winter olympics – nbc tries to ruin sochi

I love the Winter Olympics.

Maybe it’s because I grew up in a warm climate. Maybe it’s because I wish I was Scandinavian. Maybe it’s because I love spandex.

I turn it on every day, and my favorite events are the ones that are head-to-head races vs. timed/judged competitions – biathlon (of course – who doesn’t love the biathlon?), cross-country skiing and short track are a few I make sure to watch.

But I’m not liking the coverage. I’ve come to expect it be heavy in figure skating and ice dancing. I barely even complained when they added a team figure skating competition. Americans usually medal in snowboarding so of course, I expect that they’ll show a lot of that too.

And really, I do like it all. I know what a Twizzle is. I’m ready to go.

But this time around, it’s not really what NBC is covering that’s bothering me. It’s the angle that they are pushing on some of the stories and their relentless pursuit of personal drama.

This first bristled me last week as I was watching Noelle Pikus-Pace, the American skeleton racer who ended up taking silver in her event. I typically like the little backstories that they do on the athletes – four years is a long time to retain information about sports I don’t watch on a regular basis. And part of Noelle’s story is that she is a mom.

And while there are very few Olympic athletes that train with their toddler in tow. It does seem that NBC has been a little over the top in covering this story.

Ali Martell (an editor I follow on Twitter) summed it up best when she tweeted –

Can we please agree to stop being SHOCKED when women who are moms are able to do things in addition to parenting? Looking@ you @NBCOlympics

And I couldn’t agree more.

It seems that Noelle’s obstacle to overcome is her children and NBC has drilled this in our head over and over again. Did they ever think that maybe she is in the Olympics because of her children, not in spite of them?

On Sunday night watching the men’s Super G, I finally lost my patience with NBC.

Would anyone care about Bode Miller’s wife if she wasn’t hot? Could NBC get any more blatantly sexist? It seemed like every time a race was finished we had to tune into what Mrs. Miller thought. I’m sure she’s a very nice person and that they are very in love. Yay love! But it seems that NBC is banking that Morgan, the model, makes good television because she is easy on the eyes.

She was everywhere. I felt smothered by her.

I half expect her to start showing up at other events, wiping away tears and offering her insights. “He’s worried. He’s worried it’s not enough to hold up.” Wow! Really? Is that’s what’s going on NBC? Thank goodness you’ve got Morgan there mic’d up and in the trenches.

And did the NBC correspondent really keep prodding Bode after the race until he collapsed with emotion? Did that really happen? Because I was so repulsed by that reporters stabbing at Bode that I turned the tv off.

Did you hear that NBC? OFF. I turned it off.

Come on. We’re better than that.

There is inherent drama in sports – winners, losers, dreams met, dreams lost, miraculous finishes, falls and tumbles.

Any lover of the Olympics will tell you that we don’t need to create more.

NBC is really pushing the boundary on their coverage. I want to be proud and feel excited when an American wins a medal for our country. Not cringing and embarrassed. The opening ceremony sweaters were hard enough.