Totally agree about how they present women athletes, both doing a much better job, and long overdue. I think they have said this was the first year where there are the same number of men and women participating, and there are more returning US women medal winners than men. The two highest profile US Olympians are women (Biles and swimmer Ledecky [sp?]).
There are still those bikinis for the beach volleyball women, but one has to think this is the last year for that, as it is increasingly absurd. There has been a lot of attention on social media about the Norwegian Beach Handball team (non-Olympic) who were recently fined for wearing shirts instead of bikini bottoms. I watched both the Euro and South American soccer tournaments recently, and did notice how well they were covered, which is a great sign. NBC’s Primetime coverage of both Gymnastics and Swimming (and probably a few other events) has not quite caught up with this. The US did not do as well in the pool as they had hoped last night and the tone in the broadcast booth was like they were covering a funeral. On Mon, 26 Jul 2021 at 11:28 AM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Jul 26, 2021 at 10:37 AM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Overall I am digging the way these Olympics are being presented. Whenever >> I am tempted to complain about something, I tell myself to STF up, as my >> younger self remembers having no choice but to watch partial and very >> incomplete US-centric highlights with Jim McKay’s at times jingoistic >> commentary. >> > > My observations having spent much less time than you watching the games: > > First and most welcome is that it finally got through up and down the > Olympics and media institutions is to treat and talk about female athletes > as athletes. I saw an AP story about how the camera people shooting the > video pool footage are instructed not to sexualize their shots of female > athletes. One thing I found unwatchable in the past was showcasing gymnasts > and synchronized swimmers as performers or princesses rather than athletes > who had to give up normal lives in order to train for these events. I > sincerely hope that the days of calling an American women's gymnastics > champ America's Sweetheart are over unless they also call an American men's > decathlon champ that, too. > > There was a truism from the Roone Arledge days of Olympic coverage that > women don't watch sports so the way to get them immersed in the Olympics is > to turn athletes' personal stories into soap operas for Up Close and > Personal segments. There still seem to be "get to know the athlete" > segments but they have been moved into the background. Our collective > sports experience, certainly of the last decade, is that women like and > watch sports and don't need to be talked down to. NBC also seems to have > added more female commentators to mens' sports. > > I still don't have cable but I saw the NBC Olympics site will give me a 30 > minute window to watch highlights. I also subscribe to the NBC Sports > YouTube page and they are putting up tons of highlights and not US-centric > ones. I can find plenty to watch without having to find a VPN or bothering > with pirated streams. > > As for turning away from being US-centric, it seems that broadcast sports > are going that way and it's not killing them in the ratings. ESPN and ABC > just had the delayed Euro 2020 competition. FOX and its FS channels had the > Copa America (South American national team competition) and now they have > the CONCACAF Gold Cup (North America and the Caribbean national team > competition). The US team is only playing in the last competition. The > announcers of games the US is not in do not constantly make references to > the US team so maybe the younger sports watching public has a more balanced > international world view. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiENYwCBD%3Dx5Qs5WWhyzmUbEZLOhzv6CAWRJjzPUkZdt7Q%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiENYwCBD%3Dx5Qs5WWhyzmUbEZLOhzv6CAWRJjzPUkZdt7Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2B7T_Mu%3Dsoqfv4wtogzjv7mONsbpYhnd%2BsDDUWs8Ma-nA%40mail.gmail.com.
