Have the Olympics lost their luster? Paris will provide the answer.

The Washington Post ^ | July 21, 2024 | Les Carpenter

[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.

[baldisbeautiful]

You just described every televised sporting event in the USA. Announcers and “color” commentators don’t know when to shut up.

[dis.kevin]

The only event I watch is womens beach volleyball