Just a short update this time. Our home town boy, Nick, did OK for himself at the Olympics in Vancouver … for a while.
There were two qualification runs, which cut the field from 35 racers to 32 and also which seeded the runners for the races that followed–just four racers go at a time.
Nick was 11th in the first run, and everyone here at the office got all excited when he was 1st in the second run … but only three racers had gone at that time. Still, he wound up 6th in the second run and wound up the 7th seed overall.
Ah, but then the races started. He was in the seventh heat. The Detroit News writer said he got off to a bad start. But then he caught up to the other three racers. Then he moved in front! Then he got “squirrely,” went off the course and crashed!
That ended his Olympics. He finished in 20th place.
The qualifications took place during the early afternoon, as we worked on finishing up the paper. Most of the people in the office were seriously obsessing about it, following the results as they come over on the internet. (We don’t have a TV in the office.)
Everybody had gone for the day by the time the medal round started and Nick crashed. NBC had no video of that during its prime-time program. (Not that I was home–I was away, covering a girls basketball game.) I later saw a picture of him on all fours in the snow.
Tough break, but that’s how it goes in sports. He wasn’t hurt (aside from his pride), and when he gets back home, I’m sure he will get the royal welcome once again.
I like watching the Winter Olympics events–most of them, at least–and was especially looking forward to the ice hockey, both men and women. And also the curling, both men and women. As things turned out, though, I will get to see very little of it.
Most of the hockey and curling is being carried on MSNBC and CNBC in the States, and our cable system here doesn’t carry either channel. It’s a local co-op and doesn’t have deep pockets for programming and technology.
What’s worse, the USA Network does have some Olympic coverage, and we do get USA. But it seems you have to pay extra to get Olympics coverage on USA–without it, you only get to see marathons of some of USA’s top shows, like Monk and House, Law and Order and NCIS.
Good shows, yes. But I wanted to see the Olympics. And I don’t get to see it. And I’m definitely less than happy about it.
By pure good fortune, the snowboardcross competition was carried on the main NBC network–and yes, we do get that. So the folks at home got to see Nick in action during the afternoon. But NBC picked up its “live on tape” coverage in prime-time with the quarterfinals, and Nick didn’t get that far.
Know how much we pay for cable TV here? We get about 60 channels for $37 per month. And that’s the main rate–not some “teaser” rate that jumps up after six or 12 months. My guess is that you are paying a bit more than that.
But then, you will get to see the Olympic hockey and curling coverage live on CNBC and MSNBC. We can only read about it later.
drdog