Watching the olympics?

[Rick Moyer]

You're right with me. I maintain that there is a difference between sport and game. No event where the costume's aesthetics matter can be classified as a sport. Subjective judging is irrelevant in true sports IMO. Additionally, many things shown on "Sports Channels" are games. Poker is not a sport. Darts, billiards, and golf are not sports. They are Games. With those, can a person who is athletic have an edge? Absolutely! But there is no real athletic training required to be a participant. I have nothing against games. I play pool (9-ball and straight pool) and used to be on the state champion dart team. But I can't maintain that they are sports when I could be drinking a Guiness while participating. You can witness people who are not athletes participate in these games on a given day.


Rant off

But Shawn, they're called The Olympic "Games"!

I know what you mean though. They're supposed to be the best athletes, and as such should require the best conditioning, not just a particular skill. However, if the Olympics was just the decathalon there wouldn't be very much to tune into. Money drives the bus, unfortunately.

[Prashun Patel]

Sport or game, I love that there are people who dedicate their life to something that gets almost no glory or money, and once every couple years they get a moment in the sun. Will they prevail, be bested, or choke? That tension is thrilling - whether it's bobsled, ice dancing, or the biathalon. I could watch any of it.

But as a parent, I do agree that it's scary that the Winter games are quickly becoming the X Games.

[Steve Wurster]

Regarding judging-based events: Figure Skating has been an official Olympic event since 1924.

[Bill Bukovec]

I tuned in one night. My first reaction was "When did the female figure skaters start wearing pants?" Oops. These are the men, never mind.

Then every one fell down during the routine and haven't watched since.

There are too many "made up " events just to fill 2 weeks of TV coverage.

I can look out my window and see winter events.

There is the giant slalom. (people driving to work), Luge (my 80 pound neighbor walking the 100 pound dog) and the snow plow ridge jump ( the hump of snow the snow plow leaves at the end of the driveway) and my favorite, the snow clump squirt. (It's an event for dogs) Precision, accuaray and color are all part of the judging.

[Jim Rimmer]

Start rant...I think a fair bit of this controversy is built be the NBC coverage. I really dislike the bias of the coverage. I really want to see the best atheletes regardless of their country. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoy it when an American wins.

It always seems like the USA athlete is SUPPOSED to win and if they don't then there has to be a good explanation as to why.

[Wes Mitchell]

I don't even waste my time on the "Primetime." Even watching on NBCSN and the other one is spotty with Comcast's description issues. I missed the end of the Russia/USA hockey game because I couldn't even find it. The best way to watch is On-Demand, at least on Comcast. Pick your sport and watch all you want.

[Lee Reep]

I missed a lot early. Unknowingly, I saw Bob Costas and thought I was watching "Night of the Living Dead". I immediately changed channels. Later, while watching coverage with my wife, I asked her who the guy was without the headress that looked like Yassar Arafat. It was Matt Lauer! Interesting games for sure...

[Roger Feeley]

My dvr is provided by my cable company. Are you saying that if 'The Good Wife' is delayed 30 minutes due to football, your Tivo still picks it up?

My cable company started out as Everest (local), got bought by SureWest which has been bought by someone else. There is still a very local vibe so I'm sticking with it. When I call support, I get someone right here in Kansas City. That's worth something.

[Gordon Eyre]

Just watched the gold medal round of curling between Great Britain and Sweden. The skill of the Brits was amazing. This was the only curling event that I watched but must say that it was pretty fun. The Winter Olympics are not my favorite.

[Steve Wurster]

Canada won gold in both the Men's and Women's curling matches.

[Steve Wurster]

No, a TiVo will not pick up a program that gets delayed due to a preceding program running long. A DVR that can detect the true start and end times of a program could do that, but that particular metadata is not part of any guide and might not even go beyond the main part of the cable plant. At a company I used to work for we were working on a network-based DVR that in theory could do that, because it was hooked into the systems at the cable plant that received the live program. But I don't know if our solution was looking at the metadata associated with the live program in that manner. I worked more on the scheduling side and not the actual recording side.

[Doug Garson]

Just watched the gold medal round of curling between Great Britain and Sweden. The skill of the Brits was amazing. This was the only curling event that I watched but must say that it was pretty fun. The Winter Olympics are not my favorite.

I think you are mistaken, Canada won the gold medal in both men's and women's curling. But yes the skill at that level is incredible.

[Don Morris]

I have been really ill with an ugly upper respiratory virus requiring multiple ER visits. So I've had the time to watch a lot of Olympics and was even too sick to watch some of the time. The worst thing that just didn't appeal to me was the re-hash of the Kerrigan/Harding incident of 20 years ago. They spent a lot of time on something that was/should have been long ago, last discussed at any length. We won some, we lost some...that's why we play the game. The women's hockey final was amazing. Felt soooo bad for our girls. Next time... However, it looks like we found a replacement for Lindsey Vonn. That'll keep Tiger busy.