2012 Olympic Games Thoughts

Photo: © 2012 Duncan Rawlinson
(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Y’all may have noticed that I decided not to do a daily recap with this Olympiad’s games. Not only did I not have enough time, but it takes away some of my enjoyment what with turning the viewing experience into work. This time I just wanted to be an interested bystander.

For two-plus weeks, I had the Games on in the background. This is actually a pretty big deal in that I generally work in silence. I would also take more breaks than usual to watch interesting events as they came up. Of course there were events I always planned to watch: all team USA women’s basketball and women’s soccer. In the end, I (per usual) watched a lot of Olympics events — from team handball to table tennis to badminton to gymnastics and all points in between.

On the whole, I think London did a really good job with these games; resulting in probably the happiest/funnest Summer Olympics since Sydney — arguably the best yet done.

For me, the defining event of the Games was the women’s soccer semifinal match between Canada and the USA. This was an incredibly exciting game — equal to the Brazil/USA quarterfinal match at the 2011 Women’s World Cup.

As with most Olympics, there are surprises, disappointments, and annoyances. Being understandably US-centric, I was most surprised by David Boudia’s gold in men’s 10 m platform diving — especially when you consider that he barely made it into the final round. The biggest disappointment? I think the US women’s volleyball team once again not winning gold when it was in their power to do so. Back in 1984, it was just one of those things. Now, it’s a continuing trend that I’d really like seen put to rest. As for an annoyance…the 2-person per country limit for the gymnastics all-around. Sure, I appreciate the desire to let competitors from outside the big three or four powerhouse nations have spots in the rotation. While that inclusive attitude is fine for a World Championship, I think the Olympics need a greater emphasis on excellence. If I recall correctly, the limit used to be three gymnasts per country, which seems more reasonable. (An additional annoyance: let there be ties, for Pete’s sake. You want inclusion, put it here.)

Unlike many in the socnets, I give guarded praise to NBC for doing a not-awful job with making this Olympics more available — though there is still a lot of room for improvement. The most vocal complaint has been about the limited access to live events. The crux of the problem was a desire by NBS to keep high profile (i.e. ratings-generating) events from being easily accessed before they were shown in prime time. Yes, these events were available live online, but replays of these events were unavailable until after the event was shown on the evening broadcast.

Another major SNAFU arose for many people wanting to watch events online: you had to be a cable or satellite customer to gain access. If there was some sort of tithe from these providers coming to NBC from online access (I don’t know that there was), why couldn’t non-cable/satellite customers have been offered the option to pay the same amount for access? Also…getting the feeds wasn’t always reliable. Even though I had the necessary codes, I was never able to get reliable streaming with my Linux laptop…though running via the XP boot was fine.

Despite these and other complaints, I still say NBC did OK in trying to accommodate the ever-changing media landscape. It would have been so easy for them to stick completely to the old way of sharing Olympic coverage. Not only did they try, but for the most part they found a reasonable balance.

As for the job done by the LOCOG, I think they did a fine job in putting on an Olympic Games that seemed enjoyable to all in attendance. My only complaints about them rests with the production of the opening and closing ceremonies. While I very much appreciated the return to a more homespun feel, it struck me that they didn’t quite manage to score in the center of the bulls-eye.

My prime issue with the opening was that there were so many isolated fiddly bits it seemed the only way to appreciate them was to watch the event on TV with full commentary to explain all that was going on. Also — what was with having Sir Paul doing only The End and then the interminable Hey Jude? It seemed like better, more rousing songs could have been picked.

In the same vein, my complaint with the closing ceremony (the unedited version) was that too many of the songs were ballads, in minor keys, or otherwise weren’t as “peppy” as they might have been. Also, too many long, full songs when a 2-3 hits medley would probably have been better.

Oh…one other thing about the closing: the athletes needed more freedom. They were penned into sectors of the infield with little room available for the large-scale, impromptu partying that makes some closing ceremonies so special. Two or three stages with an open, no-roads stadium floor likely would have been perfect.

Before I close, a few things I really liked about the bookended ceremonies. The Queen with Bond-James-Bond was priceless. It was also nice to see the younger royals being so visible. I LOVED the cauldron for the flame. Its quiet elegance rates it at or near the top of my Olympic cauldron list. The Spice Girls…oh, how we’ve missed you (even Posh seemed to enjoy it).

And I think that will be about it for now. There are a few things I’ll address in other posts, so for now I’ll just offer my thanks to the LOCOG, the city of London, and the people of Great Britain for a very welcoming and relaxed games.