Episode XIII

2012 SUMMER OLYMPICS

Okay, so I know this event has now been a few days removed, I thought I'd give my two cents on what I thought of this event.

The first thing I would like to address is the event list. This year both baseball and softball were left off the docket. Why? Couldn't tell you, but I found it odd, regardless. Was it perhaps because the there are only four or five countries that take these sports seriously? Or was it because these four or five countries were the only ones who wanted to participate? In either case I can understand the IOC's decision to not have these sports included in the Olympics. Where's the thrill if only the same teams keep making the gold medal round? Sure there might be some variation from Olympiad to Olympiad, but the result is still the same: the lesser countries slowly drop out, until there's no choice but to drop the event.

However, if it's because of the players, then basketball should be the next sport to go from the summer games. In recent games, except 2008, the USA has dominated both the men's and women's divisions. With the NBA and WNBA being world-wide (just like the MLB), the competition on these levels is above what I believe the Olympics to be about. To me, the Olympics is about presenting sports that are NOT multi-billion dollar money makers. If this were the case then there should be American football and Rugby included in these world games.

This leads to my second thought: with baseball/softball and basketball both out of the Summer Games, then perhaps we could start seeing other events on prime time. Swimming, Gymnastics and Track & Field are getting the majority of the night time air. But, according to recent tracking, Archery increase viewership along with Volleyball (both beach and court) and Diving. These, plus many other sports need to get some of the lime light, rather than just a quick recap during prime time.

I would like to see all the martial arts and rifle matches get air time. Not that more well known sports don't shouldn't be shown during prime time, but how are other sports supposed to get support. Unless you know about the sport, or can catch it on some alternate channel, you many never know it exists. Like myself, I only get the main news channels, so NBC Sports, Universal NBC, etc. are all inaccessible to me, which means I cannot even watch these other sports online. So airing these lesser sports during the night would, at least to me, be exciting.

Not that I didn't enjoy this year's Summer Games, but after the first week I watched less and less of the Olympics. Perhaps this was because of what was aired and when, but I believe it to be due to the schedule of events. Track & Field can be exciting, but was just never my thing. The same goes with basketball. I feel that if they had offered some other sports I might have maintained interest in the games throughout its two week run. Maybe the games need to be expanding to a three or four week run. Sure the athletes may sit around longer, but maybe this would give the audience a chance to see more, rather than crunching it all down into a two week segment.

I'm glad to see that the US once again finished as one for the top five in the medal count. It goes to show how dedicated we are to our sports. Of course we have more funding than smaller countries, but that's beside the point! However, it would be cool to see that nearly ever country be able to fund equal size delegations. While I know this is not possible, but if it were, we would get a serious Olympic event.

I cannot wait until 2016 when the Olympics get to Rio, it should be exciting. But that will have to wait, as we have the 21014 Winter Games coming to Sochi, Russia.

As my mother-in-law once said, "I only wish the games were longer."