Olympics 2008: The Year of Chinese Cheaters

Photo by: yewenyi

With the olympics coming close to wrapping up, I have to say that I've enjoyed watching the olympics this year. Katie and I hooked up the HD antenna in the back yard and enjoyed everything from the opening ceremonies to the last day of the olympics in crystal clear *FREE high definition.

The one thing that's been gnawing at me each time I sit down to watch NBC's coverage is that of host nation's behavior. Let me enumerate the things that bothered me:

1) The fireworks being faked (NBC: thanks for not mentioning this)
2) The lipsyncing singing girl from the opening ceremonies
3) The empty stands in a country with 1 billion people
4) The chinese "women's" gymnastics team (14-16 yrs. old in a year)
5) Judge's scoring in all gymnastics routines... suspiciously favoring Chinese toddlers
6) Mongolian flyweight boxer throwing the match (in my opinion) to China. Doctors evaluate him in the morning, nothing wrong. Suddenly his shoulder hurts with a light bump from the other boxer, they throw in the towel, then he refuses medical attention immediately afterward. China gold, followed by another china gold with questionable scoring by judges in the welterweight (again, just by my viewing).

Basically, these things bothered me enough that I didn't really enjoy watching the gymnastics, opening ceremony or the boxing. I hear the shooting was also somewhat questionable with the Chinese judges and a Chinese shooter, but I didn't see that personally, so can't attest to the credibility there (but won't hesitate to mention it here :-) ).

The positives of the games were sports without judges - phelps in swimming, USA Basketball, track and field, were all great to watch. There's no possibility of bias affecting score. You score, and it's obvious... or you beat everyone else's time. Simplicity is king.

So, it basically boils down to a decision to forego watching any olympic sports with judges next time around. I'll also probably mute the NBC commentators... how much can you say during a marathon? I'll watch almost anything in HD, but when the commentators are annoying and the games seem rigged (or are at best poorly judged), it makes the olympics hard to watch.