Any other Olympics junkies out there?

[lemondog]

11 more days until the Opening Ceremonies!

I am a total fan of the Olympics. Sports I would never even consider watching become just fascinating to me at the Olympics. Everyone in my family and all my friends know NOT to bother me during Olympics weeks because I am too busy watching TV. Thank goodness we have 2 TIVO machines now so I can record everything.

During the last winter Olympics in 2002 we were in Russia and could not find any English-language television so I had a hard time keeping up with the games...it was maddening! We did get CNN Europe at one of our hotels and it was during the whole Canadian-Russian pairs skating fiasco, and it just so happened we were staying in the same hotel as the Canadian prime minister who was in town to meet with Putin, and ALL the talk around the place was not politics, of course, it was the infamous skating debate! I still don't really know what happened because we never got to see the actual competition, but I know the Russians we met were VERY opinionated on the subject!

 

[minniecarousel]

I LOVE watching the Olympics (got hooked on Curling in the last Winter Games!)

I'll have to remind folks here NOT to put results in their thread title. With the 3 hour difference, I don't want to see results here when I'll be watching later. (I won't open an Olympics thread 'til AFTER I've seen the events for the day.)

 

[noseybuddy]

I love watching the ladies Ice skating. I already looked at the schedule to make sure I will be home the nights that it is one.

 

[DisneyStar006]

Total junkie here

I love love love watching both the olympics' but winter is my fave! I've been counting down for 4 years since Salt Lake City LOL

Figure skating is definitely my favourite to watch, but I also become an instant fan of skiiing and all the other winter sports overnight!

 

[roseprincess]

I love the Olympics, too! Figure skating as well as the bobsled, luge stuff.
Just love seeing them going in that bobsled thing and all the fans making noise,etc.

Rosemarie

 

[LJC1861]

I lovei t all!!! I am a figure skater so those events are my personal favorite. I also enjoy ski jumping, luge, bobsled, skiing, well....just about everything!

I can't wait until next Friday!

Linda

 

[puffkin]

Junkie here too. I usually am exhausted during the Olympics because I stay up and watch coverage all night. I too like the winter better than the summer though. I think there are less events, so they show more coverage of them, not just the highlights. You can really get involved.

 

[WDW LOVR]

Years ago I used to love watching the Olympics. Summer, Winter didn't matter. Then the networks started turning the Olympics into the Summer gymnastics and Winter Ice skating competitions and I lost interest. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching the gymnastics and skating, in moderation, but it was every day almost all the time. It just got old.

Then they started the Human interest stories. Got to be a point where all that was shown was gymnastics or skating and human interest stories. If they did show another sport in prime time it was only the U.S. athlete and then only if they won a medal.

Then I discovered CBC. For all you folks who don't have CBC on your cable or satelite or live too far south to pick up the feed from north of the border, I'm sorry. CBC is fantastic. More actual competition, not just skating and definitely not slanted towards the U.S. It's refreshing to watch another network (especially a non-U.S. one) and their reporting of the events.

And it's nice to be able to watch some of the non-glamour events that U.S. networks ignore or give cursory service to instead of another special interest report on Jim Skaters alarm clock going off at 4 am every day making it still dark while he's riding his bike to the rink to practice while his dad works in the coal mines to support 5 siblings that were left motherless when mom died in serving in the peace corp helping the natives of the Amazon rain forest recover from the horrible diseases brought by the construction workers building a dam that will flood the natives village when it's completed.

So the answer is yes. I love the Olympics as covered by our friends to the north (and my grandmother's homeland). And Hockey Night in Canada is the only way to watch hockey.

 

[mickman1962]

I used to love it until the professionals started taking over most of the competitions.

I also agree with WDW Lover

 

[PattnFmly]

I love to watch too! DH knows to leave me alone! My girlfriend and I always have subs and soda on opening ceremonies night. My only complaint is also that they only show the glamour sports most of the time. I like to see bits and pieces of lots of things. I also wish they would show more than just the top 3 in any discipline. Sometimes I just like to see a good performance by someone who really tried!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

I enjoy watching the olympics, but I too wish they would show more of the other countries and sports other than the "glamor" ones. I once watched the olympics with a group of International students, and it was very frustrating to have everything be so USA slanted. I love that the olympics brings together athletes from all over the world - wish we could see more of them.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

I LOVE the Olympics too!!!

I had many friends on the DIS help out 4 years ago... Does anyone remember??? We petititioned for the Latvians to be shown during the parade of nations? MANY, MANY DIS friends helped out and the Latvians were shown for a few brief seconds... BUT we were finally on during the parade of nations!!! I still remember the kindness and thank you all who helped out with that!

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I love to watch them. DH will watch for a while, but then he gets bored, and I have to grab the remote before he starts channel surfing

I do wish they would show more competitors than just the top 2-3, and US athletes. And some of the lesser known sports would be nice too.

Jen

 

[RoyalCanadian]

I feel sorry for you folks who have to take your Olympic coverage from NBC. Their coverage is little more than a joke. We are so fortunate in Canada to have a public broadcaster that sets aside most of its broadcast schedule for Olympic coverage -- most of it live coverage. Add to that, we aren't limited to seeing just the Canadians. True enough, CBC does give priority to Canadian athletes, but we get in-depth coverage of other nation's athletes as well. It can make for some interesting TV scheduling and I don't expect to get much work done during the Olympic Winter Games, but it is so worth it.

 

[MinnieM21]

I can't wait for the Olympics to start! I love watching the mens and womens figure skating. I'm hoping that both Evgeni Plushenko, my absolute favorite skater and my other favorite, Irina Slutskaya win the gold. I'll be cheering for the Russians.

 

[LoraJ]

In The US, they should be showing The Olympics on many of the NBC Stations - NBC, USA, Bravo and MSNBC and probably UniHD

 

[Louise-Montreal]

I'm with you, honey!!!!

 

[SeeDisney]

Yes, I love watching the Olympics 2 years after 2 years. Looking forward to the sports.

 

[WDWLVR]

Yes I love watching the Olympics, but I agree the coverage has gotten worse over the years. Give me the good old days of ABC and Jim McKay!

 

[puffkin]

NBC primetime usually has the slanted, glamour sports, highlights and human interest stories. But their family of cable networks usually shows a lot more of the competitions. Check the schedules and you may be surprised. During the last Olympics (I was in college then) I watched almost 3 hours of curling the one afternoon on one of the cable channels. They only showed the highlight on the Primetime, but I got to see pretty much the whole competition.