Are you enjoying Olympics?
The series of excitement came from swimming and gymnastics matches for the last two weeks. I have been watching Olympics in NYC, Philadelphia, and now Virginia. I turn the TV on every night at 8 pm to watch what’s happening in London. They showed the total medal count for each country, and I got to see how Korea is doing. Before London Olympic 2012, I’ve never watched Beach Volleyball, Water Polo or Trampoline. Trampoline, seriously? But anyway, Olympic is fun and inspiring. And the other day, I saw a facebook update of one of my American friend who’s living in Korea saying,
“Seriously Korea, can we please show something other than archery, judo, or fencing?!”
And it got me thinking, I haven’t seen or heard anything about archery, judo or fencing so far. Should I be bothered?
(FYI: Korea always get medals from judo, archery and taekwondo among a few other programs.)
You’re allow to be patriotic
Olympic is the far most major international event. Thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries participate in a variety of competitions. It’s all about the harmony of the world, but admit it; it’s also ONLY about your home country. If your country wins gold, you’re not going to remember who win silver and bronze. You wouldn’t know how Dominican Republic is doing in tracks unless someone did something outrageously amazing thing. We all know who Michael Phelps is because he is the best Olympian in the world, but other than few of those occasions we are taking our own side.
You can’t fake the blood
Olympic is one of the rare opportunities that you are allowed to be over-patriotic. My home country and I disagree with a lot of values in life, but I feel proud when I saw Koreans got a medal. Like an old saying in Korea, you can’t fake the blood. Archery is extremely boring to watch, but I did because we were good at it. Though Judo and Taekwondo are quite fun. So if you are in Korea during the Olympics, you’ll watch a lot of those matches just like I’m watching a lot of swimming and gymnastics. But I understand your frustration; archery is not as fun as swimming. It is amazing but it’s too quiet and too serious. However, when in Rome, right?
Everyone’s same
Americans and Koreans are just same as any other countries in the world. They like what they are good at. They broadcast what their people are playing. They talk about the medals they got. It’s okay to be not paying attention to 199 other countries that are in Olympics. It’s okay to be rooting for your team. The important thing is that to remember there are 199 other countries along with your country. I guess that’s the Olympic spirit. Right now NBC’s broadcasting strategy is not really smart; they fool us not to know the result until they show everything in the evening. I hope at least Korean broadcast is doing a better job on reporting important games.
Well, nobody’s perfect. But I’m glad Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt did a good job!
Have you watch the Olympics in a foreign country?
Yep, NBC did a pretty poor job at not broadcasting the major events live.
I also thought it was strange not to broadcast judo, archery, and Taekwondo. Water Polo and beach volleyball have gotten tons of coverage.
I try to root for the little countries too. It’s not fair that the US has 300 million people to develop athletes and China 1.3 billion! They usually win the most medals. In the future I think they will use some kind of handicap system to boost the smaller countries in the medal standings.
Haha, when you wrote, “Trampoline, seriously?!” I got defensive because I’m Canadian and the women’s trampoline was epic (our first gold, haha) ! But yeah, normally I wouldn’t ever watch trampoline. Haha.
There’s actually been a lot of judo broadcastings in Canada (I guess since we got a bronze everyone thinks it’s a Canadian area of expertise now lol) so I’m learning a lot about that sport too. Some are admittedly boring, but I like that I always end up watching things I’ve never seen before and learning about other sports and other countries’ athletes. It is weird, though, to flip to NBC and see completely different stuff – it’d be interesting to see Olympic broadcasts from all around the world.
But, like you said, even if you have qualms with your country, there’s nothing wrong with a little healthy patriotism!
Oh, sorry about that; didn’t know Canada won a gold on Trampoline! 🙂 It’s really weird, when you think about it, how different Olympics we are watching around the world.
I mean, when are you going to hear National Anthem that much? And everyone with the medal cries, and that’s moving too.
I would like to see something besides Swimming, Gymnastics, Volleyball and Track and Field. I know there there a lot of interesting sports in the Olympics but NBC rarely shows them.
I have seen some interesting cycling races and other events that I wish they would show more of.
I saw the road cycling on the first day of Olympic and that was really interesting; I’ve never seen a road cycling race, I don’t think. For me, it was great to see some of the other interesting matches.
I’m in Sweden and I watched Andy Murray win Gold in the Men’s Singles Tennis on Sunday. As soon as he won they switched over to boxing and didn’t show the medal-giving so I was pretty upset about that. I really wished that I was at home watching it on the BBC where I’m sure the commentators were going crazy! They are showing a lot of sailing but, to be honest, the Olympics does not really seem a big deal here in Sweden. I suspect that they are much more excited by the Winter Olympics where they do much better.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ve heard that many different national anthems… I understand if they are not really big on Olympics, they don’t really watch it. I assume. 🙂 For me, I only find out who won the medals from Korean news. Everyone’s same!
There are many interesting sports in the Olympics besides Gymnastics, Swimming and Track and Field. For me Archery is one of them. I know that it is quite boring, but I still like it. Also, I never tried watching it in another country but I think it’s going to be a fun experience.
Too funny that archery is the Prime Time attraction in Korea! We saw the 2008 games while on our RTW trip, in Australia or NZ (can’t recall which). I recall the coverage being very swimming-focused. Were you disappointed by the badminton scandal that caught up 2 South Korean players?
Badminton? In 2008 or this year? If you are talking about 2008 I don’t remember, and I don’t know much about this year’s. 🙂 I guess I have to read Korean news more carefully. Australians are definitely good at swimming! No wonder that’s only game you saw!
You know what, I can’t seem to get the point of the Olympics anymore. All I see are hot people. LOL
*ehem ehem* Have you seen Marcel Nguyen & Tom Daley?
Did Judo originate from Korea? I know that Tae Kwon Do did, right?
Tae Kwon Do did, yes. I think Judo is Japanese.
I’m an American watching the Olympics in Korea and the coverage is…interesting? I understand that they show pretty much only events that Korea does well in (endless judo, taekwondo, badminton, fencing, and archery) and I don’t mind because I love the part of the Olympics where you get to watch and learn about sports that are otherwise pretty unpopular. But what I don’t understand why they don’t show the entirety of team sports…they only show highlights but don’t call it highlights. It just like skips ahead in time. Confusing. Otherwise, I think it is interesting watching in another country. I like the Olympics no matter what 🙂
And NBC has been horrible for years at showing stuff on a delay. When I lived in Michigan I would always watch the Canadian coverage because we got the channel and it was miles better!
What a great post! I once was able to watch the Olympics in Poland on satellite television. They covered just about every sport and the coverage was daily and on-going. They tried to cover absolutely everything and there was very little talk by the announcers. It was really a divine way to watch the Olympics because, for me, it’s a time when countries I know little about enter the international arena and shout out to me: “Here I am! Come explore and learn more about me!” 🙂
While I absolutely loath the coverage by NBC – the constant need to connect every athlete (regardless of their country) to the USA is pretty annoying, and I can’t even start on their commentary without going into an endless rant – I LOVE the Olympics. I watch them religiously, while keeping up with which countries are competing/selected to host the upcoming Games. I’ve yet to have the chance to watch them in another country, though.
True, there’s no other way to watching other matches, or listening other national anthem than Star Spangle Banner. I’ve noticed how different it is in Europe. Yesterday when we were watching Olympics in Iceland, we saw Turkish and Russian gold-medal ceremony. That was certainly new.
I might have watched trampoline as well if my country has the biggest chance of winning gold.^^ I admit I’m over patriotic at times when it comes to this kind of event but I still watch games that interests me like football, swimming, and tennis.
I’ve been watching the Olympics here and they’ve been showing a lot of archery and shooting – COMPLETELY boring to me, but I totally get why it’s broadcast. I’d rather watch the athletics, swimming and gymnastics, though. In the UK, the rowing, athletics and cycling are always shown as we’re traditionally pretty good at those events.
I’d like to have seen more of the men’s diving here, though 😉
Yes people are overpatriotic during Olympics or anything similar like football world cup. I root for several countries having live din several so I’m quite happy to not be that patriotic….
It’s also quite different when you are there, watching live the Olympic Games. You root for you team, because it’s fun to have a bit of competition, but you root for good athltes, amazing teams or whoever might touch your heart that day. that’s the spirit of the olympics!