

[DanOregon]

Bob Costas suddenly becoming aware that the IOC has a human rights problem. Once he's no longer cashing checks for being the head cheerleader.

Bob Costas: Olympics Deserve Disdain and Disgust They Get

 

[maumann]

Bob Costas suddenly becoming aware that the IOC has a human rights problem. Once he's no longer cashing checks for being the head cheerleader.

Bob Costas: Olympics Deserve Disdain and Disgust They Get

Yeah, I have a very hard time believing someone who sells out for the opportunity, then gets courage well after the fact. Speak up then or shut up now.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

It's bad, but it's a convenient way for NBC to ameliorate the fact that they're probably going to take a bath on this one due to the bad time zone, the fact that the country's attention is kind of diverted by the latest COVID panic, and the general ickiness of being seen in any way as endorsing the Chinese government. And we can't have Tara and Johnny getting thrown into a Chinese quarantine hotel for a month.

To some degree, this was always a 'rebuilding year' for the Olympic movement. The key is to get this over with, collect the money, hope Xi's cadre even pretends to behave themselves and put the last cycle behind them. Brezhnev's Russia and Tito's Yugoslavia got the Olympics too. Sometimes it's your turn to draw the Olympic equivalent of the ****ty west-coast road trip and let the bad guys be the home team.

After their lengthy experiments in hope-casting like Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 and to a lesser extent PyeongChang 2018, the summer side is now lined up with stable Western democracies for the next three Olympiads (Paris, LA, Brisbane) and on the winter side, Cortina-Milan should be a perfectly fine location for 2026, and there's a good chance we're going back to Vancouver or Salt Lake City for 2030. By then, they should have a better handle on a winter set-up that works (or we just won't be having winter anymore). There's at least an outside chance that the IOC will see the mess that particularly Beijing 2022 has been and realize that there are only so many places that can reasonably hold a Winter Olympics (basically, the Rockies, the Alps and a few other major cities within a day's drive of a significant mountain range) and that they need to behave because folks aren't going to put up with their bull****. OK, maybe not on that.

Are we so sure that LA is in a stable democracy?

 

[UPChip]

Are we so sure that LA is in a stable democracy?

I mean, you're not wrong.