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The Summer Olympics ended last weekend. They were delayed a year because of the coronavirus. As much as I thought they should have been cancelled this year because of the coronavirus situation in Japan, I was excited by the time they finally arrived. But once they started, I wasn’t all that into it. I hate to think my interest in the Olympics is slowly waning over time. I started this blog 17 years ago this month right before the summer Olympics and even mentioned them in one of my first entries. Ah, that was the year I watched every show NBC hyped up during the Olympics like Hawaii, LAX, and Medical Investigation. They were all cancelled. However, we also got LOST on ABC a few weeks later. But I digress.

Maybe part of the reason I wasn’t into the Olympics as much as I wanted to be was because I wasn’t watching primetime coverage. I usually had a stream on while I was working during the day and I watched whatever was playing at the time. I wasn’t going out of my way to watch anything in particular and I’m sure the most popular events were in primetime on NBC. I didn’t get to see any diving, gymnastics, track, or swimming that I usually enjoy other than brief recaps. I didn’t see any rugby at all, which I really enjoyed watching in 2016. I did get to see a lot of volleyball (indoor and beach), tennis, and water polo.

The time difference is usually issue. There were a couple of times at least when I was watching something and then realized I already had heard the outcome of the earlier in the day. The competitions did feel different. I think it may have been because spectators weren’t allowed in the stands. I didn’t get to hear the personal stories of many of the athletes, which makes the events more exciting. Maybe not having gamily members in the stands contributed to that or maybe all of that was in primetime on NBC

I’m glad there’s only 3 years until the next Summer Olympics and in 7 years they will be in L.A. I hope to attend the LA games. I’ve never been into the Winter Olympics as much, but maybe I’ll try to watch them in a February

Today is the last day of the Olympics and I’m sad to see them go.

For the first few days, I was having trouble getting excited about them. Of course, there were a few exceptions like men’s swimming and men’s basketball. I realized that I was missing the narrative – learning background on some of the athletes and following their journey throughout the games. I was watching these events, but I didn’t know anything about the athletes. Then it was on to the next event with people I didn’t know. I was trying to figure out who would be household names after the Olympics, and I didn’t think anybody would. I realized some of these feelings are because I was watching mostly on the nbcolympics.com and on the NBC sports channels on PlayStation Vue. Sometimes on nbcolympics.com, they have 4 boxes showing 4 events at the same time. Sometimes I like consuming media that way, but that’s not what I wanted for this.

After the first few days, I really started getting into it more. Watching rugby, swimming, and basketball, track, and volleyball soccer really got me into it. I started hearing names over and over like Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky that I think will be household names. I read complaints about the prime-time coverage on NBC itself, that it had too many commercials and too many pre-taped packages. I figured that’s where I needed to go get the drama. Once I did check it out, I really enjoyed it. I got emotional watching it a few times. I also started watching coverage using the NBC Sports app on Apple TV and Xbox One. Including the opening ceremonies, I watched at least some on 13 out of the 17 days.

I’m going to miss tuning in every day. I’m going to miss Bob Costas.  I’m going to miss hearing the Brisco County Jr theme. Part of me wishes that we could have summer Olympic games more often, but I know it wouldn’t be as special if they occurred more frequently. A friend had the idea of going to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic games. It’s an awesome idea! Let’s see if that happens.

For the first week and a half or so of the Olympics I was really into it. Now I’m getting tired of it. I still leave it on in the background, but I’m usually not paying attention to it. Congratulations to all the winners, but I’m ready for you to be off my TV.  I call upon the youth of the world to go home so I can watch Heroes, Chuck, Life, The Office, etc. I’m also ready to get back on a normal sleep schedule.

There was this one commercial for a lawyer in Tupelo that came on almost every commercial break during the first week or so of the Olympics. It’s so bad that it’s funny and if you see it enough it gets stuck in your head.

It turns out that this commercial ripped off another commercial, which I think is done better.