NBC Viewing - Day 4 - Tues, 7/31 - A Very Big Night and Spoiler Free Please

[bek]

The judges might be saving their 10s for the Vault EF which, barring disaster, Maroney will hands down win.

But what if she doesn't land it as well. That would have been a crowning moment the sport needs. Perhaps the sport needs to give GOE points like skating.

[Smiley0884]

SO HAPPY FOR TEAM USA!!!!!

And so happy I managed to stay completely unspoiled! I forgot my ipod gets MSNBC updates, I turned it on this afternoon and a pop up came on that said "U.S. women's gymnastics....." I quickly closed my eyes and threw my ipod back into my purse...what a close call!

This team really is the fab five. All of their interviews, their interactions with each other, and overall poise has been nothing short of worthy. The mag seven will always be my favorite, but I think with strong showings in AA and EF, this team has the potential to match what they did.

My favorite moment of the night was Maroney's vault for sure! It's too bad about her toe, I would have loved to see her perform on another apparatus. She's such a rockstar!

[Rob]

Yeah, it's sinking in that....
1) 1996 was half my life ago
2) I was their age, or a bit younger, the last time the US ladies won the OOOOOs
3) They were barely born.

It didn't hit me until now either that 2004 was ancient to them, and they only know of Carly Paterson thanks to DVDs.

Pffft I was their age when Nadia won. And a bit younger when Tourishcheva won and Korbut made a big splash And my first memory of gymnastics is Vera Caslavska. Wait till you have to scroll waaaaay down to find your birth year.

[allezfred]

Based on reading these threads alone, your coverage really sucks doesn't it?

[Lanie]

Yes, it does, as always. Feck NBC.

[Cyn]

NBC's coverage blows goats, but I have to admit that I absolutely loved Tim Daggett's reaction to Maroney's vault -- it was one of the few unscripted moments of their broadcast, and his awe and admiration was apparent.

[SHARPIE]

NBC's coverage blows goats.

[shan]

NBC's coverage blows goats, but I have to admit that I absolutely loved Tim Daggett's reaction to Maroney's vault -- it was one of the few unscripted moments of their broadcast, and his awe and admiration was apparent.

Poor goats......

[Karina1974]

but that interview went on for way too long.

I'm glad my NBC affiliate didn't break into the broadcast with the late news when it went past midnight. I would've been flipping tables if they had chacked the interview with the womens' team!

[AYS]

Michael sounds so zen. It almost makes me annoyed at his mom for trying to push him to do another Olympics. Because he seems so mature, calm, and just soaking it all in here. I think he's enjoying knowing that this is the very last Olympics.

I'm pretty sure she was kidding. They've both been all about everything this year being "the last" all season long. Have been seeing both their posts on FB all season: last NBAC Christmas meet ever, last short course meet ever, last NBAC training session ever, etc.

I went to sleep before the montage, will have to go look for that on the NBC site.

He does seem very Zen at these games, that's the perfect description.

[Theatregirl1122]

She doesn't seem entirely like she's kidding to me, but he doesn't seem to take her very seriously, either.

[AYS]

She doesn't seem entirely like she's kidding to me, but he doesn't seem to take her very seriously, either.

We mothers rarely are (taken seriously, that is).

[modern_muslimah]

Based on reading these threads alone, your coverage really sucks doesn't it?

Yep. There's even a nbcfail hashtag on twitter. In the words of one of my mother's co-workers, NBC "needs to get their whole self together".

[Prancer]

Based on reading these threads alone, your coverage really sucks doesn't it?

IME based on past experience, the coverage is very good if you can watch all the secondary broadcasts on the obscure cable stations or, this time, online (I can't do that this time, so couldn't say), but being dependent on NBC's nightly broadcast is horrible.

NBC is getting hammered by criticism, but they always do and they keep right on broadcasting the same annoying way with the same annoying people.

I think ABC was the network that started the cult of personality type of Olympic broadcasts with their "up close and personal" profiles, but ABC didn't create some sort of narrative and then force whatever was happening into that narrative, nor did ABC focus exclusively on Americans at the expense of everyone else. ABC would let the story tell itself, which is something NBC seems to frantically avoid.

[Lacey]

Did anyone see the NBC clip where Gabby was having doubts about herself, total panic, during the live competition last night, and someone (sorry, brain freeze) said, reading lips, "You can do this!" and Gabby said, "You're right, I can," and smiled and carried on. It was lovely team support. I believe I saw old man Bela doing an interview today where he said this is a much better team than Atlanta, just exactly because of that team support thing. I wish skating had that.

[skatingfan5]

Did anyone see the NBC clip where Gabby was having doubts about herself, total panic, during the live competition last night, and someone (sorry, brain freeze) said, reading lips, "You can do this!" and Gabby said, "You're right, I can," and smiled and carried on. It was lovely team support.

Aly Raisman was the one talking to Gabby.

[Allskate]

Did anyone see the NBC clip where Gabby was having doubts about herself, total panic, during the live competition last night, and someone (sorry, brain freeze) said, reading lips, "You can do this!" and Gabby said, "You're right, I can," and smiled and carried on. It was lovely team support. I believe I saw old man Bela doing an interview today where he said this is a much better team than Atlanta, just exactly because of that team support thing. I wish skating had that.

It was Aly who said that to Gabby. Gabby didn't look like she was in total panic to me. But, I think it was just before Gabby did her beam routine and Aly obviously knows Gabby's history and demons with the beam.

It's interesting that Bela keeps talking about how much more of a team this group is than in 1996 because Dominique Moceanu says that she felt like she and Kerri were kind of kept separate from the others on the 1996 because those two were trained by the Karolyis. As I recall, I think she even said that she and Kerri ate with the Karolyis rather than with their teammates.

[Theatregirl1122]

I was just watching my recording of the Today Show and Ricky Berens and Connor Dwyer said that they actually didn't know going in to the race that it would be the record setting medal for Michael and they only found out when they all got out of the water. When he pulled them into that huddle, that's what he was telling them.