Posted on 07/24/2024 12:08:52 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
For parts of three decades, Bob Costas was the television face of the Olympics in the United States, leading NBC’s coverage of 11 Games and talking Americans through celebration, scandal and even a bomb in Atlanta. Eight years after his last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Costas believes the Games have lost some of the magic that once made them mandatory viewing.
Maybe it’s because the past three Olympics were held in distant Asian time zones while America slept. Or perhaps it’s the sense that the two most recent Games, held in pandemic Tokyo and Beijing, seemed to happen less because of sport and more to meet the contractual obligations of sponsors and television networks. Or it might be the uncomfortable stench of human rights abuse swirling about the Beijing Games in 2022, followed four days later by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Olympics, he said, need “to get their groove back.”
In 1984, the Los Angeles Games saved a bankrupt and demoralized Olympic movement with an innovative self-funded approach that launched a golden era of booming broadcast rights and sponsorships that led to financial successes in cities such as Barcelona, Atlanta and London.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Are the Olympics woke?
Gay?
If so, they are toast.
Isn’t it ‘cultural appropriation’ to hold them any where other than Greece?
Isn’t this the feces Olympics with anti-sex beds and no air conditioning?
Yeah. Weird. It feels dystopian.
The Olympics? Do they still go on? The Olympics just became another pro sports event. And as the saying goes, the only thing more boring than track is field.
there’s a lot of inertia about the Olympics and about France but
I think holding the Olympics in today’s Frankenstan is a terrible idea. Far too dangerous...
Paywall.
Olympics have been a snooze for decades now.
I lost all interest back in the 80’s.
Nothing is bringing them back and cities are going to wake up to the expenses.
Take a look and see how many former venues are still intact and functioning!
They are just another payola scheme, maybe even worse than sports stadiums.
The last time I watched the Olympics was the hockey game between Russia and America.
They lost their luster years ago for me. I won’t watch one event. These very well might be the last.
The only thing I tend to pay attention to is if any records were set. Otherwise, it’s pretty non-eventful for me.
When I was a youngster the Olympics WERE HUGE!! Now who cares professional athletes are involved ect. Back in the day it was always a contest between America and Russian athletes we were glued to the TV I don’t think ANYONE gives a crap anymore!!
Yes back in the day The Olympics were a Cold War contest. But those days are gone.
The Olympics are already teetering on the brink because more and more cities are withdrawing their bids to host them. The death knell will come when TV networks stop offering big money to broadcast the events.
My interest went from minimal to zero when the Athletes voted racist, Nike/China stooge LeBron James to carry the flag during the Opening Ceremony.
I thought he died of AIDS.
Bob Costas is one reason I don’t watch.
After the “Miracle on Ice”, lost interest in the Olympics mostly because the lugubrious network “magazine pieces” on athletes.
The press was so impressed with themselves they lost sight of what made the thing interesting - the actual competition, not their reportage.
The only thing that revived it for me was when they had the multiple channels just basically streamcasting from the various arenas - that was what made curling a standout sport that year.
Yes, they have been losing luster over a long period for many reasons. Now though, it is because viewers don’t want to see girls with penises and guys with vaginas.
I stopped watching the Olympics when instead of showing the events, they gave the biography of some of the participants. I just wanted to watch the sport.
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