Winter Sports
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Winter Olympics and Super Bowl Provide Cold Weather Televised Thrills
Who among our audiences has not celebrated the guilty pleasures associated with snow days?
Perhaps our readers in tropics and subtropics where snow is an oddity haven’t enjoyed the no-school-no-work unscheduled holiday, but much of the planet has rolled a snowball, ridden a Flexible Flyer, or been abruptly sat down on the ice.
For close to a hundred years the snow-curious and snowbound communities of the world have been staging a winter sports Olympics.
The 2022 Winter Olympics begin on February 4, in Beijing, China.
The best skating, skiing, and sledding athletes from nearly 200 countries will compete for medals in winter sports including:
Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Bobsled, Curling, Figure Skating, Hockey, Luge, Nordic Combined, Short Track, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, Speed Skating.
In the weeks preceding the February 4 start of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, SportsEdTV will regularly publish a basic look at a single event and link to network in depth coverage courtesy of NBC Olympics.
For a head start, via the above-highlighted links to NBC's Olympics 101 learn details the basic elements in many competitions. Navigating from there you’ll also find athlete profiles, broadcast schedules, even likely medalists.
Luge or Skeleton?
For example, though Luge and Skeleton are sledding sports conducted on the same downhill iced and curvy track and reach speed as fast as 90 miles per hour, Skeleton’s belly down headfirst versus Luge's feet first, on-the-back riding differences are obvious, but there is more to learn.
In Luge the sled is aerodynamically designed fiberglass with curved edges. This allows the feet first, face up driver some control in the race against the clock. The sled is 6 to 9 inches longer than the Skeleton sled which is nearly 40 pounds heavier than the luge.
While the head-first face-down Skeleton slider appears to be more dangerous, it is considered to be the safest of all sliding sports. Skeleton control is easier, using weight shifts and fine body movements compared to the Luge requirement to steer by pressing the sled's runners with the driver's leg calves. The difference tends to cause fewer Skeleton wipeouts.
SportsEdTV’ s hats are off to our media cousins NBC Universal for their thorough 2022 Winter Olympics preparations which include scheduling, profiling, and pre-game analysis, as part of their $7.65 million rights purchase that extends through the 2032 games.
While we have a nodding acquaintance with Molly Solomon, NBC Emmy winning Olympic Executive Producer, we can’t wait to hear behind the scenes tales of sports broadcasting most ambitious 48 hours as the network takes on the heretofore unimaginable task of live televising the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics on the same weekend.
In addition, to live coverage of training, competitions, and opening and closing ceremonies, NBC will make replays of all events available to stream on Peacock immediately after they end, as well as daily programming, medal ceremonies, and other coverage.
Solomon says, “This approach provides audiences with a dynamic, easy-to-use Olympic viewing hub where not a single moment, live or on-demand, will be missed.”
For those of us who have face-planted into a foot of fresh powder or strapped on a pair of Bauer Vapors, we're grateful to be able to couch potato the Winter Olympics-- especially if, two days before the games begin, Punxsutawney Phil signals from his Gobbler’s Nob, PA groundhog’s lair an accurate prediction that spring is right around the corner.
