Coverage of the Olympics in Argentina II
A laconic summary of the title would be "IT SUCKS!!" So TyC Sports, the Fox and ESPN rival down here, has exclusive coverage along with Canal 7 of the Olympics. They, I just learned, had a very large hand in banning all YouTube feeds to Argentina with up to date Olympic highlights. WTF?!!? As if that weren't enough, tonight, TyC had been promoting their coverage of swimming starting at 10pm. So I, wanting to witness the historic Phelps run at 7 golds, tuned in like a schmuck. I actually believed that they were going to follow through with what they said they were going to do. At 10pm, all there was to see was fútbol. It was the beginning of the second half of some meaningless, non-historic, insignificant game in the Primera league. Same shit they have on every Friday. Except this Friday happened to be the Friday where Phelps could tie Mark Spitz record of 7/7/7. 7 gold medals and 7 world records in 7 events. Spitz did that in 1972. An athlete like this comes along once a generation. And in swimming its even more important because the world only cares about swimming and lets swimmers compete on the world stage once every 4 years. They get NO glory, NO press, and until recently (and only for the top 3 or 4 in the world) NO money. Sure Jordan was great, Bonds (epa!), Ruth, Aaron, Montana, Gretzky, Howe, Bird, Magic, etc. But all the greatest team sports players at one point had to rely on their teammates to make plays. Paxson hits a 3 to win Jordan's first 3-peat. Bonds relied on who knows what kind of "training". Montana and Rice; Bird and McHale and Parish; Magic and Careem and Worthy; etc. Phelps has Phelps. And that's it. Well, maybe his Mom in the stands. But I digress... The point here is that TyC metió la pata big time. Because when I then flipped back to TyC at around 10:20 there was nothing. 10:30, nothing 10:40... there is Phelps, celebrating, out of breath, having just won. AND THEN IMMEDIATELY THEY CUT BACK TO FÚTBOL!!! La remil puta que lo parió! At least my company Anuva deals with wine and I keep a large stock around for tastings. Time for some serious malbec.
Labels: Current Events, Living In Argentina
posted by danielkarlin at 8/16/2008 02:26:00 AM
16 Comments:
Not only that, but you also get to listen to stupid commentary like the size of the Cuban women´s butts.
When I moved down here I was looking forward to all the soccer coverage, but then I just discovered that they ignore just about everything else.
Oh well, in the States you get the strongman competition when you would rather watch a good soccer game as well.
It´s so frustrating!
There is a special TyC channel that shows nothing but olympics during competition hours. Says El Canal Olimpico under TyC Sports. Rest of the time it's rainbow stripes or some message. Maybe it's your provider, did you check every channel during the proper hours?
Daniel,
I feel your pain. I nearly had a breakdown today trying to find a video of the Phelps win. I had no idea youtube videos are being blocked!
If all else fails, check out terra. They have a bunch of different live channels and also an archive of videos. Commentary is in Spanish
http://envivo.terra.com.ar/min/olimpiadas2008/44-ar/
Jon
The coverage for expats will always be unsatisfactory. I am Argentinian expat leaving in London and while the coverage of the Olympics here is very good, they do focus mainly in GB athletes which of course I couldn't care less! My advice? Get a big sat dish and get someone from the states to send you a US sat box. You will feel at home!
I know this is gonna be a little off topic but... has anyone heard the statements Georgina Bardach (he Argentine female swimmer) made today in a local radio interview??? She said that Michael Phelps uses drugs and that is the reason he won so many medals... She also declared that his sponsors clean his samples to make sure he tests negative... The interviewer said he couldn't believe that, to what she replied something along the lines of 'that is the truth, you believe what you want'. Then the interviewer asked her about the Jamaican who won the 100m race and she said 'Yeah he uses drugs too. They all do. That's why they win'. How come anyone be so shameless as to make such accusations is beyond me... Another reminder of how resentful argentines can be, especially towards those who are more successful than themselves...
I believe nbc.com has video of the majority of the events. You could also try cbc.ca.
NBC blocks you if you are outside the United States.
then you asked why the rest of the world hate you... you're so arrogant in your comments. The coverage of the olympics here is for argentinians, not for americans, and we give a shit for the swimming competitions and those sports! How can you say the "same shit as evey Friday"?? please, show some respect to the culture of the country you're living in. And "frank.sugar", if you say in the US you can see a good futbol game, that means you have not idea of what this sport is! so please keep watching the f# baseball... or go back to your country. It's ok for us, we will not miss u. Thanks
Wow anon (3rd one), you wrote a particularly ignorant post.
Just want to clarify one point that I thought was obvious, but maybe something got lost in your translation.
I was looking forward to watching all the "futbol" in Argentina. I was complaining about the coverage of "futbol" in the States.
You can keep all your hatred to yourself. It´s okay, I wont hate all your countrymen because of your verbal diarrhea. In other words, I love Argentina even though you are in it.
Dumb anonymous comments seem to abound on this post. I'll try to break the rut.
First of all, olympic coverage is there for the same reason anything else is on TV: ratings. So, they will play whatever will get them most viewers. And yes, Argentines will watch football over swimming any day, unless there's an argentine competitor on. Just as it is in the USA: they air the sports that get the ratings. Fact of life. That said, I did watch the Phelps race, so they did air it. Don't remember if it was live though.
Of course, comments like the one made about Bardach are bound to get an argentine riled up. Specially the "it's a reminder of how resentful argentines can be" part. Nevermind the fact that the hosts who said they couldn't believe that (and this is going only by the posted info) were also locals (no "local show" has non-local hosts), which makes the generalization moot. Most argentines wouldn't know who Phelps is if they found him giving swimming lessons to their wives in their own tub... but I have many local friends who do know who he is and all of them find him to be an admirable athlete. So, generalizing from what this girl supposedly said is like me saying that John Goodman is a reminder of how fat all americans are. Equally stupid.
Then of course, the reply by my fellow countryman deserves no comment or response. Talk about losing the argumental high ground, jaja. Goes to show ya: sad people can be found anywhere in the world.
Anyways, if you want good coverage of a sporting event, just wait for the next World Cup :-). Sorry you have to endure the indifference of local media, it's just a matter of selling the product a specific market asks for. Just like anything else on TV.
BTW, and just to clarify my last post: I love Mr. Goodman. I was making a point, no offence intended :-)
You did break the rut and I am sure the host will appreciate that.
I just wanted to add one more thing. This guy was ranting about one specific night in which he couldn´t see that race. He then went ahead and said that all coverage of the Olympics suck. I can´t really comment on all the coverage because I am usually sleeping during the hours that they do show them.
I could imagine the coverage sucking though if you take into consideration that in local TV stations, programs often don´t start on time, or they run past their ending time. The comments on the games themselves when they mentioned the Cuban women´s butts being so big I would rather have that conversations with my friends and instead watch actual events than have to listen to that. Maybe it were witty I wouldn´t have minded, but it was like Beavis and Butthead´s level of conversation.
But then again, like this last Anon comment said, I can´t wait for the next world cup.
Meanwhile I can rest assured to see the next US basketball Olympic game since they are going to play against Argentina.
So Daniel, I don´t know if you like basketball, but I imagine you will be tuning into that one and enjoying it just a little bit more than you would usually.
I do honestly hope that at least Argentina gives them a good game, but since I am "un estadounidense" my heart rests with my nation´s team on this one. It will still be bittersweet though no matter what happens.
In protest for the human rights situation in China, I am totally ignoring the Olympics, even soccer.
I had the opposite here in Vegas. The media ignored any sports and country where the US team didn't take part of. If you want to watch any soccer game you may watch it after 11PM...if you are lucky! (I only be able to watch USA-ARG in basketball, and ARG in the soccer final) In top of that, you have to deal with very poor comments and a total lack of information (soccer) ... very sad. Also, you cannot watch anything online because of copyrights. That include You Tube or pay per view sites.
So, I understand you guys... Next time, I'll go to Argentina or to an European country...ha ha! anybody want to exchange homes for next Olympics? Saludos!
Just a little disagreement to the original post: some of Phelps' gold medals were in RELAYS, so he did in fact benefit from his teammates' work, not unlike Jordan et al.
Congratulations. That Puteada was perfectly delivered.
A fine art you are mastering :)
Post a Comment
<< Home