Magnificent Two Weeks Over

It’s over. After seventeen days we have seen the completion of the 29^th Olympiad in Beijing, China.

Many people asked me why I didn’t post to my blog during that time. Everyone that reads here knows how much I enjoy the Olympics and know that it’s a big part of my research. And I have a very good reason why I did not post to my blog during that time.

I was actually watching the Olympics.

I had my TiVo working overtime. In addition to the content analyses that I’m working on based on NBC’s prime time coverage I was working toward updating my library of sports clips for future experiments. My goal was to get a little bit of every sport, and if possible getting clips of both male and female athletes competing in each. Some days I had my TiVo recording as much as 31 hours of coverage from the NBC family of networks: MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Oxygen.

I figure that my TiVo over those 17 days recorded nearly 400 hours of Olympics. And while I watched a good chunk, I also fast forwarded through a lot of it. My goal in finding the sports for my collection were to have competitions that did not feature American athletes. If used in an experiment I wanted participants to feel as neutral as possible about the participants – I don’t want a feeling of patriotism and national pride to overtake any possible effects I would be researching.

Overall, I think I was relatively successful in my task. There were three sports that were not broadcast at all on any of the networks carrying the Olympics: judo, sailing, and taekwondo. Also, the networks did not broadcast men participating in the modern pentathlon – though they did broadcast the women’s competition. And then of what was supposed to be broadcast I did not get footage of women’s archery, women’s pairs in whitewater canoeing/kayaking, and men’s triathlon. I do not believe that, even though they were in the broadcast schedule, that the first two actually made it to air. And when it comes to the triathlon it was a victim of a choice I made – I chose to record the network that was airing men’s trampoline instead.

It was a great Games with many memorable moments. I can’t wait for February 12, 2010 for the upcoming Winter Games in Vancouver and for July 27, 2012 when the Summer Olympics will return in London.

7 Days Until the Opening Ceremony - Let the Coding Begin

Seven days from today marks the Opening Ceremonies of the 29th Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

It also marks the start of my biennial Olympic content analysis.

I am actually looking forward to both. I love the grandeur of the Games, and the content analysis forces me to watch every second of the prime time coverage. I can't wait.

New Hosts but Old Prejudices

We are currently 65 days from the Opening Ceremonies of the 29^th Summer Games emanating from Beijing, China. I for one am excited and can’t wait to see these ceremonies as they are broadcast on NBC on August 8, 2008.

I love when a nation that has never been allowed to hold an Olympic Games before gets the opportunity. I’m curious to see what kind of a spin they put on it, including what they do with the pomp and circumstance of the opening and closing ceremonies. While this hasn’t happened very often in my lifetime, I do remember the games held in Seoul and Barcelona thinking how wonderful it was that these countries and its citizens finally had the opportunity to host the biggest sporting event on the calendar. While I get the similar feelings when a city gets to host that hasn’t hosted before, when a country hosts that has never had the opportunity before it truly seems almost magical.

And when following the bidding process I’m always rooting for that underdog country to break through so that they can host their first Games. While they don’t always have the most feasible bid, I still think that given the opportunity most of these countries could step up to the plate and make a wonderful spectacle of their hosting. In looking at the bids for the 2016 Summer Games, which will be decided on October 2, 2009, While as an American I can’t wait for another Games to occur on U.S. soil so that I may have the opportunity to attend, I can’t help but hope that the Games goes to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil or to Doha, Qatar. Not only would this be the first opportunity for the Games to be held in their country but it would be the first time that any Olympic Games were held in South America or Africa.

With that being said, and acknowledging the excitement that I have for the upcoming Games in Beijing, the first ever in China, I am disheartened by some of the materials that have been put forth for the volunteers that will be working at the Games. More specifically, the language that they use to instruct their volunteers about how to handle encounters with athletes during the Paralympic Games which immediately following the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Here are some translated excerpts from these manuals, as taken from an article on ESPN.com.

First they label the paralympic athletes and disabled fans as a “special group” The manual states that they have “unique personalities and ways of thinking.” This statement alone is enough to make someone realize that their descriptions of these athletes will not be positive.

The manual suggests that though athletes who are blind are “introverted. They have deep and implicit feelings and seldom show strong emotions.”

In discussing physically disabled individuals, the manual states that these individuals “are often mentally healthy. They show no differences in sensation, reaction, memorization, and thinking mechanisms from other people, but they might have unusual personalities because of disfigurement and disability.” These individuals are labeled as being “isolated, unsocial, and introspective. They usually do not volunteer to contact people. They can be stubborn and controlling. They may be sensitive and struggle with trust issues.”

Volunteers are also instructed to not “stare at their disfigurement.”

Then, apart of this manual, the Beijing Organizing Committee set forth some rules of conduct and policies about who will be allowed to attend the Games. Barred are individuals who have contagious diseases and those who have “mental diseases.” The problem with this is that they do not specify what kinds of diseases to which they are referring.

While I am excited about having the Games in China, I only wish that they showed more tolerance and understanding. While I would hope that having such a rich international presence in their country might cause some change to occur, I unfortunately do not believe that it will have any long lasting effects.

72 More Days of Waiting

We only have 72 more days until the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Games of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing. I for one simply can not wait.

Boycotting Beijing

This summer the Olympics come to Beijing. And recently the news has picked up on stories about various organizations pushing athletes and nations toward boycotting the games due to China’s policies about Tibet, Darfur, and a variety of other important topics.

My question is, how effective would such a boycott really be?

If a nation were to boycott the Games, who would it really hurt? Or we could ask who would it hurt more, the host nation or the athletes who are deprived the opportunity to show their athletic abilities on a national stage?

Now I do wholeheartedly agree that China should be pressured to change their policies about Tibet and Darfur. These are issues that should be of interest and concern to many nations in the world, but is boycotting the Olympics really the answer?

I keep thinking back to the boycotts of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. While I’m sure the host cities took a bit of an economic hit due to these boycotts, did it really have an impact? Did the host nations truly change their governmental policies due to such moves?

And it has to be remembered that by boycotting the games athletes truly are the forgotten casualties. For some the have a very small window in which they are at the top of their sport. If these athletes lose the opportunity to test their mettle against the best athletes in the world then that truly is a shame. Hundreds of athletes in 1980 and 1984 had this happen to them, and I’m sure many of them while they understand why the boycotts occurred are truly sorry that they never were seen on such an international stage.

Right now the countries of the world are saying that they will not be boycotting Beijing, but are leaving the door open if any individual athletes want to back down from competing in Beijing. And I hope that these countries maintain this policy through the summer months.

2014 News

Did you know that the host cities for the Olympic Games are named seven years in advance?

That’s right. The upcoming 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China was announced back in 2001.

Why bring this up? Because today the International Olympic Committee announced the host city for the 2014 Winter Games.

The three finalists were PyeongChang, Korea, Salzburg, Austria, and Sochi, Russia. Voting took place today at the IOC’s annual meeting, this year held in Guatemala City.

After the first round of voting no one city had the necessary number of votes, which in this case would be 51. However, PyeongChang received 36 votes, Sochi received 34, and Salzburg received 25. Salzburg was eliminated.

In the second and last round of voting a winning city was crowned. Sochi earned 51 votes while PyeongChang received 47.

With today’s win, here is the schedule for the upcoming Olympic Games:

Summer Olympics, August 8-24, 2008 in Beijing, China
Winter Olympics, February 12-28, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada
Summer Olympics, July 27-August 12, 2012 in London, England
Winter Olympics, 2014 in Sochi, Russia

See you in Beijing in 400 days.