Do you care if your country wins any Olympic medals?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

I truly don't care. I enjoy watching the athletes perform; and I wish the commentators would just shut up for the most part.

[AllegroRondo]

1. I just like watching the competition

I like some of the commentators, if they have real information about the sport and not just weird opinions like Dick Button. They guy they have commenting on curling is great - he really tries to let people understand the sport.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. The women's figure skating is beautiful to watch; but

the attitudes are annoying.
It's like watching vipers on ice.

[Lavender Brown]

2. I really hate the attention paid to the "medal count"... it's lame

I like the individual performances, not the whole "our country is better than yours" thing. I cheer for Americans to win, but the sportcasters wondering if we'll overtake Germany or Russia in overall medals won... who cares? :shrug:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. It seems like the athletes are quite an international crowd anyway

Several of them could represent more than one country.

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Spot on, LB

:thumbsup:

I despise the jingoism, and NBC and its commentators for fostering it, to the point that I hope the U.S. does not do well in the medal count, because we as a nation need less reason to feel superior, not more.

I long for the day America considers itself a cooperative state of the planet rather than its ordained ruler. But I'm not holding my breath.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. "we as a nation need less reason to feel superior"

Good point. :thumbsup:

[lakemonster11]

5. I like rooting for my country, but I don't care how many medals we win.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. I always feel like I'm rooting more for the athlete than the country...

Except for groups like the Jamaican Bobsled team... :D

[jakefrep]

7. I like watching pretty much everything...

...figure skating I could do without.

But it seems contrary to the "Olympic Spirit" (TM) to obsess over the medal counts.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. I agree

And somehow it always bothers me when I hear an athlete talk about "going for the gold" as opposed to simply going for the best performance they can give.

[Ravenseye]

8. I used to back in the cold war

To say that I didn't care how the U.S. stacked up against the Soviets would be lying. I LOVED when we beat them in 1980 in hockey. I hated the 84 olympics because the Russians weren't there and it was sort of pointless...

Now it's probably become something akin to what it was intended as. Not so much a competing against each other but coming together and playing games together. Therefore now I don't really care where the U.S. is in the medal count. Individual efforts. Team efforts. Just watching enjoyable sporting events.

To get all Rah Rah jingoistic national patriotism about the olympics these days seems sort of insane. We should be coming together as a planet not tearing each other apart. Unless the sport calls for that to happen. ;)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Interesting...

I can't recall whether I felt differently then. I tend to root for the underdog, whoever it might be.

[Crazy Dave]

9. Yeah, I wish you could watch the games like CSPAN

No comments, no human interest stories, no commercials, just the events and the scores. The highlight for me and my wife though was when the little 16 year old did good (we don't really care for the figure skating much) and she was all happy and enthusiastic just to be there and hearing people clap for her. No ego yet, just a happy kid who did good and competed evenly and equally with the big kids.

I've heard, though I can't confirm that a lot of American athletes that don't have a hard life story, like being in a gang or a family member with an illness get passed by as they can't have a twenty minute drama story before a two minute event.

[jakefrep]

10. I had the Olympic Triplecast in 1992

My parents got it for me for my birthday that year. It was about as close as one could get to watching the Olympics on C-Span. I especially enjoyed the basketball and track coverage - you saw ALL of the games and competitors, not just the US of A.

[Crazy Dave]

15. Something like that would be great

I'd also love to watch another country's broadcasts of the events too. Canada, Australia & Britain (they can keep their commercials in) and I do speak German.

[jakefrep]

16. CBC is part of my local cable package

As far as the Olympics are concerned, CBC kicks NBC's ass.

[Crazy Dave]

18. Hmmm! I'm going to investigate my channel line up

Once it's setup (my favorites) I leave it alone. We have a pretty good package with "Dish" and they may have added programing. I know my Sirius account does and I've got CBC on it.

[u4ic]

21. I also like the rare racing coverage they have

they go through EVERY horse in the field, not just who Bob Baffert has running. :eyes:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Every time I hear a hard luck story

I think about all the hard luck stories out there that are dismissed because the victim isn't an Olympic athlete.

It also bugs the hell out of me when someone skates their heart out and the commentators tell us the athlete is disappointed in their performance. How the hell would they know?

[Crazy Dave]

19. Those are very good points

:thumbsup:

[KamaAina]

20. Obviously not. I'm American.

:grr: