The Perfect Use for Telestration

First congratulations to John Shuster, Tyler George, Matt Hamilton, and John Landsteiner on winning men's curling gold in PyeongChang. They went on an epic and unlikely five game win streak to bring home the Olympic Championship. Second shame on NBC for missing a golden opportunity to use telestration.

Curling is a sport all about angles and ricochets. Players setup guards and leave stones placed so that they can block later shots during an end. To remove these stones the players try for doubles, where they use a single throw to bounce one stone off two of the opponents.

During the gold medal game broadcast the NBC announcers frequently used words to describe what the players on the ice were thinking about attempting. They described the hits and resulting movement of the stones that teams were planning to attempt. Never once during the broadcast did they use telestration to illustrate the concepts. This circumstance screamed for pictures to describe what those of us not intimately involved with the game of curling had trouble understanding or visualizing.

The cheesiness of telestration's use during Monday Night Football would not have been duplicated here. Instead a clear picture of what players were attempting to achieve could have been drawn right in front of us. They could have easily used arrows to show where the stones should hit and the intended result. The failure to do this was a big mis by the NBC production and broadcast team.

Adam Rippon Got Robbed!

I don't care what the rules say. I don't care what the experts and judges say. Adam Rippon was robbed during the Men's Free Skate Team Competition. He should have won that event. The USA should have gotten first place and ten points. There is no way that some stoic Russian 12 year old that falls on his ass twice deserves a higher score than Rippon. There is no way that some ancient Canadian who under rotated on one jump and fell on another deserved a higher score than Rippon. All you had to do was watch the event to know that Rippon was the best. If the rules say that those other guys did better than Rippon than the rules are wrong and need to be changed. Adam Rippon was the best man on the ice during the Team Men's Free skate.

Men's Gymnastics has Gotten a Tough Shake

One of the showcase Olympic sports is gymnastics. Both the men and the women draw in viewers with a combination of athletic prowess, artistic beauty, and dramatic twists. You never want to look away during a routine of a contender because any single trick can wow and a single slip or fall can sink a competitors shot at a medal. The women's side of the sport is the pinnacle of a large and widely participated in amateur world. Girls start participating in gymnastics at a young age and the sport stays popular through high school. Yet for some reason on the men's side gymnastics can't match this. It doesn't managed to hold a place in American culture outside Olympic years. There isn't a large pool of participants practicing the sport. The male athletes aren't celebrated. This is a shame.

In Washington, my home state, there are few, if any, high school men's gymnastics teams. For a young man to compete in the sport he would have to seek out a club team, private coaching, or something similar. Most school based coaching drops off after elementary school and young boys are channeled into team sports, wrestling, or track and field. This makes it hard for young athletes to participate in the sport. It also prevents young men from becoming fans of the sport. None of their friends or brothers are gymnasts and probably their only exposure is a sisters practice. The lack of school sponsored men's teams and the prominence of the girls gymnastics teams, has led to a common belief that gymnastics is a girls sport and feminine. Male gymnasts get grouped with male cheerleaders as wimpy or soft. That is a wrong belief.

Male gymnasts should be sports heroes. The men have some of the most chiseled physiques in the sports world. The guys are ripped from head to toe. They perform athletic feats that very few of us could even dream of doing. The best of them should be plastered over Sports Center, SI, and anywhere fans watch or read about sports. Even if you don’t like gymnastics or understand it you should recognize the top competitors as some of the best athletes in the world like you would a tennis champion or great golfer. Male gymnastics has gotten a tough shake.

The Summer Olympics are Almost Here

The Summer Olympics are almost here. This year they are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I am super excited for them.From the opening ceremony, with all its ridiculous pageantry, to the final medal count and everything in between I love the Olympics. A lot of people don't understand the appeal. So, let me try to explain some of the reasons I love this sporting spectacular.

I love getting caught up in the patriotism of the medal counts and rooting for the USA to beat Russia and China. Even with my 21st century progressive multicultural world view there is just something intoxicating about watching my countrymen try to take down athletes from countries with conflicting world views. Using sports to justify the superiority of a political and economic system is silly,  but it is oh so fun. Ashton Eaton's prowess at track and field is even more fun to watch because it fills me with national pride. Somehow knowing Vladimir Putin is suffering even just a little pain watching his athletes lose makes it even more fun.

I love rooting for athletes I have never heard of in sports I barely understand. Seeing a Uzbek beat an Iranian at Judo can capture my attention just as much as a Mariners game or a random non-Seahawks football game. Watching events for non mainstream sports is like getting a glimpse into a whole other world, a world where synchronized men's springboard diving is the biggest and most important sport. The competitors, coaches, and announcers have invested so much of their lives into these sports it is amazing. Their worlds and life experiences are so different than mine. Getting to experience just a little bit of that difference through watching them compete is great.

I love watching the speed and power on display at the track and in the pool. Running and swimming are sports in their most raw and basic form.These are the same events that the ancient civilizations competed in thousands of years ago. The rules and equipment are at a minimum. The key to victory is a mix of training, genetics, and luck. These people push the human body to the limit. The excitement is enthralling.

If you are someone that doesn't usually like the Olympics I urge you to give this year a try. Comcast offers an extensive On Demand catalog. You can pick and chose almost any event you want to see. NBC's nightly broadcasts have improved over the years. They are still heavily focused on Americans and they do bounce from event to event frequently. However they do a great job of telling interesting stories about the teams and athletes. They never let you miss an important moment. Plus Bob Costas is awesome.

The Olympics only happen every four years so when they do roll around I have to rearrange my schedule to make time. I don't want to miss a minute of it. The drama, novelty and excitement are worth every second I commit to them. I love the Olympics.

My Dislike of Bode Miller

The Sochi Winter Olympics have come and gone (unless you are like me and have them recorded on your DVR). They will be the last for American alpine skier Bode Miller, who ends his career as the most decorated American skier of all time. Overall he grabbed six medals in four Olympic Games.  

Miller's career will be remembered for his trademark style of skiing, where he constantly pushed the border of being in control, often with violent and catastrophic conclusions. It might be going too far to call him the Ricky Bobby of alpine skiing, but not by much, it was often first or last for Miller.

He will also be remembered, by many, for being an underachiever. He is widely considered one of the most naturally gifted skiers ever. However, he lacked commitment and concentration. Many think he didn't win as often as he should have, including his own coach. However, to me Miller is neither the champion or the underachiever. To me, Miller will be remembered as one of the only American Olympic athletes I rooted against.

I Miss Summer Olympics Sports

For years I was a baseball fanatic. The Seattle Mariners were my favorite team bar none. I looked forward to opening day and the beginning of another season. Usually, I could count on the M's keeping my interest through at least the end of June. However, after ten plus seasons without playoff baseball and a 10-3 loss to the Astros, I lost interest a lot early this year. In fact, thanks to Facebook, we can see it was on April 24th.

So, to scratch my sports fan itch, I have had to turn to other sources. For one, I have gotten much more into the Sounders this season (and was repaid with a Clint Dempsey signing and a rapid rise the first place in the Western Conference). I joined a rec softball league. I ignored sports all together and played video games (Bioshock Infinite is a short but awesome game). I also started thinking about the Summer Olympics.

Specifically, I thought about all the sports that I don't get to watch, except during the games. So, I made a list of my three favorite Summer Olympic sports. Now the last Summer Olympics took place in London in 2012. This means the next ones aren't until Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2016. So, I wont get to readily get to see any of these sports for the next three years, But I can type up a little about why I liked them. Maybe that will scratch my itch.

1. Olympic Style Boxing
I know, I know, boxing happens all over the place year round. Heck, I could even go down to the Emerald Queen Casino and watch a live match. The thing is, Olympic Boxing is different than all that. The matches take less time. Only three, five minute rounds.  The matches almost never have a knockout, but instead are settled by points. Mostly this is because the fighters wear headgear. The points make it a much more technical  fighting and I think interesting.

2. Volleyball
Most people like the beach volleyball in the Olympics, but personally I like the traditional indoor type. The court full of players and jumping in unison to block a smash or disguise the hitter never gets old. Plus there is constant action with players diving, digging and jumping all over the place. The only negative I see here is the length of the matches.

3. Field
I enjoy the sprints and hurdles as much as the next guy, but you can see people running all the time. The NCAA championships are usually broadcast on tv and often the world championships as well. However, what I find really interesting are all the field events. High jump and pole vault especially catch my interest. Something about people running really fast and then throwing themselves at a bar is captivating.

A Few Tidbits from Around the Web: Olympics!

The summer Olympics are officially under way in London. As such this last week has been an awesome one in the world of sports. With all the events going on there has certainly been no shortage of compelling story lines. In Gymnastics we saw the American women win the team all-around in impressive fashion and the men fall flat. In the pool we saw Michael Phelps prove he could lose to only then remind us that he is the greatest Olympic champion of all time. So, to highlight this first week here are links to some of my favorite story lines.

• In gymnastics, the UK team won a medal in the Men's Team All-Around for the first time in 100 years. However, this win wasnt without controversy as Japan appealed a score to the judges which changed the final standings.
• Also in gymnastics Aly Raisman on the United States missed out on a bronze medal because of a stupid tie breaker rule.
• One of the strangest things at the Olympics was 8 female badminton players being expelled from the tournament and sent home. Watching these guys made me think I could win a medal, then I found out they were losing on purpose.
• If you are like me losing on purpose doesnt make a lot of sense, but Slate's explaination really helps clear it all up.
• In women's basketball Australia and France played a game that will always be remember for just one shot, this one.

The Olympics are Almost Here

They're almost here and I am so excited! In just 20 some odd days the 2012 Summer Olympic Games are going to start in London. As we inch closer to the opening ceremonies every passing day causes my excitement to grow. There are so many great things about the Olympics so I am going to try to list just a few of my favorite here. Feel free to comment about why you think the Olympics are awesome or if you are one of those weird and depressing people that doesnt like the Games feel free to complain about how you summer is going to be ruined.


I am about to start caring about all kinds of sports that are no where near my radar during non Olympic year. Sports, like badminton and beach volleyball are about to become very important to me. One of my favorites to watch is platform diving. The twirling, flipping and spinning athletes provide a lot of entertainment and we only get to see them every four years during the summer Olympics. It is fun to break away from the football, baseball and basketball dominated world and see great competition in other sports.

I am going to learn about the greatest athletes from all over the world that I have never seen or heard of. How many of you knew who Ian Thorpe was prior to 2000 when he won five metals swimming for his home country of Australia? My guess is not many, but because of the Olympics we now know the greatness of the Thorpedo. How about Brian Clay, ever heard of him? He is probably the greatest American athlete that to play in one of the big four sports leagues. His claim to fame is the Decathalon, which he won silver in 2004 and gold in 2008. The guy is an all around athlete. He can run fast, run far, jump high and throw stuff. Finally how about Elena Isinbaeva, the Russian pole vaulter who has broken the world record 24 times (most of them her own). Yeah, she is an amazing athlete. Without the Olympics we wouldnt get to know any of these people.

I will be reminded about the existance of lots of countries that would otherwise never having a face or meaning in my mental data banks. As a child I remember watching an Olympic games (I think it was Atlanta but it could have been somewhere else) and wondering why the State of Georgia got to field their own athletes while Washington was stuck competing with the US national team. It didnt seem fair to me but it seemed obvious that it was the State. At some point my erronous way of thinking was corrected by my parents who explained to me that Georgia was also a country. As you can imagine my mind was blown. If it weren't for the Olympics, when else would I hear about this otherwise unremarkable republic? Maybe in 2008 when Russia decided to invade Georgia, but I was 22 years old in 2008 and who wants to wait till they are 22 to hear about a country called Georgia? In case you missed it, my point is the Olympics allow you to expand your culture and international knowledge base like very few other event all while watching sports. It is educational and entertaining.