I've got the Olympic fever and the only cure is more cowbell. Did you see that 4x100m relay on Monday (China's Monday, our Sunday)? Incredible! And I missed it, but brass' August cover story, Stephanie Cox, provided the assist on the only goal of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team win over Japan on Saturday. The U.S. then went on to win against New Zealand today--they’re in the quarterfinals. But the Olympics isn’t just about the athletes. It’s also about the fans. Here’re some stats from this year’s games:
- 450,000 foreign visitors were expected to visit China for the Olympics.
- 220 nations are broadcasting the games.
- $1.7 billion were collected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for broadcast rights.
- $146 for a ticket to basketball games--the most expensive event.
- $7 for a ticket to the shooting events--the cheapest event.
- 30.4 million viewers, on average, have been tuning into the NBC prime-time U.S. broadcast of the Olympics.
- 11.1 million Olympic video streams have been viewed so far on nbcolympics.com.
Happy viewing and feel free to leave a comment--tell me about more stats, relive your favorite Olympic moment, or link a video of some random Olympic sport that you got caught up watching. --Jens (Photo credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Hey Jens. Great post. I love watching the games on TV so far. Still, you're right in saying the games are not just about the athletes, it's also about the spectacle--and China (as the host country) putting its best face forward to show the world.
The opening ceremony last week looked breath taking, and at the center of it all was a little girl singing "Ode to the Motherland." She was certainly the little darling of the show... the thing is it wasn't actually her singing. The real little girl whose voice we heard was apparently deemed "not cute enough" looks wise by officials. Check out the article on CNN here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/oly.kids/index.html
I'll still enjoy the games, but this certainly makes me think more about the concept of "saving face" and how much of China's "face" at the Olympics is just for show.
Wow, apparently even at the Olympics, where a premium is placed on talent over looks, talent isn't enough. That's pretty disturbing. What's more disturbing is that China is covering up other things as well, http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/china.promises/
Hey Jens,
It looks like that might not be the only thing China is covering up.
http://torontosun.com/Sports/Beijing2008/2008/08/21/6532021.html
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