Are you watching the Olympics? What highlights for you?

[razz]

I am not a TV watching person but feel I ought to at least make the attempt to watch some of it. I do enjoy the skating and ski jumping but the rest is hard to watch compared to the summer Olympics. Your view?

[bae]

For winter sports, I find biathlon the most interesting one.

[onlinemoniker]

razz: I am not at all a sports person and I don't have a TV and I will not be watching any of it--even streaming. You don't have to watch it if you don't want.

[rodeosweetheart]

I have always enjoyed watching downhill skiing, speedskating, iceskating, and the luge. I guess I like it a lot better than summer olympics, which always seemed boring to me.
Do they have curling this year? That' about my speed these days. . .

[Miss Cellane]

Yep, there's curling. My whole family loves the curling.

I'm not a sports person, but I think it's because I have a lot of issue with professional and college sports. The Olympics are different.

For the most part, the athletes who compete in the Olympics participate in sports that don't get a lot of recognition. They will, most of them, never make a living doing their sport. They might get funding for a few years to prepare for the Olympics, but that's about it.

While I don't know much about some of the events, I do like to see people who love to do something get a chance to do it, and love to see them do it well. I have cousins who were professional skiers and who were in some big skiing films. Do I understand the nuances of what they do on skis? No. Can I appreciate the level of skill and talent they must have to do some of the things I've seen them do? Yes.

That, and I like to critique the figure skating costumes.

[JaneV2.0]

I like the winter Olympics best, but this whole Sochi fiasco--gay bashing, dog slaughter, third world accommodations--makes me less likely to watch than usual.

And I do love curling; don't ask me why.

[Blackdog Lin]

I have never gotten into the Olympics - and I don't know why. Never watched any of them. NBC hasn't made any money off me.

The SuperBowl was another story. Yeah, their advertising got my attention. Fox I guess got my advertising dollars.....

[new2oregon]

I don't have cable and I just saw that NBC is going to charge people to watch it online. I have a roku box and i watch netfliks and a few free channels for 9.00 a month it works for me. I wont be watching the Olympics.

[Kestrel]

We usually prefer Summer Olympics to Winter, except for the wonderful Miracle on Ice in 1980 -- yay Mike Eruzione! ... and the whole Team and Coach!
Didn't watch anything today, but might watch some as it goes along.

[goldensmom]

No. If I did, it would be ice dancing and curling. I worked with a lady who loved watching the Olympics on TV and every morning she'd give a a detailed recap of the previous nights events even if no one was listening to her. Soooo annoying.

[oldhat]

The Olympics long ago became just another commercial sporting event, except that it's probably more corrupt and commercialized than most. (The Russians seem to be setting new levels of corruption.)

I rarely see any sports events these days, since I don't have cable or broadcast TV any longer. Occasionally I get the urge to watch a football or basketball game, but when I weigh the entertainment value of sports against the downside--the cost of cable or the insufferable advertising--that urge quickly passes.

[Tradd]

I won't see much as I'm TV-free, although I'll probably search for bits on ice skating online.

I caught this online from the opening ceremony. It's VERY funny. Whoever thought to have a Russian police choir sing a song called "Get Lucky" has one heck of a sense of humor. The older fellows are especially funny to watch.


http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/russian-police-choir-performs-get-lucky-opening-ceremony

[Tradd]

I don't have cable and I just saw that NBC is going to charge people to watch it online. I have a roku box and i watch netfliks and a few free channels for 9.00 a month it works for me. I wont be watching the Olympics.

I don't know what NBC is charging, but I actually don't have a problem with them charging. With the 2012 London Summer Games, you could only watch online if you were a cable subscriber. But this would be great.

However, I just looked it up and you still have to be a cable subscriber.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57618334-285/stream-the-2014-sochi-winter-olympics/

[rodeosweetheart]

I don't know what NBC is charging, but I actually don't have a problem with them charging. With the 2012 London Summer Games, you could only watch online if you were a cable subscriber. But this would be great.

However, I just looked it up and you still have to be a cable subscriber.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57618334-285/stream-the-2014-sochi-winter-olympics/

I am confused about the paying part. We watch NBC via an antenna, and it is free, and DH is in there watching Olympic coverage now.
Do you mean you have to have cable to watch NBC? It will come in free, as do other networks and PBS, via antenna. We don't even have the antenna outdoors; it is hanging in the closet and we get 7 channels and we live out in the country.

[Tradd]

It seems from the article I posted that a lot of coverage is only available on other networks, not NBC only.

[Simplemind]

As far as sports go, the Olympics are the only ones I watch. Much prefer winter over summer.

[herbgeek]

If I remember from the summer olympics, you had to pay if you wanted to watch anything other than the canned prime time coverage.

[KayLR]

I like the Olympics for many of the reasons Miss Cellane mentioned. NBC's coverage style can be annoying, but I do like the way they seem to have researched good feature stories on individual athletes. Last night, you may have been interested, they featured a female skier who, outside of skiing, most enjoys homemaking (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.). She lived in VT, I believe. She lived in her childhood home. They said she lived there alone after high school graduation and it seemed like she now lives there with her brother. It was a large farmhouse in a gorgeous setting.

[Greg44]

Our family loves the Olympics. I like most all of the events, hmmm it is hard to pick one that I like the most. My favorite would probably be Speed Skating. It is a sporting event we watch as a family. I like the player profiles, learning the obstacles they overcame to compete on the world stage, etc. I find it very inspiring.

For us it is a nightly thing - we almost go through withdrawal when it is all over!

[Yossarian]

For winter sports, I find biathlon the most interesting one.

Especially when the old guys have game. Go old guys!



http://media.caller.com/media/img/photos/2014/02/08/media_47b6359076f04bff8b3286d512eb4a68_t607.jpg

[RosieTR]

If you want to watch the prime time broadcast as it's being broadcast on NBC via digital free TV, it's fine. If you want to stream it at all then NBC wants you to sign in with your cable provider. Screw that. DH found some Canadian broadcast online so downloaded that. Stupid NBC. They could target ads very effectively by asking for a simple survey plus adding demographics (because I'm going to guess the large majority of slopestyle snowboard watchers are going to be under 50, for example, and ice dancing watchers will be overwhelmingly female). But no, they made an idiot deal with the cable companies to try to force people to sign up for cable (???) and are thus going to lose out on advertising. As well they should since rather than get with the times they choose to try to strong-arm the public.
Anyway, we will be watching whatever snowboarding possible, some of the skiing esp women's jumping and probably not a whole lot else. But it does make me want to go up snowboarding!!!!

[iris lilies]

I understand that my nephews in the Twin cities have taken up curling. Because of that and because I seem to think that curling originated in Scotland (I am too lazy to look it up) I should probably watch some of the curling competition.

I probably will watch some of the ice skating but I don't know the players other that the American pairs leads. I saw them a few years ago when the US Figure skating Championships were held in St. Louis, they were Jrs then. I hear that the little Russian girl is very good and lyrical, so I will check her out. I tire of the skaters who are jumping beans and that seems to be what they all want these days.