I once followed the Olympics assiduously. That was long long long ago.
Comments
And the Olympics begin in Paris — 24 Comments
I tried to watch the Olympics opening “ceremony,” but I had to turn off my TV. It was ghastly horrible! The gay director of all of the ceremony really put his gayness right in our faces. Too bad for that idiot that many of us will refuse to watch his silliness. And as for the “masked torch bearer,” it is funny that they used all of the pre-recorded segments of that torch bearer that were in bright sunshine, and then they interspersed them with “live” shots in the rain. And the announcers, following their script, kept talking like all of the torch bearer video was live!
In spite of NBC going all out with trying to get folks to subscribe to Peacock, I would bet that the 2024 Olympics will be the LEAST watched Olympics in our modern era.
The world’s a smaller place. Some of the charm of the Olympics was seeing Melbourne or Rome or Grenoble or Innsbruck or Turin on television. Now you can find out all about those places and others online or even go there yourself. And the expense of putting on the games! The Olympics are slowly going the way of World’s Fairs. A few large cities will probably go on reusing, expanding and renovating their existing Olympic facilities to host the games again and again. London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo.
I will watch semi-finals/finals of the track and field events on youtube and twitter but nothing else- I won’t turn NBC on at all.
I love how we’re told nationalism is passe, and the root of all (geopolitical) evil, except every two years when we’re supposed to tune into the Olympics and cheer our fellow citizens on to victory so NBC can sell advertising and recover the money they overspent buying the rights.
I’m just hoping participants & spectators survive.
The arson-delayed train services is just a foretaste.
John Guilfoyle: Agree entirely. The arson attacks on the rail system are only a foretaste of what the bad guys will be trying to do.
It makes one wonder what kind of a sick puppy would try to disrupt an event like the Olympics. But since there are those sick puppies out there, I propose a new event for the Olympics. When the terrorists are caught trying to cause mayhem at the Olympics, we should have athletes compete to see who can throw a terrorist the farthest off the Eiffel Tower! I would actually subscribe to pay TV to watch that event!
I’ll watch the soccer and basketball; never cared for track, swimming, etc. And yes, the Olympics have lost some appeal. But maybe appropriate to Neo’s other post, I’m d and don’t care anymore.
I used to love the Olympics and would watch as much coverage as I could. But now realizing how corrupt the IOC is and how corrupt the MSM that covers the Olympics is, I just don’t care at all and won’t watch a single event.
The Olympics is just a reminder of an old world that I used to believe in but no longer do. I have the same feeling with almost all professional sports as well. I used to be a big baseball fan and would make an annual trip each year to watch the Red Sox in Fenway Park. I haven’t been to a game since all sports leagues had to pledge allegiance to the Black Lives Matter movement and I doubt I’ll ever go back.
I prefer Winter Olympic sports over the summer sports.
I believe this is from the opening ceremony. It’s disgusting. It’s a man with large breasts pretending to be a woman. I posted it in the open threads comment.
What does this have to do with a sports competition?
I assume this is part of what Rusty was alluding in the first comment.
Brian and Rusty,
Yes, my wife wanted to watch the replay of the opening ceremony. OMG, what a ghastly, crass, over the top display. As my wife said, leave it to Paris to make the Olympics x rated
The gay director
Transgender is politically congruent (“=”) and sometimes gay.
The Rainbow symbol and rhetoric are albinophobic, a hate crime targeting a minority. #HateLovesAbortion
Is this the year that men identifying as the feminine gender compete with women of the female sex? Another first.
Progress is unqualified monotonic change: one step forward, two steps backward.
Abraxas @3:57pm,
You put my assumptions into words better than I would have. I think the slow creep of professional athletes, along with so much cheating sealed the Olympics’ fate decades ago. It is already much reduced from what it once was, and will likely continue to ebb.
Also, each of the sports have world championships and most happen annually.
I will almost certainly watch the men’s and women’s 400m, probably even the semis and/or quarters for that event along with some other track and field events.
I’ve been very impressed with Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone and followed her career for years. I will watch her compete. Her main rival, Fernke Bol is also an outstanding athlete. Their race(s) should be amazing!
Aside from that, there will likely be a few exceptional things in track and field and I’ll seek out replays on youtube.
A few years ago I made the acquaintance of a former Olympic athlete who competed at the 1972 Munich games. It was very interesting to hear him talk about what it was like being there.
It’s the first thing I thought of this morning when I read of the terrorist attacks on the high speed trains in Paris.
I hope that’s all the rhyming history has in store for us this summer.
Is it really true that the opening ceremonies are featuring a depiction of, of all things, the Last Supper, only in Drag Queen style and fashion? I’m seeing pictures but no context, which is leaving me to suspect things are not quite what they are being shown to be. Nevertheless – why would there be a place made for something like this, in any way connected to the Olympics?
I used to watch a lot of the Olympics. However, as they have become so overdone, and over-hyped I have become less and less interested.
Like Jon baker, the Winter Olympics are more my cup of tea. I competed in ski racing in high school and college. Some of the skiers I competed against made the Olympic team. I’ve visited the sites in Innsbruck, Cortina, and Whistler. Fantastic places all, but Whistler was, IMO, ruined by the fame that the Olympics brought. Whistler went from a quiet, uncrowded mountain resort, to a crowded, overpriced, and no longer enjoyable experience.
I’ll watch the swimming, gymnastics, and a few of the track and field events. That’s about it.
I tried to watch the Olympics opening “ceremony,” but I had to turn off my TV. It was ghastly horrible! The gay director of all of the ceremony really put his gayness right in our faces. Too bad for that idiot that many of us will refuse to watch his silliness. And as for the “masked torch bearer,” it is funny that they used all of the pre-recorded segments of that torch bearer that were in bright sunshine, and then they interspersed them with “live” shots in the rain. And the announcers, following their script, kept talking like all of the torch bearer video was live!
In spite of NBC going all out with trying to get folks to subscribe to Peacock, I would bet that the 2024 Olympics will be the LEAST watched Olympics in our modern era.
The world’s a smaller place. Some of the charm of the Olympics was seeing Melbourne or Rome or Grenoble or Innsbruck or Turin on television. Now you can find out all about those places and others online or even go there yourself. And the expense of putting on the games! The Olympics are slowly going the way of World’s Fairs. A few large cities will probably go on reusing, expanding and renovating their existing Olympic facilities to host the games again and again. London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo.
I will watch semi-finals/finals of the track and field events on youtube and twitter but nothing else- I won’t turn NBC on at all.
I love how we’re told nationalism is passe, and the root of all (geopolitical) evil, except every two years when we’re supposed to tune into the Olympics and cheer our fellow citizens on to victory so NBC can sell advertising and recover the money they overspent buying the rights.
I’m just hoping participants & spectators survive.
The arson-delayed train services is just a foretaste.
John Guilfoyle: Agree entirely. The arson attacks on the rail system are only a foretaste of what the bad guys will be trying to do.
It makes one wonder what kind of a sick puppy would try to disrupt an event like the Olympics. But since there are those sick puppies out there, I propose a new event for the Olympics. When the terrorists are caught trying to cause mayhem at the Olympics, we should have athletes compete to see who can throw a terrorist the farthest off the Eiffel Tower! I would actually subscribe to pay TV to watch that event!
Seriously
https://sports.yahoo.com/paris-olympics-2024-food-becoming-an-issue-for-athletes-in-olympic-village-192803761.html?
I’ll watch the soccer and basketball; never cared for track, swimming, etc. And yes, the Olympics have lost some appeal. But maybe appropriate to Neo’s other post, I’m d and don’t care anymore.
I used to love the Olympics and would watch as much coverage as I could. But now realizing how corrupt the IOC is and how corrupt the MSM that covers the Olympics is, I just don’t care at all and won’t watch a single event.
The Olympics is just a reminder of an old world that I used to believe in but no longer do. I have the same feeling with almost all professional sports as well. I used to be a big baseball fan and would make an annual trip each year to watch the Red Sox in Fenway Park. I haven’t been to a game since all sports leagues had to pledge allegiance to the Black Lives Matter movement and I doubt I’ll ever go back.
I prefer Winter Olympic sports over the summer sports.
I believe this is from the opening ceremony. It’s disgusting. It’s a man with large breasts pretending to be a woman. I posted it in the open threads comment.
What does this have to do with a sports competition?
I assume this is part of what Rusty was alluding in the first comment.
Brian and Rusty,
Yes, my wife wanted to watch the replay of the opening ceremony. OMG, what a ghastly, crass, over the top display. As my wife said, leave it to Paris to make the Olympics x rated
The gay director
Transgender is politically congruent (“=”) and sometimes gay.
The Rainbow symbol and rhetoric are albinophobic, a hate crime targeting a minority. #HateLovesAbortion
Is this the year that men identifying as the feminine gender compete with women of the female sex? Another first.
Progress is unqualified monotonic change: one step forward, two steps backward.
Abraxas @3:57pm,
You put my assumptions into words better than I would have. I think the slow creep of professional athletes, along with so much cheating sealed the Olympics’ fate decades ago. It is already much reduced from what it once was, and will likely continue to ebb.
Also, each of the sports have world championships and most happen annually.
I will almost certainly watch the men’s and women’s 400m, probably even the semis and/or quarters for that event along with some other track and field events.
I’ve been very impressed with Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone and followed her career for years. I will watch her compete. Her main rival, Fernke Bol is also an outstanding athlete. Their race(s) should be amazing!
Aside from that, there will likely be a few exceptional things in track and field and I’ll seek out replays on youtube.
A few years ago I made the acquaintance of a former Olympic athlete who competed at the 1972 Munich games. It was very interesting to hear him talk about what it was like being there.
It’s the first thing I thought of this morning when I read of the terrorist attacks on the high speed trains in Paris.
I hope that’s all the rhyming history has in store for us this summer.
Is it really true that the opening ceremonies are featuring a depiction of, of all things, the Last Supper, only in Drag Queen style and fashion? I’m seeing pictures but no context, which is leaving me to suspect things are not quite what they are being shown to be. Nevertheless – why would there be a place made for something like this, in any way connected to the Olympics?
I used to watch a lot of the Olympics. However, as they have become so overdone, and over-hyped I have become less and less interested.
Like Jon baker, the Winter Olympics are more my cup of tea. I competed in ski racing in high school and college. Some of the skiers I competed against made the Olympic team. I’ve visited the sites in Innsbruck, Cortina, and Whistler. Fantastic places all, but Whistler was, IMO, ruined by the fame that the Olympics brought. Whistler went from a quiet, uncrowded mountain resort, to a crowded, overpriced, and no longer enjoyable experience.
I’ll watch the swimming, gymnastics, and a few of the track and field events. That’s about it.
This photo of the Israeli swim team and the story with it is pretty danged cool:
https://x.com/VividProwess/status/1817031388605907452?t=li-CySFrgy-lmAPQHkGuBg&s=19
@ sdferr – loved that photo!
Now THAT was imaginative and inventive.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/26/mitt-romney-praises-olympics-opening-ceremony-imaginative-inventive/
@ Aggie – there have been some questions about the context of the depraved exhibitions. Maybe they were in fact ancillary to the official ceremonies.
But there is no question that they occurred.
It mattered more when it was a shared experience. Too many channels now.
Let’s pray this doesn’t turn out to be 1972, because Black September seems to be empowered
Gerry – good suggestion – I certainly hope there is no rerun of 1972, or worse.
However, I think the Olympic organizers are themselves beyond the reach of reform.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/drag-performance-resembling-last-supper-at-olympic-opening-ceremony-rankles-conservatives/ar-BB1qK14x
https://babylonbee.com/news/sodom-and-gomorrah-set-to-host-2032-olympics