@Ninapearl Lots of equestrian events are being covered. Here’s the schedule.

https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule/sport/equestrian

I love the sports, but I hate the TV presentation. It is unwatchable.

I enjoy the Olympics! I don’t usually care for NBC’s coverage, too many extreme closeups. We are setting up a VPN tomorrow to watch, say, Canadian coverage. (That was fun in one Olympics when our niece was covering of it for TSN). Right now I’m watching men’s gymnastics and it is cool to NOT have the artisitic hype of women’s. I’m hoping to see some equestrian and watercraft events.

I’m going to figure out the streaming to see some of the non-network events.

I will watch some stuff occasionally. I did see the fireworks and drone show last night on youtube.

I enjoy the winter olympics more than summer. I really like figure skating and skiing. In the summer, the gymnastics are exciting. Watching swimming is not so great, although I appreciate the difficulty.

One year we were sking in Stowe VT and could pick up Canadian coverage of the Olympics. Totally different!

Not today. I am busy watching Tevis Cup live online. That's the Western States Trail Ride that runs 1 day/ 100 miles through rugged terrain. Living my dream vicariously. I do enjoy watching some of the Olympic events but winter sports more than summer.

have seen 15 of them and don't want to see american athletes turn thier backs on us. don't like what it has become

I'm with zalco.

There's corruption and illegal conduct (not just recently) in the governing bodies, national and international , and duplicity and phoniness in most of the sports, some more than others. It is a charade, that's an appropriate word. A charade that more and more people are beginning to realize but it's been there all along.

Here's a quick question for you Olympics and gymnastics fans - how many years/decades were American teenage female gymnasts subjected to repeated and systemic sexual abuse? Does that outrage anyone? Why is there still a US Gymnastics Association, why wasn't it banned? Is the need to ruin the lives of so many little and then teenage girls with promises of fame that few ever achieve, oftentimes driven by overbearing parents, really so compelling to justify continue doing?

Tunisia just won a gold medal in the swimming...and the whole world (well those that were watching) just got to hear the TuniisIan National Anthem THATS what I love about the Olympics.

Nope, I'll be watching Netflix. I think they should have been canceled again. Japan has a terrible vaccination rate and people from all over the world gathering...a disaster waiting to happen.

The part I like best of the Olympics is the opening ceremony -- the spectacle part, not the parade of athletes. This year, my enthusiasm is dampened by Covid (of course), plus all the corruption, lying, and greed of the IOC. I could be done with them, in their current format.

I learned a lot about Naomi Osaka when I saw her light the torch. So she was born in Japan, but left because her grandparents’ culture would not let them accept Naomi’s father. So they moved to US. Her father is Haitian. But Naomi had both US and Japanese citizenship. How did she have US citizenship? She chose Japanese citizenship at 21 because Japan required a decision one way or another. I’m very confused. And the very culture that made Naomi’s family leave Japan, now asks her to light the torch.

Other confusing observations: The women’s beach volleyball players like wearing bikinis because they don’t like when the sand gets inside other clothing. But the men wear baggy shorts and tank tops. Don’t they have the same problem? The German women’s gymnastics team are wearing unitards instead of leotards, to cover up the legs, but the top of the unitard has a deeply-plunging neckline. It’s filled in with flesh-colored fabric, but it sure does look daring. Did they just swap one sexualization for another?

I’m also fascinated by all the competitors that do not train in their home country. Or who have different nationality than the one they grew up in. Having gone to college with young adults in the same situation, i get it, but I still find it interesting.

I’m also fascinated by the athletes who endure some pretty bad training situations. Gymnastics has been rife with it; Karoliy was notoriously harsh. And yet, the young people prevail. And athletes whose training is impacted by war, natural disasters, economics.

When DS was in high school he had an opportunity (not athletic) that would impact his school schedule. Before pursuing it, we checked in with the school for how that could all be managed. The counselor said ”oh, no problem, we do it all the time for students, like athletes, musicians, performers.” We are just a sleepy suburban town but we do have some talented kids with the means to pursue their dreams, without going to a specialty high school. (we have an Olympic silver medalist!) Our nephew went to a sports high school in another country: a quality education, because most of the students would go on to university, but half your day was dedicated to training and your sport. Not everyone has that opportunity. So the Olympics can seem pretty elitist.

But I love watching athletes from smaller countries who still have the drive and desire to compete in this event. THAT’S the cool part of the Olympics.

"Tunisia just won a gold medal in the swimming...and the whole world (well those that were watching) just got to hear the TuniisIan National Anthem THATS what I love about the Olympics."

National anthems for most (all?) nations are available to hear on You Tube. If you listen there, you can be confident that they are brought to you free of child or sexual abuse of participants and free of financial and political corruption.

I love to watch many of the competitions in admiration of the athleticism and achievement. In particular I will be watching most if not all of the cycling events.

One thing I loved when I went to watch the UCI World Cycling Championships (in Richmond Va in 2015), was seeing all of the Eritrean - and other, but most markedly Eritrean - immigrants who turned out to cheer on and celebrate their lone competitor. It is the same for the Olympics - it is great to see the not-powerhouse countries get a share of the world stage. Also getting to meet and chat a little with some competitors, even world famous ones -- I even got to hold one athlete's silver medal while he took my picture!

But the event didn't serve to showcase Richmond so much - all the beautiful but indefensible monuments to the traitors of the civil war, and the many many empty storefronts along the main streets...while US media pretty much ignored the event. Fortunately it didn't involve creating infrastructure for the races.

However, despite that, I do agree with all of the criticisms, particularly the corruption and the enormous unjustifiable expense of hosting the Olympics. I do think it should go the way of the World's Fairs, barring significant changes to stop the abuses.

So I watched foil fencing today, and it took me back to our fencing units in high school Pe. Boy, that was a workout! Over lunch we watched street skateboarding. It wasn’t a course but one trick on a stair railing. why aren’t those guys wearing helmets? Unless their caps are actually helmets? At least they all landed on their bottoms, not their heads. Still, makes me appreciate the kids I see at the skate park. Anyway,I think there are more skatboard events, we will check those out.

I watched water polo. When i was a ”band mom” at the high school, we had football suppers on friday, and the water polo players would be coming in from a game. You could always tell them by the gashes on their bodies! ouch! I imagine water polo is better in person than on tv.

Oh, and 3x3 basketball, that was fun. And short!

No, not interested for a variety of reasons.

Watching as much as I can, I enjoy seeing the highest examples from the different countries and root for them all. :)

I admire the athleticism, no matter the sport. Well, except USA basketball. Could do without seeing every single minute of this stupid game. And we don't have the required devices to watch other broadcasts. So, mute it is!

A little OT: Does anyone miss the "Miss America" pagents? (Another commercial event that persisted well beyond its sell-by date, with similar abuses.)

I’ll be watching everyday as much as I can. Call me a sports junkie and the Olympics takes it to another level.

Will be cheering for the US and especially our local athletes, Jessica Parratto competing in 10 meter synchronized platform diving and Elle Purrier in 1500 meter track.

Chisue, no i dont miss the Miss America pageant at all. she was definitely held up as ” my ideal” when I was a kid. i remember having a discussion with my father about what my talent would be if and when i competed. That was when I was about six. Ugh what an awful example for young girls. Cant believe how long it persisted.

However, I adored the women who were figure skaters, like Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss.

Nope.

We enjoy watching a few of the events. Certainly not all. I am more and more turned off by the human exploitation that goes on surrounding these types of events. The latest is the controversy over the women's sand volleyball teams required bikini get up. I was really hoping for a collective walk out/refusal to compete. We have not come along way baby!!

I love that ”khaki pants guy” is back! Steve Kornacki

glad they don't have smello-vision ... teen-age boy funk smell personified

I love the "Here she is Miss America...." commercial featuring women athletes!

In today's news, yet another repulsive incident and scandal affecting a person (Alberto Salazar) described as "once a prominent Nike coach of some of the world’s top distance runners". He's been permanently barred from the world of track and field because of sexual and emotional misconduct. He was currently serving a suspension for administering banned performance enhancing substances.

Thoughtful parents don't let their kids get anywhere near toxic sports programs that have almost prison-like training programs that the path to elite sports performance often requires. Hours and hours of practice and training routines most days of the week, inculcating perverted values overemphasizing the wrong things in life. Most who leave these programs, when adults, look back at their experiences and missed childhoods with mixed feelings but also usually with regret.

Still want to watch the Olympics?

Had to look up inculcating! I doubt I will ever remember its meaning or use it myself.

I doubt the archers have a very grueling training program. Go out and fling some arrows for an hour or 2 each day.

I didn't want to watch earlier and still don't want to watch.

Here's info from etymology online: "from Latin inculcatus, past participle of inculcare "force upon, insist; stamp in, impress, tread down," ". It's a more polite and gentle word that means about the same as "brainwash". If you've known any kids in intense "elite" sports programs as I have, parents get brainwashed too.

English is a rich language because of historical influences and its greater openness (compared to other languages) to create new words and also to accept others of foreign origin. Not always but there frequently can be one word that focuses the sense of a thought or a situation better than others and I think inculcate is an example.

I can remember and spell brainwash

But inculcate hits heads more gently than brainwash. Brainwash (at least for me) conjures up the notion of something nefarious or illegal. Inculcate can relate to what some do with arbitrary dogma of whatever kind that's wrong-headed, ignorant, ill-advised or unbalanced.

Only if those you are speaking too understand the meaning. Remember I am a redneck hillbilly living in the heartland. Brainwash will do me fine.

Elmer, I don't believe inculcate is an inherently derogatory word. It's meaning is neutral. I inculcated the importance of punctuality in my children, for example.

See from the Oxford dictionary online:

inculcate

verb

/ˈɪnkʌlkeɪt/

/ɪnˈkʌlkeɪt/

(formal)

Verb Forms

1. to cause somebody to learn and remember ideas, moral principles, etc., especially by repeating them ofteninculcate something (in/into somebody) to inculcate a sense of responsibility in somebody
   inculcate somebody with somethingto inculcate somebody with a sense of responsibility

Or here from Webster's:

Definition of inculcate

transitive verb

: to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

My heart goes out to Simone Biles, who stepped down because of stress.

That pressure and misconduct is not limited to the Olympics. The Olympics is a drop in the athletic bucket. If I didn’t watch the Olympics for that reason, I probably wouldn’t watch most sports. Or listen to classical music. or follow the Scripps Spelling Bee.

I find I’m not watching the Olympics now because I can’t figure what is on when and where. NBC, NBCSports, Peacock, I think there’s another.

I feel for Simone Biles. I was also picturing the NBC folks scrambling to cover that story but also figuring out how to cover gymnastics now that their lead story is out!

Me too Lucille. I feel awful for Simone.

zalco, as I've heard the word used, it seems to often have a rougher edge, perhaps in criticism and suggesting needless or wrongful coercion is involved. But no matter.

lonejack, I'm sure you're not a redneck hillbilly, that may just be how you were brainwashed to think about yourself.

So much for GOAT. The affects of trauma are not to be down played. The challenge to "then watch no sports" if the cesspool at the Olympics is too much is one I already met. I watch ZERO sports EVER. MN hosted the Super bowl not long ago and the SHOCK of the cesspool that surrounds THAT would have shut me down--if I ever--but I don't. I really have never understood the HOURS families invest is things that have no lasting future. Why not put kids in activities that will last a lifetime??? Music/drama/design/art....there's sooo much to life.

There is a place for sports in life if one chooses to participate. Sports can provide a good source of exercise, entertainment, healthy competition, teamwork building, and many other worthwhile things. There is plenty of room for both sports and the arts in life if one so chooses.

The problem I see in competitive youth sports is that sometimes the child initially chooses to participate and then is forced by the parent to continue even if they do not enjoy it. The parent(s) is living vicariously through their child with the dream of them someday making it to the big time or at least getting a free college education. Same difference if a child is forced into piano or violin lessons.

I agree, it is all about choice. I have a friend and she and her husband have always loved baseball. Their son played when he was young and enjoyed it, now grown and on his own, when he comes home to visit father and son will sometimes go play in a community game. It is obvious there are a lot of good family memories.

lone jack, oh thee 150 miles south of me, are you saying you couldn't inculcate someone to drink a beer and cook a steak on the barby? Come on man ...

Back to the original question, yes, I'm watching a little, though am really turned off when the cameras zoom in on an athlete's face and follows her/his every move while waiting to compete. Yes, I'm thinking of Ms. Biles. Get the cameras back and give her some space!

I am furious with Aaron Reitz, Texas Deputy Attorney General, who wrote a tweet calling Simone Biles a “selfish, childish national embarrassment.” Simone put her own health first. There is nothing wrong with that. I'm horrified that someone would shame her actions, she has tried so hard and given years of her life practicing, but she felt that she might be facing an injury and she wasn't ready at the time.

Arcy....none of these athletes need a lasting future. They have more money than most make in a lifetime. And....more power to them!

Biles is a national embarrasment ... she would have gotten more mileage if she perservered and competed, and then told her story afterwards.

Other gymnasts don't think so. As with everything else, I think those in the know are better placed to make an assessment than are others lacking information and insights but carping from a distance all the same.

“Biles is a national embarrasment ... she would have gotten more mileage if she perservered and competed, and then told her story afterwards.”

This statement goes to show that some people think they have rights over how someone else lives. Everyone should have the final say in what affects their own health.

Biles is a national embarrasment (sic) she would have gotten more mileage if she perservered (sic) and competed, and then told her story afterwards

One of the greatest gymnasts of all time, who contiued in a sport in part so that the doctor who se&ually abused her and her teammates would not be allowed to slither out of our collective consciousness is being lectured to about the need to persist? Simone Biles is a world star gymnast, she got to that point through a super human ability to persevere through mental, physical and emotional challenges, the likes of which we, non-world class, not children abused by our doctors, mortals can barely fathom. Those with the gall to criticize her decisions are mentally and physically lazy trolls. They are the cause of our national embarrassment many times over.

Nocole, I DMed you.