The ridiculous women's volleyball uniforms come from the international volleyball federation (FIVB). They brought that rule in about 20-25 years ago. In beach, that means bikini bottoms, in indoor volleyball the women wear booty shorts, while the men wear regular shorts.
So it wasn't necessarily an NBC decision; although it did come from the federation in an attempt to make women's volleyball more marketable. It was ham-handed then, and I agree with you that hopefully this is the last Olympics for this. John On Mon, 26 Jul 2021 at 15:33, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2B7T_Mu%3Dsoqfv4wtogzjv7mONsbpYhnd%2BsDDUWs8Ma-nA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- John Edwards "You can insure against the weather, but you can't insure against incompetence, can you?" - Phil Tufnell -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. 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