Oympic Obsession: Day 1

In our household, the Olympics are a pretty big deal.

The quadrennial event is on our television for pretty much every waking hour of the day. It’s a big enough deal that the wife stops watching her true crime shows on Investigation Discovery for the two-plus weeks.

So, for the rest of the next two weeks, we’re going to weigh in on what we’ve seen, our thoughts on the games and maybe a highlight or two. And if you have thoughts, or favorite Olympic moments from London, please feel free to add them to ours each day.

OPENING THOUGHTS: Say what you will about the Opening Ceremonies, there’s still nothing better than seeing the athletes marching into the stadium to officially start the Games.

Besides, where else do you get to see all the host country’s greatest coming together in a celebration as big as that? And the Daniel Craig as James Bond with Queen Elizabeth was worth waiting through all the tape delays.

And while some criticized Paul McCartney’s performance, man, there’s nothing that gets me more than “Hey Jude.” I grew up listening to my dad play that song on the home stereo, so it’s always special. But I did have one criticism: Why were the Americans shown on TV look as if they were hearing the song for the first time? The Beatles should be required listening for all fans of music growing up.

ONE-TWO PUNCH: Any of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s games will be important to see, as we’re big fans of the beautiful game. And having Diamond Bar’s Alex Morgan on the team gives a local flair.

So, it was good to see the U.S. team fight its way through to the quarterfinals with Saturday’s 3-0 win against Columbia.

And it almost turned into a literal fight, as a Columbian defender took a swing at striker Abby Wambach. Wambach was down for a minute or two, but was able to continue. She got her revenge where it counted: on the scoreboard. She scored the American’s second goal on a sweet give-and-go play with Tobin Heath. Megan Rapinoe got the game-winner in the first half with a dipping, twisting shot off an assist from Morgan.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: It’s always interesting watching the sports you only care about at the Olympics.

The opening overnight coverage of the women’s shooting was cool, seeing and hearing how they judge the scores.

And then there was the team archery final, shown live, featuring the United States. Italy eked out the gold by a hair, needing – and barely getting -- a 10 to win on the last shot.

My favorite sport to check in on during the Olympics is team handball. If it’s the middle of the afternoon, and almost all the coverage is already on tape, that’s one of the sports I’ll go seek out. It’s one of those sports I think the U.S. could excel at if enough people became interested and started playing.

RANTS AND RAVES: Anyone who’s been around me at Olympic time has heard me moan and groan about NBC’s insistence of showing us everything on tape.

It’s the same old problem, and they won’t change it because they don’t look at the Olympics as a sporting event. It’s one two-week reality series that they can twist and turn the storylines to the best ratings possible.

The only thing is that it is a live sporting event, with a large amount of live coverage all over the news and Internet. I don’t think it would bother me as much if we were getting the coverage at the same time as the East Coast. And if you want it showing in primetime, then replay it on the West Coast.  

• Of course, just about everything is available for viewing online (with the right tier of service from your television provider).

I checked out the live feed on NBC’s site Saturday afternoon, and it was OK – just OK.

NBC turned to YouTube for their live video player this time around, rather than Microsoft’s Silverlight, which they used in 2008.

The advantage of the YouTube player is that you don’t have to add software to your computer. But it does come with a tradeoff in video quality. I had troubles staying connected to the stream at times (it might be due to the browser I was using), but it was still nowhere near the picture and navigation that Silverlight provided.

In Silverlight, you had controls that would make it easy to hop between sports. The browser based YouTube did allow for two video windows open at the same time, but also came with lags in connections. Will keep trying throughout and add as needed.

• Lastly, a rave from the rowing coverage. They introduced a new overhead cable camera that gave a cool look at the boats skimming across the water. It really adds to the coverage.

UPCOMING: Something to watch for locally Sunday will be skeet shooting event. Yeah, it’s one of those sports we only care about at the Olympics, but there’s a local connection Sunday.

Kim Rhode, who’s from El Monte and attended Cal Poly Pomona, will be going for a bit of history Sunday. She is in her fifth Olympics, having won medals in the previous four (two golds, one silver and a bronze). Should she medal again Sunday, she’ll become the most decorated female shooter in the history of the games, and also become the first American athlete to medal in five consecutive games.