Olympics TV

I want to know what the Olympic coverage is like in the states, or other countries. Are most of the events broadcast, are the highlights and stats? Do the broadcasts focus on the US teams? What is the commentary like?

Olympic coverage here is interesting. All coverage is provided by the state run CCTV (Chinese Central TV station). There are about 4 separate CCTV channels broadcasting Olympic coverage of some sort and several others not. One channel was even renamed from CCTV 5 to CCTV Olympics.

Chinese events, especially potential Chinese gold medal events are the main focus. What else would you expect. Gold medal replays are frequent, repetitive, and glorious. I bet you havent seen the three women's weightlifting gold medalists lifting their final weight over 30 times. I have. I have seen more slow motion jumping and running replays of the young Chinese gymnastic team than I want. I keep going down the list of the 17+ gold medals china has already won. There is great pride in the athletes, and there should be. The Chinese athletes have done
very well thus far.

The sporting commentary is not what I remember from watching in the states. The Chinese commentators are very critical of the foreign athletes. They might me critical of the Chinese athletes as well, but the only events I have seen broadcast have all resulted Chinese gold
medals and nothing but praise for the outstanding performance of the Chinese athletes. Is it like this in the US as well? I dont remember as much critical commentary. There lots of comments on form, style, execution, balance, strength, coordination....and on and on. The commentary for last night's China vs. Austria pingpong was particularly critical of the Austrian's form and style. The Austrian lost.

I am off in a few hours for the heart of china. I expect to find it beautiful, clean, full of foreigners, and helpful Chinese youth dressed in blue.