Topic: 2016 Olympic Games Thread

@Tasuki: Yeah, it's awesome from that perspective. I was on the edge of my seat watching the synchronised diving yesterday, and I've never watched it before in my life!

@get2sammyb: Right. That's how I was a few years ago with water polo, last Olympics with kayaking and now this year with rugby. Lol

Day 4

Women's Beach Volleyball - Watched today's game between USA's "B" pair & a Brazilian pair. The Brazilian girls won 2 Sets to 0 (the home crowd was very energetic).

Archery (Individual) - Saw Venezuela VS China (Mens): Venezuela won 6 Set points to 2. Australia VS Egypt (Mens): Australia won 6 Set points to 0. Russia VS Columbia (Womens): Russia won 6 Set points to 4. Russia VS Iran (Womens): Russia won 6 Set points to 2 (it was pretty cool though, as the Iranian is a Paralympic champion who qualified for both Olympics & Paralympics this year). The Archery did look very cool, and seems like it'd be tons of fun.

Boxing - Only one bout for me today (just something to watch while I drained my tablet battery before charging it). Cuba VS Italy, with the Cuban winning by unanimous decision.

Other - Tried watching a game of Men's Handball (Germany VS Poland), but I dropped it at around the 25 minute mark because it wasn't doing anything for me. Also caught some of the Women's Gymnastics team finals (where the USA took home the Gold!).

USA are so bloody good at swimming. It's been a bit disappointing for our teams so far — we've clocked up tons and tons of fourth place finishes across dozens of events. That said, velodrome is historically our strongest sport so hopefully we'll pick up some medals there. Murray and Konta are looking very strong for medals in the tennis, too — especially with Djokovic and Serena going out.

Best moment of the games so far the south korean and north korean athletes having a selfie together.

@get2sammyb: I honestly have not been watching swimming much at all this Olympics. For US anyway it seems every Olympics they always air swimming and gymnastics the most. I actually decide to check out PS VUE so I can watch the Olympics, since I don't have cable. With the option of being able to watch all the events on demand I have found myself watching alot of the other events that normally aren't televised here in the US like Rugby, Judo, Equestrian etc..

@Tasuki, they actually do show everything, it's just that NBC spreads it out across all their networks, many of which normally have nothing to do with sports. For example, Tennis is exclusive to Bravo, Golf is on Golf Channel (this one makes sense), Soccer & Basketball get their own temporary exclusive channels (that you'd never know existed unless you looked for them), while NBC (during the daytime), NBC Sports Network, MSNBC (normally a cable news network), CNBC (economic news), & USA get random events throughout the day (Martial Arts, Boxing, Archery, Rugby, Equestrian, Handball, Indoor Volleyball, etc.)

They just take what I assume are the biggest ratings grabbers here (Swimming, Gymnastics, Track & Field, and Women's Beach Volleyball), and bundle them together during primetime.

That said, I agree with your approach. I usually watch it on my tablet (with the NBC Sports app), that way I can watch what I want, when I want (instead of blindly rummaging through a dozen channels hoping they just happen to have something you want to see on at just the right moment).

@RR529: Yeah I should have posted what I was thinking clearer. But yeah they do have other sports it's just that most people can only catch the prime time stuff due to work like myself and school and it seems that every Olympics the prime time stuff contains swimming, gymnastics, track and field etc. but it's probably as you said those are the ones most Americans are interested in and get the network the highest ratings.

And unless you can find those other sports due to the channels and times and other factors you don't get to see them much. Like me for example I work usually 5 days a week 730 to 400 PM so I can only watch the Prime time stuff.

Anyhow, a quite busy day 5:

Women's Beach Volleyball - Saw USA's Walsh-Jennings & Ross play a Swiss pair. Absolutely brutal game. It went all three sets, and was a point for point slugfest, until the end of the third set when one of the Swiss girls was slowed down by injury. USA won 2 sets to 1. Also watched China VS Australia, with China coming out on top 2 sets to 0. From this particular pool, USA (WJ & R) & China move on to the tournament round, while Switzerland & Australia have been knocked out.

Women's Synchronized 10m Diving - This was actually from yesterday, but I watched it today. Watched the first two rounds, and I quite liked it, and could see myself getting more into it. The Chinese pair was absolutely stunning.

Women's Fencing - finally got around to some fencing (just so much interesting stuff to try out, lol). Two matches I watched were USA VS France & USA VS China. We lost both matches, and now all the Americans have been knocked out of this particular contest.

Men's Rugby Sevens - Watched Australia VS South Africa (Aussies won) & Britain VS New Zealand (Brits won). Interesting, but I think it was an Australian player who had his head busted open (ouch!).

Women's Individual Archery - Just one match today, but it was a real nail biter. It was Mexico VS Turkey, and it came down to a sudden death one shot round with the Mexican barely coming out on top. What a match.

Fiji running away with the gold medal in the rugby sevens.

Just reading your posts about the US coverage of the Olympics. It sounds like we're lucky here: you can get everything on the BBC all day. It's free, too! (Well, annual license fee aside.)

@get2sammyb: yeah. the u.s. sucks. (nbc, not our team). I only get to see some of the events, and they're loaded with commercials. They literally almost tripled the amount of time it took to get through the Rio Olympic opening!! My whole family went to bed before the parade of nations even ended because it took so long.

It's a lot of fun seeing all of the events, but some of them make me feel really lazy and out of shape. Like the swimming events or women's volleyball... (T_T )
haven't seen any of the track and field events yet.

@get2sammyb: Yeah the coverage here is bad mainly cause NBC has a multi year deal with the Olympics in the US (Kinda like Madden with the NFL licensing) so we are at their mercy. Even streaming it we have to use NBC sports and as @Utena-mobile said they pile on the commercials.

Anyway I have to say I am really enjoying Rugby alot. I watched the quarter finals yesterday and tonight I am hoping to watch the finals evend though I already saw your post Sammy.

Sorry for the spoilers! @Utena-mobile: I don't think track and field starts until next week, does it?

@get2sammyb: oh, you're right. (o_O ) what about fencing? has that passed already?

@Utena-mobile: Yes fencing has been going on since the beginning.

@Tasuki: nyooooooooooo!!!

@Utena-mobile, I don't think @Tasuki meant that the Fencing is over (though certain Fencing events are), just that it started day 1. There's still more to come, at least tomorrow (haven't looked at the schedule beyond that).

Anyhow, may Day 6

Women's Beach Volleyball - Watched USA's Fendrick & Sweat face off against a Russian pair. It was a point for point game going all 3 sets, but the Ruskies won it 2 sets to 1. After today the preliminary round is over, and I find it astounding how one USA pair won all three of their prelim matches, while the other pair lost all three.

Men's Table Tennis - Watched a match between China & Japan, and the Chinese player won. I like Table Tennis, but man can the matches be long. This one went 6 sets, and lasted over an hour! The game is first to 4 sets wins, so at it's longest can go up to 7 sets.

Other: caught some of the Swimming & Women's Gymnastics during NBC's primetime thing. Phelps won his 22nd career Olympic Gold medal!

Team USA stomped it tonight in Women's Gymnastics as did Phelps in Swimming..

Fiji winning the first medal and its gold. Great that even smaller nations can outshine the larger countries.