Rickster

I think another thing that made these games more tolerable to a viewer was having watched already a year or so of sports with little or no spectators already. It didn’t seem to me as jarring as it would have otherwise. Despite all the difficulties, I’m glad that the IOC and Japan did not give into the calls to cancel the games.

Actually, they gave a vague explanation during last night’s coverage. I think the expert commentator said it was a combination of body lean and the way they shape the paddle stroke.

Here’s a question I had after watching an interview with Nevin Harrison: Unlike kayakers and scullers, canoers only paddle on one side of the boat. Why don’t they go in circles?

Maybe NOW the women’s gymnastics will be over for the Today show for the next four years. It was really out of control, and I give them partial blame for Simone’s mental issues.

I should have added that I watch a lot of the non core sports (the ones that don’t end up on NBC prime time) and they seem to pop up more there.

Not a complaint, and certainly not directed at anyone specific, but I have been puzzled why, among all the hosts, commentators and analysts for the NBC channels, they use so many British and Commonwealth citizens (or maybe they are ex citizens). Like there aren’t enough talking heads and experts in the US? Or maybe the other Americans are tied up to other networks?

There are some team members and officials in the stands close to the track. The other thing that's happening in the main stadium is the use of either cardboard cut outs or maybe seat covers in black and white that are irregularly placed which, at least when out of focus, give a bit of an illusion of people in the stands in the background. Or possibly the seats are permanently black and white.

I guess marrying his Slovakian wife sure paid off for Rory.

Dear NBC, if you’re going to insist on breaking up the US/Canada match with commercials at critical parts of the match, you COULD do a slight delay and not skip points.

I can’t speak to the other sports, but since 2012, female beach volleyballers are not required to wear bikinis, and can wear shorts and tops with sleeves. I think they also wear something like running tights in cold weather. So why they continue to wear bikinis, or why the US teams seem to wear bikinis two sizes too small I guess would be a question for them.

It may be that they have decided to cut back, but it also may be that covid restrictions/concerns have limited the filming. The Today Show hosts went on a bus tour of Tokyo yesterday where they were not allowed to leave the bus and they have mentioned they are restricted to their hotel, sports venues and the broadcast center. A segment on Japanese whiskey and sake was shown which seemed to be half filmed on location and half in a bar in New York or London.

I was amazed to see the GB fours veer out of their lane yesterday and almost hit the boat next to them. Never saw something like that before.

Yes, that was mentioned in the commentary. No race radios.

This approach to the NBC Olympic coverage goes much further back than Rio. I can remember articles about it at least 20 years ago. It’s also the reason for the intensity of the coverage of women’s gymnastics, especially leading up to the Olympics, in order grab female viewers who NBC figure will be more inclined to tune into women’s gymnastics than other sports (that’s why no attention is paid to men’s gymnastics). It’s also why they tend to focus on stories about female athletes, although there are exceptions like Michael Phelps.

Never been to Hawaii, but I wonder if the filter in the boat scene was used since it was supposed to be a sunset cruise.

You should watch the daytime version to see randos pulled off the street (at least in some episodes)

So thus show has moved from tedious anti Trump rants every day, to rants about the failure of Americans to vaccinate. The trouble is, Joe and Mika are preaching to the choir on this one, as I’d guess MSNBC viewers are pretty well entirely vaccinated by now, so what is the point?

Actually, she covered herself after the son came back and started staring fixedly at her, although I suppose both could be a factor.

Fencing was on earlier, mens gold medal foil, then they switched to rugby. I think the same thing happened with the 3x3 basketball, where they showed the US beating China in women’s first, then switched to other events. But I agree NBC/Peacock really needs to figure out how to tell us what’s on where, since the cable channel guides are useless. I haven’t found anything useful online either.

Not really a fan of this show, with so many unlikeable characters, but somehow I'm still watching, sort of. On the "who's in the casket front", I noticed that a couple of times in this episode Shane or Rachel mentions that this was the first stop in their honeymoon with the next in Tahiti. However, in the first scene of the first episode, Shane mentions to the couple in the airport that he is flying home, so something either happens to Rachel or to his marriage.

You also have to keep in mind that the contestants have picked their final category before they have to eliminate someone, so they may be considering who might be stronger in the final round. I noticed in the show before the Columbia one, the team that had to eliminate a player had picked Business as the final category and kept the business major on the team.

Is the shot clock new? I don’t remember one being used before. That might contribute to the high scores.

I have to say, I don't understand why 3 on 3 basketball is an Olympic sport. Growing up, this is what you played if you didn't have enough people for a full court game, or (like me) were not athletic enough to play full court. I don't think there are any unique skills to distinguish it from regular basketball. So why is it here? Next, I suppose we'll have the 5 on 5 soccer with a single goal that I see people playing in my local park. Or maybe this too is now in the Olympics.

A few players have tried to get by one fish at a time, but they got knocked off by the water cannon. This guy might have had better strength/balance, and I noticed he seemed to press himself against the second fish to avoid the worst of the cannon until he could get past it. I really don’t understand why they keep changing the rules on the seating on the jousting, but I noticed the technique of swatting aside the lance with the shield the players used on this episode wouldn’t work riding side saddle. You’d just get pushed off.

Bleeding aside (which actually didn’t seem like that big a deal in the end), it would have been crazy for Dr. Lee and the other dermatologist to try to remove this in the office. All I had to do was see the amount of reconstruction that had to be done on the nose once the tumors were removed to see that they needed a skilled plastic surgeon. I actually wondered if the earlier office visits and the initial incision scene last week were just a set-up for drama’s sake.