Gosh, J. Turner, sure wish I’d seen your post when it would have done me some good. Instead I had to sit through 5 hours of volleyball, rhythmic gymnastics (huh?), track, and synchronized diving (oh, alright, I’ll admit it – I actually liked that last one! 
)
For all those of you who don’t think it’s important that we didn’t medal – here’s your reason why it IS important. No medal, no coverage. GRRR. 
OH good!! Maybe on Sunday we can watch another marathoner throwing up or see another retrospective of a past Olympian now suffering from Parkinson’s. Please don’t take this as a slam against Ali. It is a slam against NBC for choosing to show 45 minuteds of Ali’s career and Every Single Step of the women’s marathon and about ten rounds of the individual on Sunday in Atlanta. Heck there were only two events on Sunday and we STILL didn’t get to see even one round of the jump off!!! ABC where are you???
The fact that equestrian is elitist is such a poor excuse. Yachting, golf and tennis (with some exceptions) are right up there too! Come on NBC…
Ok - who’s got those statistics on our industry? Someone posted them a while ago, but maybe if they could be posted again (sorry, no search 
)and EVERY one of us copied and emailed them to NBC, they’d get the message. Of course, you must first figure out how to email NBC… 
I am soooo mad!!! (insert any other explitive if you want)I stayed uptil 12 midnight waiting and waiting and… waiting ,so is it never to be shown what a bunch of jerks!!!
Oh lordy, man, ain’t nothing duller than a marathon. I was at the gym on a treadmill watching that - no escape. “Oh, she skipped the water stop, that strategy may back fire”“Wow, what an exciting water break - they were all sure careful not to run into one another”.
And then, as I was sucking wind after jogging for 10 minutes, it just made me feel really bad watching these people run for 4 hours.
And the really sad thing was that no runners were probably even watching - they were out for there 4 hour run.
I kept waiting for commercials.
Here I was beating myself up for having stopped to get groceries on the way home from work and missed the first hour of coverage. Figured that was when they showed the Equestrian coverage. It would have started at 5PM in our timezone. Staid through all the diving, track I could do, fell asleep sitting up on the sofa, my husband said go to bed, if a horse comes on I’ll tape it. Bless his little heart. Now I’m glad I shopped to feed him at dinner.
I figure I will have to invest in the Olympic tapes to see ANY dressage. And after Christine had the ride of her life on Etienne. How could they shun that?
Will some things never change?
I agree, Magnolia. When a local newspaper TV critic was bashing NBC’s coverage (good!) he made some comment with reference to Equestrian about “if you think a guy in a top hat and tails deserves a gold medal.” I e-mailed him and he apologized, saying he had bashed table-tennis too, and was just kidding. In my message, however, I pointed out that the middle class, with more disposable income these days, is putting a LOT of it into horse sports: not just the Olympic discplines, but also team penning, cutting, reining, endurance, gaited pleasure horses (Pasos and the like). Dressage and team penning are the two fastest growing participatory sports on the amateur level. That is a big audience that spends money - yet NBC thinks more people will be reached by broadcasting synchronized swimming??? (which is athletic - but how much interest do you think the general public has in it?).
ME TOO! I could barely get out of bed this morning because I stayed up unitl 12:00 waiting for the show jumping! God, what was that girl leaping around with the hola hoop?
Do you think they pulled the coverage because we didn’t do well?
You’re right: no U.S. medals, no coverage. As for knowing what’s going to be on, Bob Costas at least has the decency to announce at the very beginning of the night’s coverage the sports they will be showing, so if you catch that part you can figure out what they’ve changed from what was scheduled.
Does anyone know whether they moved the coverage of the Nations Cup to late night, or to MSNBC or CNBC, or did they just can it alltogether?
The thing about the Sunday coverage is that they virtually have to show the stadium jumping because almost all the other sports are over. It’s one of the last competitions of the Games.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Portia:
The thing about the Sunday coverage is that they virtually have to show the stadium jumping because almost all the other sports are over. It’s one of the last competitions of the Games.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Well, Portia, they managed not to show it in Hotlanta. Let’s keep our fingers crossed…
On a personal note: I have to confess, after all this time, I still think of ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ Every Time I see your Name. 
Come on, you guys. You mean you don’t think trampoline bouncing is an exciting sport? Or syncronized swimming? How about syncronized diving, then? Wait…a brainstorm! What if the riders wore - brace yourselves - bikinis, you know ala beach volleyball or something else scimpy like the swimmers and divers. Maybe if they showed more skin like the gymnasts or some of the track and field stars. Then the cameras could zoom in on someone’s crotch or butt. Silly me! I thought this was about sports not exhibitionism.
Excuse me now. I’m going to watch Olympic Arm Wrestling. I hear they wear thongs.
[This message has been edited by Mikey (edited 09-29-2000).]
[This message has been edited by Mikey (edited 09-29-2000).]
They pulled show jumping coverage for tonight. I just checked their website TV schedule. GRRRRRRRRRRRr 
That’s right. No medal… no coverage.
Also, the analogy to NASCAR is not the best one to make. NASCAR pulls in more folks in one afternoon of qualifying than Grand Prixs do all year!
The number of “fannys in the seats” also determine how sponsors are obtained … in today’s world more than ever, it’s all business. If you don’t have a huge following for your sport, it’s usually “NO GO”.
Of course there are exceptions, like the Anheuser-Busch connection due to Mrs. Wheeler for example. Or, the Johnsons. And there are others as well…
Portia,
I think they just canned it alltogether…Didn’t see any mention of it being covered on MSNBC or CNBC yesterday. NBC listed it on their home page last night, with a picture of Rodrigo Pessoa, but their Olympic sports page specifically did NOT list it.
In hindsight, too bad it wasn’t on MSNBC. They’ve had the most indepth coverage of the equestrian events so far, with decent amounts of time devoted to the first day of show jumping, and the team dressage finals.
The “equestrian is elitest” argument is such a cop out! In order to do track and field (or any other sport) at the Olympic level, you must HAVE NO OTHER LIFE! This is not elitest? The “shamateurs” of ALL Olympic sports are supported by their national committees and various sponsors that get around handing money directly to them. Sure, Equestrian at the international level is elitest, but the work-a-day runner who does it “for the burn” and for his/her health, probably likes to watch the Marathon. NBC acknowledges stuff like that, so why is it such a leap to realize that the schooling show level jumper might want to watch Grand Prix Show Jumping? That the secretary who purchased a $2,200 Appy and does 2nd Level dressage with it might want to watch Grand Prix Dressage? that the Pony Clubber with a hand-me-down pony wants to watch Olympic 3-day?
ALL sports are elitest at the highest level, and ALL sports have competitors at lower levels who admire and enjoy watching the “elite” compete. Major League Baseball is elitest. How many people make $300,000 for sitting on the bench half the season? There are 28 (?) major league teams with 25 active players and a 40 man roster. That’s a very small and “elite” portion of the general population. Does that mean ESPN will no longer show Major League Baseball?
Oh, ROFLOL. A friend said the other day that if dressage were performed wearing bikinis, there would be a Sports Illustrated Dressage Edition! You’ve hit it right on the nose! If your clothes aren’t skin tight and/or skimpy (or both), NBC ain’t interested!
That said: Why hasn’t vaulting been reinstated as an Olympic sport? Women in leotards, guys in tight pants doing gymnastics, and on horseback!!! How much more media-genic can you get??? G
[This message has been edited by Sandy M (edited 09-29-2000).]
[This message has been edited by Sandy M (edited 09-29-2000).]
Go figure. I had set aside this evening to watch the Olympics JUST for the SJ. Reckon I’ll turn off the tube and surf the web. Thanks for the heads up!!
OK-- I’m with all of you! I forced myself to endure 4 hours of track and volleyball (yikes!) while waiting for the jumping. Do you know if they plan on showing it at all?
If they pull this on Sunday I will be a very unhappy camper!
I waited for the NBC coverage last night too But I guess I should have know by now that the dork commentating would have menetioned it at the beginning if it was going to be show!
Our CBC DID show part of the Nation’s Cup!! 
Well, say 4 riders from the first round and about 5 from the second. I was so impressed that Ian Millar had a clear round with his cast on!
Even more impressive was last night when our French channel showed some Dressage! I saw all of Olympic Ferro’s test! They said more was coming, but that was within 8 hours of coverage - so I set the VCR. Hope there really was more!
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