Tokyo Olympics

crunchman

fob said:

The trouble I'm  having with these Olympics is actually watching them. Trying to watch the 200m and 4x200m Freestyle races proved to be almost impossible. There were highlights where the BBC had cut out parts of the race - so you'd see the start, cut to the turn, then cut to the finish with little animations (lightning strikes) put over it because they presumably think everyone has the attention span of a goldfish.

I thought I was just getting old but then saw an interview with one of the competitors who said he'd not been able to watch his own race as he couldn't find it.

I don't remember this with any previous Games. Beijing for example, with a similar time difference, was just a matter of looking up the event and watching it - even the entire session. The only chance you get now is to watch one of the summary shows and hope you pick the one that shows the whole thing.

Discovery have the main rights to show the Olympics.  The BBC have a package where they are only allowed to show 2 streams at a time.

Eurosport are showing some of it as well.

EricTheWeary

fob said:

The trouble I'm  having with these Olympics is actually watching them. Trying to watch the 200m and 4x200m Freestyle races proved to be almost impossible. There were highlights where the BBC had cut out parts of the race - so you'd see the start, cut to the turn, then cut to the finish with little animations (lightning strikes) put over it because they presumably think everyone has the attention span of a goldfish.

I thought I was just getting old but then saw an interview with one of the competitors who said he'd not been able to watch his own race as he couldn't find it.

I don't remember this with any previous Games. Beijing for example, with a similar time difference, was just a matter of looking up the event and watching it - even the entire session. The only chance you get now is to watch one of the summary shows and hope you pick the one that shows the whole thing.

The summary shows are a bit annoying as well. Clare Balding and Alex Scott seem to think they're presenting to a pre-school play group. I caught one with Jason Mohammed and instantly remembered that there are presenters who assume they're talking to adults.

UnclePsychosis said:

tony99 said:

This horse trot dance thing is fuckin rubbish

I try hard not to be disparaging of minority sports - because ultimately they're all just varying shades of nonsense - but I can't even pretend when it comes to Dressage. I really don't get it, at all. Shouldn't be anywhere near the Olympics. 

It's not really for me either but I guess it goes back to a time when horses, and their expert control, were very much a part of everyday life. I quite like that it's there.

I do try dipping into the hilights but there seems to be incredibly little sport - all talking heads and chatting to the folk back home. 

The modern olympics originate from  a bunch of military skills so dressage is control of your cavalry horse so makes sense within the competition. I did find the hilights of it but didn't really know what was going on. Also found hilights of the surfing and didn't really understand the difference between the performances in that either. Probably fair enough that sports I watch for ten minutes once every four years I don't understand.    

Simonh

I have found the BBC coverage to be appalling, Clare Balding and Alex Scott simply cringe worthy. Last night they spent longer talking about a swimmers family dog than they spent showing the actual gold medal race. 

fob

crunchman said:

Discovery have the main rights to show the Olympics.  The BBC have a package where they are only allowed to show 2 streams at a time.

Eurosport are showing some of it as well.

I did assume it was something like this.

Has anyone plumped for the Discovery package (I think you get a month for £7 so not too bad). Can you pick out individual events whole sessions etc? Who are the commentators so far?

There's also a Eurosport package for £7 on Amazon Prime but, again, I'm not sure how user friendly it is - it looks like you can just pick out sessions in the same way. Is there a difference between what Discovery shows and what Eurosport shows?

crunchman

Simonh said:

I have found the BBC coverage to be appalling, Clare Balding and Alex Scott simply cringe worthy. Last night they spent longer talking about a swimmers family dog than they spent showing the actual gold medal race. 

Was the same the other day.  They stayed on Tom Daley for several minutes waffling about nothing, and then showed very little of Tom Pidcock's race.

guitars4you

Agree with above comments from various members ref poor hi-light packages - To much raffle and not enough actual sport content - The Rugby 7's hi-light on BBC1 last night was over in about 1 min with arty flashy angles of the tries only - No substance at all , but we got nearly 1 minute of  a tribal village celebrating 

I don't have time to watch all the options, inc red button, during the early hours of the morning and our day time, sow as looking forward to a good hi-lights show - But seriously poor and disappointing 

To be fair it does look as though the BBC2 version at 9pm has more actual footage 

munckee

Due to Discovery/Euro sport bbc are very limited in what they are allowed to show this time. 

axisus

WezV said:

mudslide73 said:

Somehow I'd missed that he's a Brewer @WezV - hopefully there will be many more fireworks.

I'm not so sure.   They started about 10pm last night, the fight wasn't till 4am this morning.   His next fight is 5:30am on Sunday morning   



I've know him since he was a kid as I worked at his school long before I moved to this house.  He's always claimed he's a future world champ contender   

  I'd love him to win Gold.  Steve Bunce was talking about him on the radio today, how in the last two olympics he was overlooked and the places went to Anthony Joshua then Joe Joyce. Both time he went to the event as a sparring partner to those two, and watched from the ringside with a Union Jack draped over his shoulders. Let's hope it's his time!

axisus

I agree with other comments here, it's more than annoying that you can't watch a whole swimming race afterwards. 

axisus

Gotta say, presenter Sam Quek is absolutely lovely! More than just a pretty face, I think she's very natural in front of camera and also intelligent with her comments. I thought that she put in a good defence of Simone Biles the other day.

hollywoodrox

thumpingrug said:

hollywoodrox said:

Has sky brown won anything ? I’ve not seen anything on YouTube  

Today was mens street style, which seemed to involve them jumping up to rails and falling off a lot.  From what I gather she's in the "park" event on 6th August.  Looking forward to it.

Thank you , 

guitars4you

Just watched some of the BMX via the iplayer - exciting 

silly thought - maybe they could combine BMX with skateboard on the same course - in a mixed relay - skakeboard 1 lap, BMX 2 laps, skateboard 1 lap, then BMX 2 laps 

Rocker

Ireland is buzzing right now.  Two Olympic medals in two days!  The Women's Four won Bronze and the Lightweight Double Sculls pair won Gold.  And there is always the possibility of further successes.

Before last night, Katie Taylor won Gold in London Olympics so those wins are rare and precious.  And everyone enjoys the success of the athlete.

exocet

munckee said:

Due to Discovery/Euro sport bbc are very limited in what they are allowed to show this time. 

Due to Discovery (owners of Eurosport) wining the primary rights for entire European Region, the BBC are severely restricted as to both what they can show and how much they can show. I read somewhere that their broadcast hours entitlement is 1/10th of what it would have been had the EBU secured the rights as had been the case for previous events. 

rogd

There's going to be one hell of a hoolie in Skibbereen tonight!! 

Rocker

rogd said:

There's going to be one hell of a hoolie in Skibbereen tonight!! 

You bet!  An amazing rowing club in a small village in Cork. Members have won European and World championships and the club now boasts of members winning Gold, Silver and Bronze Olympic medals.

littlegreenman

Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte both through to the BMX semifinals. Going to be tough tomorrow, but medals not out of the question.

EricTheWeary

littlegreenman said:

Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte both through to the BMX semifinals. Going to be tough tomorrow, but medals not out of the question.

I watched the BMX hilights last night. Never watched it before but its racing so you get what’s going on pretty quickly. 

I think by now the semis and final have actually taken place but the hilights will be on this evening? I got a bit confused trying to work out the time differences. But exciting to watch. 

thumpingrug

I also watched it because its racing and fast and furious.  Good sport but...I couldn't help think that a) the bikes are a bit small and b) they need a better gearing on the bike.  Peddling is far too fast.  I get that they are fixed wheel but a change to the gearing would get them higher speeds, no? 

Teetonetal

thumpingrug said:

I also watched it because its racing and fast and furious.  Good sport but...I couldn't help think that a) the bikes are a bit small and b) they need a better gearing on the bike.  Peddling is far too fast.  I get that they are fixed wheel but a change to the gearing would get them higher speeds, no? 

I would think the gearing is probably higher than it looks - a huge amount of the technique is ensuring that you pump the bike correctly when going over the rollers - I would think at that level that it's the technique and line that makes the biggest difference.

Great performances by the team.