Hamman did weighlifting.

No mention of Hicks totally botching the race before the 4x100 freestyle? He called the race for Katie Hoff, "Can Hoff hold on? Yes!..No!" and needed Rowdy Gaines to jump in.

You can't be a winner if you do things like that. I thought Gaines was great. His enthusiasm in the pool and the way he described Lezak drafting in that relay were really good.

I think the only beach volleyball I watched was the gold medal match, so my opinion is underdeveloped, but it was amazing how often Kiraly and his lead announcer talked about May-Treanor and Walsh being "the first team in Olympic beach volleyball history to win back-to-back gold medals." Guys, it's been around for FOUR Olympics. It's an interesting achievement, but one for which they should have supplied some perspective.

How many times did Rowdy Gaines call a race over with less than 50 meters to go, only to be proven wrong?

Was Trautwig the lead analyst for gymnastics or the color announcer? If it was the color guy, who I believe was a former gymnast, then I agree wholeheartedly with your placement. Nothing made that guy happy. Somebody probably should have reminded him that he was dealing with 16-20 year old girls at an amateur competition - you can be nice on occasion.

Karolyi was hilarious, even though I didn't understand a single word he said during the entire two weeks.

I wouldn't say I'm starting the countdown to London, but it is kinda sad to see the Olympics go. For two weeks, I could turn on the TV at any hour of the day, put it on NBC or UHD, and just watch some sport that I might not normally check out. Now, we're back to the same old crap that NBC and the other networks always push on us, reality programming and whatnot. That part is kinda depressing.

Bill Clement is always good at whatever he does, and when you need protection against West Nile Virus, nothing beets the Deet in Deep Woods Off.

I think it's frustrating that NBC doesn't show live and then re-play at night. I think you're mistaken about people knowing the results during the day, however.. It seems that people our age are very connected to the internet and media, but the overwhelming majority of people have no idea (sports fans, different story, but most Olympics watchers aren't regular sports fans) and don't pay attention to such things during the day.

I do think it's stupid that NBC didn't show the things live to west coast, but some caveats.
1) IN 2002, NBC wanted to show things live to the Pacific coast, but NBC affiliates basically refused to do so, cutting into their local news shows and syndicated dinner hour shows. Blame the NBC affiliates IMO.

2) 82% of the country is in the Eastern/Central time zones (unbelievable, I know), so saying half the country did not get these events live is somewhat misleading, IMO.

I couldn't agree more about Cynthia Potter and Al Trautwig. I would also throw Tim Daggett in with the losers. The negativity was largely overwhelming and unnecessary.

It absolutely killed me when Daggett would keep yapping during the routines, saying something like "Now keep watching right here. I saw him do this in the warm-ups and he's about to..." Yeah -- we're about to see it for ourselves! They constantly pointed out mistakes, which I understand that's part of it, but the way they did it was really jarring: "That was a mistake! He was supposed to go into a ..." I felt that negative tone kind of robbed some of the events from having the prestige of the Olympics.

Ato Boldin was terrible. He blew it on the women's 400. The US girl obviously tweaked something down the stretch. She grimaced and her stride changed but neither announcer even noticed it. They then went so far as to basically call her a liar when she mentioned it in the post-race interview.

You left out Mary Carillo. I know she was doing sidebar stuff on China but she is a great tennis announcer and she seems authentic. Love to listen to her and I appreciate her sincerity.

You probably don't watch soccer, but Marcelo Balboa is the worst analyst for the game.



Jim Kozimor and Steve Kearney for badminton were losers. What the heck is a butterfly with sore feet? And since when did we need to ask if there needs to be a specific temperature to play badminton?


NBC in general, lost me.


Remember those 10 sports that AA posted that would be covered from New York? They lied, I counted 14 of 34 events.



They all can't stop talking, and Mike Breen and Dan Hicks were the lone stars for me for announcing.



Costas ticked me off with asking Jacques Rogge about China's human rights. What's the need to do that? It's sports, not a time to bring in politics.


NBC gets an F-.

RS27- Winner is an all-encompassing term. I didn't think he was that great overall but that one call will be the only thing people remember.

Collin- Good call on Daggett.

Chad- I remember seeing that go down, but it was more the analyst than those in the booth. In fact, Tom Hammond called out the reporter for it after the fact.

California Girl- Another good call.

SS Reporters- Ha, you obviously know my Soccer viewing habits. I did watch a good bit and JP Dec was on every game I saw.
________

Good discussion everyone....keep it coming. It's okay to disagree.

I agree with the Kiraly pick. A lot of people like to be snarky about beach volleyball, but it's an entertaining sport to watch when there's no commercial breaks and a good mix of pure power and good rallies.

I think what NBC will have to answer for is not wanting something to air in the morning and in the evening. The 100 meters that Bolt one could have run live (one of the basketball games preempted it), then buzz builds throughout the day and you play it again. Sure, they can't anticipate greatness, but it's the 100! SportsCenter can't use the highlights, so you're going to get the appointment viewing either way.

AA I agree with your assessments with the exception of Hicks who I like for the most part on golf. His call of the 4 x 100 will go down as one of the most annoying in history. It was loud and ridicules. He also screwed up Hoff as well. He was awful. He should be replaced with Teddy Atlas who explained everything impeccably in boxing.

I believe the stars of the Olympics were
1) Ato Bolden, who explained everything clearly and pulled no punches when talking about U.S. failures.
2) Bob Costas who had a better interview with Bush then any other broadcaster in his eight years and I think it caught the President off guard.
3) Tom Hammond and Mike Breen just seem consistently good no matter what they do.

Chad there was nothing wrong with Sonya Richards. Why did she run the anchor leg in the relay then? She choked and there was nothing wrong with Bolden saying it.

The biggest failure was by far NBC not carrying the men's indoor volleyball final live. With the magnitude of everything at stake from the fact the gold medal was up for grabs, to this team not even being expected to make the medal round, to most importantly what coach Hugh McCutchen (sic?) has been through. It was must see TV and NBC waited 20 HOURS to show it. That is simply shameful. Thank God for the CBC who covered it live. They usually ended their coverage at 1:00am eastern but not this time because they knew what the storyline was.

No mention of Tom Hammond? I thought he was, as usual, very good at calling events. He's easy to listen to and he seems to work well with pretty much anyone.

NBC still has an old-school view of the world where they value their sponsors more than they value their viewers. I woke up halfway through the Wimbledon final and thought I was watching a tape delay because every other event was maddeningly delayed 3 hours for the West Coast to view. God forbid we miss the Today Show, society will collapse.

Let's not even forget the strong arm tactics NBC used to keep us from watching the track and field events until 20 hours after the event kicked off. I searched on Eurofeeds or the CBC but ultimately gave up. Hard to get ramped up for Usain Bolt when we've heard the results from Deadspin and AA beforehand.

I'll crap on ESPN for their talking heads, but I'll give them this: They actually show their big sports live.

The diving girl was annoying

Tom Hammond is money. I thought Costas v Bush was electric and thought The Prez was very insightful, honest and firm that just because we want idealogical change we can't expect it to happen. Good for both.
Ted Robinson, I think, is as underrated as there is. Solid work for him.
Dan Hicks just bothers me.
Al Trautwig needs to write for the West Wing. Over the top.
Overall, I will put up with 2 weeks of miscellaneous competition versus watching any TV shows.

What about Andrea Joyce making everyones, especially my, favorite gymnast Alicia Sacramone cry. Not cool.

Ato Bolden was awful. Everything that happened was the MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!

That hyperbolic crap gets on my last nerve.

AA,

How can you take a cheap shot at Teddy Atlas? Him and Papa made the boxing even remotely watchable. He doesn't have a perfect TV voice, but he tells it like it is. While all the NBC talking heads were glorifying everything olympics, Atlas was intelligently critiquing the judges, referees, scoring system, olympic boxing committee, USA boxing etc. He's refreshingly honest and that really stood out during an event like the olympics. Not to mention the fact that Atlas really does know the strategy of boxing and his fight plans are usually right on point.

Then again, if you didn't watch a minute of olympic boxing, I can't blame you. It was boring as hell and the scoring sucks.

Douglas- Sorry, that was just a bad joke. I really do like Atlas and even though there are times you can't really understand him, he knows his stuff. I love the demonstrations with Papa in the ring. He's also very "Bela" in portraying his love of the Sport.

And yes....Olympic Boxing is terrible to watch.

I can't stand listening to Mary "It's a man, baby!" Carillo. Anything she says is overwhelmed by that poor man's Bea Arthur voice.

I know you had two basketball guys in the winners, but sixers color guy Bob Salmi is real good and he's a nice guy too.

The soccer coverage was unwatchable. God, I hate Marcelo Balboa, and they cut to break at the most abrupt times.

Doug Collins could not shut up about 1972. Good Lord.

I give the general coverage a C minus. Not having anything live outside of the men's hoops final on the West Coast knocked off major points and generally turning the entire coverage into a Chinese Tourism Ministry ad with real political issues surrounding the awarding of the games to Beijing and promises broken to the IOC by BOCOG should merit something.

I thought the coverage was solid... glad to see you gave props to "Canadian" Tim Ryan, one of the vastly underrated announcers of all-time.

Overall, a good assessment, AA.

Bolton was pretty good..he, certainly, needs to work on his "dramatics." A timing thing, really.

Carillo? Can't watch her. I tried closing my eyes and just listening. No better! She has that annoying "my mouth is full of cotton" thing that many broadcasters(mostly Fems) can't seem to shake.

Daggett & Co. were tough to take. Did anyone else notice how quiet they(CC's) got when things were going wrong for an American gymnast? Too emotionally involved, me thinks.

The Diving chick was awful. Way too condescending.

Kiraly was AWESOME! At one point in the Women's final(I think) Walsh spiked and he said the Blue and Yellow striped ball went so fast it turned Green. Topnotch.

NBC did a good job, in my book. Maybe if I lived out West I'd feel differently. I don't, so screw 'em.

alright AA i agree with 90% of this. I watched every event of the olympics, no joke, (not every second), but i caught a bit of every sport. Therefore i recgonize most of these announcers.
Here are my thoughts:

Your Winners:
You nailed everything on here, EXCEPT, I was dissapointed you didnt have anything on Teddy Atlas. He was funny, terrible, unbearable at the same time. If anyone saw "Teddy's Corner" you know what I mean.

Few you missed:
Mary Carillo
Tom Hammond

Your Losers-
Rowdy Gaines: He really wasnt that bad, he might be one of the reasons some people now know a little more about swimming. He really was educating, despite his Doug Colliness.

Al Trautwig: I tend to like him. He is knowladgable on Gymnastics. He also sounds like a Gymnast announcer, not obnoxious or loud, he just has the right tone and voice for it. Yah he said things that tended t be biased or stretches of the truth. But he just seems like the right guy for Gymnastics.

Cynthia Potter:
Deffinetley agree. She was nausiating. She made up more words than a freaking first grader. Words like enthuiasticism were thrown out there. Also she talked about how the divers enter the water with little slash due to AERO-dynamic forces. Clearly she isnt the brightest women.

Tim Daggett!!!!:
He is obnoixous, whats your thought on him? He was almost like Doug Collins, he talked sometimes about his days as a gymnast. Also (i was biased towards the US) he was biased towards the Americans even whe Bela Karolyi didnt have any complaints. He also doesnt apparently think anyone is good...at all. And i could care less he watched warmups. His job is covering Gymnastics, those girls have been doing the same rooutines for 2-4 years now.

Ato Bolden:
WASNT BAD. BUT words like Grimacing, Unbelievable and Greatest were used in every sentence he spoke while watching the replays of all the runs.

By the way Tom Hammond looks like Heat Miser and Cold Miser had a baby.

http://www.biggerboat.net/snowmiser

Overall, the games were great, and I am going to miss them greatly.

bob costas was bad and came off as unlikeable.

i actually enjoyed Bob Costas and his interviews were enjoyable. I don't care what you say i am glad he talked about the issues because it seemed like no one cared. Don't tell you don't want politics with your sports because 1) half of theses events weren't even sports 2) we live in the 21st century and a lot of the viewers are educated and care about the world and NBC wasn't only targeting joe six pack to watch. telling people china has awful human rights isn't exactly, john f kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner", if hearing about it really makes you that upset while bob is talking in between rhythmic gymnastics then i am so sorry, i hope for the next olypics NBC will be considerate enough not to mix politics and "Sports"

To me, it doesn't matter what percentage of the country got the events live. All I know is that I didn't - and nor did any of the other 37 million people who live here in California, the biggest population of any state in America, and more people that over half the countries of the world.

NBCOlympics.com should have had the track and field finals live; unfortunately, greed and old-school thinking consumed them.

Rowdy Gaines and Ato Bolton were obnoxious! They sounded as if they were trying out for WWE.

Finally, a warning to those who used the CBC as a "backdoor" for live sporting events: You won't find the Olympics on the CBC anymore. As of 2010, rights to show the Games in Canada will be transferred to CTV. I know CTV has an affiliate in Vancouver, but I don't know about Windsor, Ontario.

You won't find the Olympics on the CBC anymore. As of 2010, rights to show the Games in Canada will be transferred to CTV.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, the closest CTV affiliate to Windsor (where I sponged most of the live stuff from CBC) is in London and not offered on cable or even very accessible over-the-air for most of SE Michigan. Dammit.

You omitted a relative newcomer Ron Vaccaro who did the racewalk. He was pretty phenomenal in his first Olympic Games. He did a great job bringing excitement to a somewhat dull event. Also, Tom Hammond is the most underrated announcer out there and, if anything, the most versatile.