When live competition ends before 11s, following the Sochi Olympics is easier said than done.
The nine-hour time difference between the games and Hanover means that there is little live action for students to watch. U.S. news networks knew this was going to be a problem for stateside viewers, and NBC Sports, in response, is broadcasting Olympic coverage nearly all day. However, for Dartmouth students using DarTV, this option is not available because DarTV does not have access to the network.
NBC, offered through DarTV, does broadcast the Olympics during primetime, allowing students to watch the day’s competition. However, it’s hard to find a student that hasn’t already heard what medals the U.S. took home from these events. Between social media and daily headlines, avoiding spoilers is almost impossible. While it’s still exciting to watch someone flip through the air on a snowboard, wipeout on a downhill slalom or cruise down the icy luge run, much of the allure of the Olympics is lost when you know what the results are hours before the highlights are re-broadcasted.
Olympians typically become heroes for a night, then fall out of the public’s eye as soon as the Olympics are over. This is worsened by lack of accessibility to the broadcast. When you cannot follow an athlete from their qualifying trials through to the finals and instead only see a replay of the 10-second highlight, you find it harder to feel as connected to these competitors. The only names we remember from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, though time difference wasn’t even an issue, are Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn. After scanning Wikipedia, we couldn’t believe how easily we had forgotten about Bode Miller and Apolo Anton Ohno, who were household names for a week in February 2010. Only nine athletes brought home gold for the U.S. at the last winter games, so we really have no excuse not to be able to rattle off their names.
An outpouring of patriotism always surrounds the Olympics. It’s exciting to see the American team walk during the opening ceremonies, but this pride quickly dissipates as the closing ceremonies come to an end. These athletes have dedicated the past four years, and much of their lives, to compete for an Olympic gold. Yet for gold medal winners, a moment that will last with them for ever is forgotten in a moment by their fellow Americans.
There was a lot of hype on campus about the 12 Big Green Olympians and everyone wondered what the Sochi opening ceremonies would be like, especially coming off the Beijing’s spectacle. Yet on Friday night, people forgot about the events and Winter Carnival festivities overshadowed the start of the international competition. Even the Olympics couldn’t burst the Dartmouth bubble.
It’s easy for us to complain about the time difference and spoilers, especially since we’ve been spoiled ourselves with the Vancouver and London Olympics recently. We recognize that ultimately the Olympics is a global competition, celebrating the pinnacle of sports achievement and cross-cultural awareness. While for us, this year in particular is inconvenient, the millions of people across the Atlantic get to watch the results unfold live.
The next two weeks’ headlines will likely reference the Olympics, but the reality of Dartmouth life is that when we find an hour to finally watch TV on our laptops, we’re going right to Hulu to watch the newest “Scandal” episode, not catching the latest Olympic event. It’s sad to think that catching a glimpse of NBC Sports on the Collis TVs might be the most exposure that some of us get to these Olympic Games.
