As is the case with any major event this year, the Summer Olympics in Sydney have a heightened air of importance about them. After all, these are the first Games of the Millennium! They're an indication of things to come in the -- gasp -- future!
Perhaps this is what prompted NBC to "futurize" its coverage of the 27th Olympiad. It's to be expected that the network would make the Olympics as visually spectacular as possible, but it seems that NBC has made an extra -- and largely bothersome -- effort to make its Sydney coverage particularly whiz-bang.
The roll-your-eyes ridiculousness started early, in the opening ceremonies. As each country's delegation walked into the Olympic stadium, it was greeted on television with lavish, obtrusive on-screen animations and commentary from the inimitable Katie Couric. My favorite tidbit from Couric: "Austria doesn't have any medal contenders, which is unfortunate, because its national anthem was composed by Mozart." (As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.)
But finally there was some quiet when it came time to ignite the Olympic flame, and as Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron, it was a poignant moment of international cooperation, fair competition and the beauty of sport. Until NBC flashed a display on the screen telling you to "Log on Now" to NBColympics.com for information about the rivalries developing between the USA and Australia. Thanks, NBC. Who needs a spirit of unity? Let's talk rivalries!
Then it was time to proceed to the actual games. Or some of them, anyway. As usual, NBC placed heavy emphasis on the sports in which Americans were likely to medal and/or dominate. For the first week, that meant seemingly incessant swimming, with a bit of gymnastics tossed in (but not nearly as much as in 1996, given our relatively lackluster squad this year). Now that swimming is over, expect to see track and field, with a bit of track and field tossed in.
Emphasis on the USA wouldn't be so bad if it weren't taken to such an extreme. Why are we sitting through over-before-they-start quarterfinals for every swimming event? If it were live coverage, NBC might have an excuse, but it has the luxury of a very long tape delay.
The network should use this advantage to show us less anticlimactic qualifiers and more sports we don't usually get to see. Wouldn't you like to witness what world-class table tennis looks like? Or handball, water polo, archery, judo, taekwondo, shooting, badminton, trampoline -- all of which we're lucky to see for ten seconds in the late-night highlight reel. I'm not saying these sports need to get the same billing as the better-known competitions, but they would be a great deal more interesting than seeing Michael Johnson stroll his way through yet another qualifying trial.
NBC could even keep those qualifying rounds while still showing the lesser-known games on its cable channels, CNBC and MSNBC. But Olympic coverage on those channels is reserved for USA-dominated sports that are too boring or too slow-paced to air on the main network, such as baseball or either basketball Dream Team's latest demolition of an Eastern European squad.
After winning the Best Drama Emmy for "The West Wing," NBC is apparently gunning for a repeat with hokey segments featuring athlete's heartwrenching life stories, which once again take up time that could be spent televising a more diverse range of sports. Does anybody enjoy these? They're not even very well produced. It's as if NBC handed out Heartwrenching Story Guidelines to its staff consisting of one instruction: "WARM LIGHTING EQUALS SAD."
On the positive side, Bob Costas is excellent as the weekday anchor of the proceedings -- he is undoubtedly the best sportscaster in television. Costas knows when (and how) to crack a joke, when to be solemn, and, perhaps the most important skill of all, when to be quiet.
Especially on the last point, Costas's colleagues are lacking. Cynthia Potter is a typical example. Her sport is diving, and she starts complaining about divers' mistakes the instant their hands pierce the surface of the water. Bill Walton, who makes an ass of himself doing color for the NBA Playoffs each year and shouldn't be allowed within ten yards of a microphone, occasionally haunts the booth for volleyball, having once played the sport professionally.
But the award for Best Ruining of the Moment surely goes to NBC's sideline crew, the worst of whom is Jim Gray. Jim Gray is an idiot. His last moment in the spotlight came when he apologized after harassing Pete Rose so viciously and inappropriately that thousands of viewers called NBC to complain. His style, unfortunately, didn't change as a result.
The task of Gray and his kin is to ruin the perfection of an athlete's victorious moment by asking them questions like "You've become so successful so fast -- how do you respond to the allegations of drug use?" These questions are an unfortunate reality of sports, but they can wait while a medalist enjoys the glory of the moment he's worked hard to experience.
To be fair, it's not all bad. Costas is great. NBColympics.com is a gorgeous, engaging site, although I pity the sports fan who tries to view it on a dial-up connection. And many of NBC's subtle touches -- such as flags superimposed on the lanes in swimming -- make the sports more fun to watch without insulting our intelligence.
By and large, though, NBC's interference detracts from their Olympic coverage. And how could it not? The excitement and drama of the Olympics are built-in. They are sports at its finest; the Games need no overzealous commentators or tearjerking profiles. What the Olympics need is a network that has some respect for them.
