The past couple weeks it seems like most everyone I know has been watching the Olympics. I love swimmer Gary Hall, Jr.'s playful brashness, beach vollyballer Karrie Walsh's lanky net play, and those insanely iron-lunged Kenyan and Ethiopan distance runners. In most cases, whether a fan of other mainstream athletics (football, baseball, etc.) or not, I and others have been enjoying watching Olympic sports we almost never watch otherwise: swimming, gymnastics, even track & field. If NBC is so willing to hype the Olympics every four years, and if so many people are tuning in (the network had all the first seven from the top 10 Nielson-ranked shows this week, all Olympics coverage), why is it that not even the World Championships for these sports seem to make it to television at all? NBC, for example, doesn't have any professional basketball, football, baseball or hockey contracts. So why don't they really focus on making Olympic sports something people watch more than just every four years? I'm not saying that beach vollyball or the 10,000 meter run will ever overtake the NFL or NBA in popularity. But if it were a lazy Sunday afternoon and I had the choice between an Olympic sport and, say, golf or NASCAR, I'd definitely go for one of the Olympic sports. Unless you're a rich dork or a redneck, wouldn't you?
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Posted by: Carrie Gene | November 04, 2004 at 12:08 AM