It's official, It took the world to subdue American Idol. Some estimates say 30-million people watched the Winter Olympics last light. That is 48% more viewers than a similar night at the 2006 Torino Winter Games.
This is shouting loud and clear that Olympic fans want speed, technology and really cool clothes. From ice skating to speed skating, from luge to bobsled, from snowcross to half pipe, viewers want Olympic sports taken to the next level and our winter friends delivered!
Betcha can't wait till summer?
"Good thing" FINA endorsed Speedo jammers to "save" swimming for we don't need no stinkin' technologeeee" do we?
From the Hollywood Reporter
For the first time in six years, the top-rated reality hit didn't win its time period. After 222 episodes, "Idol" was beaten at 9 p.m. by NBC's E-ticket coverage of the Winter Olympics on Wednesday night.
NBC had its most-watched night of Vancouver Games competition coverage so far. An estimated 29.4 million viewers tuned in as U.S. stars Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis and Shaun White won Olympic gold.
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From Multichannel.com:
That delivery dwarfed the similar night in Torino, with 17.9 million viewers on average by 64%. Ratings grew 48% to a 16.7 rating/27 share from an 11.3/18 four years ago in Italy.
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From CNet.com:
Featured above are British skeleton sleds with the images of the owners mapped in 3d as a de facto signature as to who the sleds belong too. The sleds themselves may be made from composite materials, I don't know, but the Germans were accused of using something even more sci-fi:The athletes themselves, she added, "are testing hundreds of different combinations of the right skis and waxes and grinds to make sure they have the best run, plus you have a huge amount of computers to pull this off ."
Her biggest problem, she said, "is too many technology stories at the moment."
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From DW-World:
"...Last week the German skeleton team rejected accusations of cheating after Canada's Olympic skeleton silver medalist Jeff Pain suggested that an electro-magnetic material in the German sleds was giving the team an advantage.
Team spokeswoman Margit Denglar-Paar told Deutsche Welle that the accusations "are total nonsense," adding that she had "never heard anything like that" before.
"Our sleds constantly have been monitored by the material commission of the FIBT and were found to be accurate," she said. "All German skeleton sleds were checked during the World Cup season [at the end of last year].
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So, know this, while the "winter world" moves on, FINA will keep swimming safe from technology, speed and world records.
Hail FINA!
10 comments:
Every single sport - everyone! - in the Winter Olympics have strictly defined limits on what is and what is not acceptable from an equipment point of view.
Luge sleds are strictly defined, skis are defined, the type of waxes allowed are defined. Even the material used to make the ski suits is defined. Speed skating blades are defined. Everything is legislated.
And to compare a sport like luge or skiing, where the equipment is - and always has been - central to the sport to a sport like swimming, which expressly forbids equipment that enhances performance, is nonsense.
The athletes are the draw. Always have been, always will be. The draw the other night for NBC was Lindsay Vonn and Shaune White, two amazing athletes. (Who compete with equipment that is strictly defined and legislated.)
Quoted from Ted Baker:
"The draw the other night for NBC was Lindsay Vonn and Shaune White, two amazing athletes. (Who compete with equipment that is strictly defined and legislated.)"
Lindsey Vonn is the only female using "male" sized skies during the Olympic downhill. This fact was only recently revealed. Even her competitors didn't know.
Strictly regulated??
"Lindsey Vonn is the only female using "male" sized skies during the Olympic downhill. This fact was only recently revealed. Even her competitors didn't know."
When they refer to men's skis, they are referring to flex not length. She's using stiffer skis than the rest of the women because she's stronger. Not sure about the other competitors not knowing: A bunch of the women tried stiffer - men's - skis on the training runs but shelved them because they couldn't control them. Too much jam, especially in the tails. (One of my best friends is s a ski jouno and is up at the Games.)
FYI, the FIS - the governing body for the sport of alpine skiing - regulations on skis are specific to length and side-cut, not flex. The minimum length for women's downhill skis is 210cm, for men it's 215cm and for both, the minimum sidecut or turn radius is 45m.
Should note, too, that each discipline - Downhill, SuoerG, Giant Slalom & Slalom - have different FIS standards specific to the skis used. (A side-note: Most athletes will travel with at least 2 pairs of skis per discipline. Vonn will have at least 10 pairs of skis up at Whistler. And they go about $2,000.00 per set, including the bindings. Hope your kids don't get good at ski racing. It's hella expensive.)
FIS regulates the helmets, the ski-poles and even the suits. Binding height is regulated and so is the height of the sole of the boots they use.
It's awesome tech... Tech that has grown exponentially when you compare it swim suits
It's awesome REGULATED tech.
There has been constant evolution in on the tech side so that no one competitor had an unfair advantage over the other from a technological perspective.
Plus, the comparison between swimming and skiing falls complete apart when you look at the sporting arena. A ski race takes place over a matter of hours on a mountain, in winter. Weather and conditions constantly change. A competitor's tech advantage can be completely negated by variable weather conditions.
Not so in swimming. It's the same distance, the same size pool, with water temperature within 1 or 2 degrees and everyone is doing the same stroke.
Tech suits were incompatible with swimming because they conferred advantage unequally. Can't have that in a sport where the difference between first and 50th is less than 3%.
Well said Ted. It's always a pleasure to hear an argument based on the applicable facts rather than some person's version of truthiness¹.
¹ "a 'truth' that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts" - Stephen Colbert
Oh please! I provided 3-technology references and a photo. If I compare a ski from the Torino Games to a ski to the Vancouver Games, I dare you tell me with a straight face that technology had not evolved.
I can tell you with dead certainty that the skis in Turin are identical to the ones in Vancouver.
FIS rules regarding side cut and length were set in the late 1990's, when the shape ski revolution took hold.
In the early, mid-90's the technology used to manufacture snowboards migrated to skis. With the new technology, you could make a ski that remained stiff torsionally but stayed flexible along its length.
With this technology, you could put more and more side-cut into the skis, increasing their on-edge running length while, at the same time, decreasing the skis length.
Around the 1996 World Cup season, it started getting silly and dangerous. Men's slalom skis were going to 140cm, with huge side cuts; so much, in fact, that athletes were blowing their knees apart. It was right around then that FIS introduced discipline specific regulations governing ski length and side cut.To my knowledge, they haven't changed those regs since.
Some discussion now, though, that they'll have to change them again, because the injuries suffered this year - and last - by the athletes. There's some talk that FIS wants to "straighten" the skis more, so that they aren't as squirrelly and hard on the knees. (I, frankly, doubt they'll change the FIS ski rules: They'll likely work on course set up. Which is also strictly defined and regulated.)
"strictly defined and regulated"
This doesn't mean the technology isn't faster or the most current. It only means there are rules which were set at some point in time.
Men's skis are different than women's?
I don't ski much, but stiffer is not faster than flexier?
Hmmm...
One thing we asked for in swimming was equal coverage in swim suits.
We know that a women's suit cut is faster than a jammer unless the male is possibly very lean and tight.
But who cares anymore?
Swim times are already being broken from the tech-suit era.
Athletes set goal times in workouts, not purchase plans for technology.
(and I know someone will ague that comment - ha ha ha!)
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