The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - Sponsored by Covid-19

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

#5 Bukkake

[EOLAN]

Was it in Beijing or London that the BBC coverage from primary focus on sport to one of pure national jingoism, delving deep into manufactured narratives of their winners and losers. I mean I know all national broadcasters will be home focused there has been a massive turn from what it has been.
A five minute report on 5 Live from the Showjumping final discussing the sadness and unluckiness of the Brits pulling out. Which is fair enough as a lead story but surely they could at least give a few seconds synopsis of who may be competing for medals.

Eurosport definitely not as bad on this though the main channel veers this way but to a more balanced degree. Then when going to other options when they are showing sport they are pretty much showing sport.

[greenman]

I'm guessing not many other countries coverage also buys into another nations jingoism like the BBC does with the US.

[dr beat]

Baseball is popular in a lot of places - not just Japan, but also South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, and Central America.  Mexico, Dominican Republic, and of course those great friends of Uncle Sam Venezuela and Cuba.  Fidel was an MLB contender apparently.

I love a ball game.

[evilcommiedictator]

Japan also has jetboat racing. The final of the 3 allowed gambling sports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqn5nuRkAxM
(Horse racing, Keirin)

[DrGreggles]

Was it in Beijing or London that the BBC coverage from primary focus on sport to one of pure national jingoism

London.
I was recovering from a broken leg at the time and watched ALL OF IT (despite me thinking that the Olympics is shit).
The coverage now is as bad as the Americans have.

Saw a bit of the boxing the other day and they showed a whole fight!
Delayed coverage, so it was obvious that the GB guy won.
Followed by 5 second clips of 4 GB fighters losing.

JUST SHOW THE GOOD THINGS!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58128595

It's so weird isn't it.

[buttgammon]

Out of medal contention after two rounds, Maher, 38, opted not to risk his horse, Explosion W.

And some people think the horse names from The Day Today are implausible!

[Thursday]

65 Medals then - same as 2012 but less of them gold, and less than 2016

BRITAIN IN DECLINE

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

RED WHITE AND BLUE BREXIT

[Thursday]

This site hasn't been updated in a week, but here's a thing I was interested to see.

https://medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:2020

[Blumf]

Most boring super-spreader event I've ever seen.

[Chedney Honks]

Completely pointless Olympics all in all. Without packed stadiums, sport means nothing. Feel like a total no lifer watching your football team train watching this shit.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Well I thought it was very nice. Bravo to Japan for doing the best they could under the circumstances. At least they didn't do any comical fuckups like Rio with the green pools and such. In a parallel universe without Covid we'd all be saying how great it was with the packed stadiums and general buzz going on.

[jaydee81]

Was it in Beijing or London that the BBC coverage from primary focus on sport to one of pure national jingoism, delving deep into manufactured narratives of their winners and losers. I mean I know all national broadcasters will be home focused there has been a massive turn from what it has been.

I know what you mean, but you could also argue that since Beijing the amount of GB athletes competing for medals has increased, and so therefore has coverage.
I remember spending loads of Barcelona 92 watching judo because we went potentially have got someone through to the last 16.

[mothman]

I don't claim to be any great connoisseur of it expert in Japanese culture, but I was wondering what people thought of the BBC's branding for these Games? Lots of modern Japanese motifs - manga, pachinko, dispensing machines for anything and everything, lots of neon, so irs not like it was wall-to-wall sumo wrestlers and samurai. And while cleverly done, the implication that the Japanese were all avidly into random Team GB members seems a bit patronising, and not just in hindsight given Japanese Olympians outperformed us on the medal table.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

That konichiwa/konichinaah thing they did was shit as fuck, yet they persisted with it. I'm not even sure who first came up with the idea. Balding probably.

[mothman]

Oddly, that bit I didn't mind too much. I think I'm inured to it from years of 2Good/2Bad on MotD2. And I thought Balding & Scott made a great presenting team.

[Thursday]

Ehh, I feel like any Olympics is going to lean into some crass cultural stereotypes, and Japan has so much distinct things to choose from.

I wonder what every opening title round the world would look like in comparison. Do they just focus on the sport or more on Japanese culture?

the implication that the Japanese were all avidly into random Team GB members seems a bit patronising

I'm not sure I actually saw a full opening title, but can't say that I noticed this at all

[chveik]

i've mostly watched the events without commentary tbh. can't be arsed with the chauvinism

[Jasha]

Completely pointless Olympics all in all. Without packed stadiums, sport means nothing. Feel like a total no lifer watching your football team train watching this shit.

Time difference didn't help. Pretty sure if Tokyo could have got out of it without footing the bill they would have

[buttgammon]

The time difference definitely impeded my enjoyment. What capped it off was my top moment of the games - Kellie Harrington winning gold this morning - coming at 6am, so I had to watch the highlights in the morning and as I slept in too late to watch the Irish coverage, I was forced to sit through tonnes of flag-waving crap on the BBC to watch the last round of her gold medal fight.

I loved Beijing despite the time difference, but I was a teenager with no commitments, a bad sleep pattern and a big thing for Victoria Pendleton and Christinw Ohuruogu, so it's hard to compare.

[poo]

Every GB athlete I saw interviewed seemed extremely grounded and pleasant. Makes you sick.

[poo]

Didn't see any of the sailors or golfers tho in fairness - they're probably cunts

[Brian Freeze]

Every GB athlete I saw interviewed seemed extremely grounded and pleasant. Makes you sick.

Anyone else watch Jason Kenny being interviewed after getting off the Keirin podium and get massively reminded of Victoria Wood?

[poo]

What a race that was. Blam!

[Brian Freeze]

Missed it live and regret that now. If it had been Hoy who'd done that I'd still be tugging now.

Edit: really miss the moped, the electric bike doesn't look or sound right.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

So it's over and Geabitern did alright

Thank you to all heroes
Bye bye to all losers, you lost

Thank you for enjoying The Olympics and see you soon as hundreds of sports not played at all in the intervening 3 years RETURN

[Ferris]

What's all this about horses being punched? Did I miss the only quasi-interesting thing about this entire debacle?

[sevendaughters]

What's all this about horses being punched? Did I miss the only quasi-interesting thing about this entire debacle?

In the modern pentathlon the horses are randomly distributed to competitors. The German woman who was leading going into the event was assigned a flighty nag called Saint Boy who was Not Having It. It refused a few fences and ruined her chance of a medal, let alone gold. After the event the German trainer punched the horse in anger.

Here is Saint Boy, a hero: