Sochi 2014 Olympic Update (Day 9)
There is no question that the Olympics are the biggest sporting event right now as the entire spots world has seemingly paused for the games. Every year that the Olympics are on the same thing happens as the focus turns to the greatest displays of sports in the world. The athletes nobody sees for four years become heroes while sports that nobody cares about in between the Olympics suddenly become main draws. It is the Olympic phenomena and because of this popularity there is always a battle to become the official sponsor or official supplier of the Olympics or an Olympic team. It is a big process and those who win get plenty from it as they are officially attached to the Olympics and benefit from the popularity. There is another run for the Olympics that is taken on in every country around the world as TV stations look to bid for the rights to the Olympics. It is one of the largest part of any Olympics as every major TV network vies for the rights to the Olympics in order to be the go-to network for Olympic coverage. When the Olympics are on they dominate the airways and for a network with the rights to the Olympics that means that they will have more people watching their channel than any other time during the year. This makes these rights an extremely important thing and networks around the world look for the chance to get that opportunity. Some of the biggest network in the world go for the rights to the Olympics with networks like the BBC and Sky all go for rights wherever they can get them. Of course some of the biggest talk about rights is in the area of the world that has taken coverage of sports to a new level. In North America rights to major sporting events are big business and with so many sports networks it is hard to not see every type and level of sports somewhere. When it comes to Olympic rights it is only the largest of networks that have a chance and they pay a premium for the opportunity. For the Sochi Olympics Canada and the USA have been watching CBC, Canada’s government owned national broadcaster, and NBC, that has been showing the Olympics since 1988. NBC would earn the rights with a $4.38 billion bid that will give them the rights until 2020 while the CBC would earn the rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympics, financial details were not released. Both have had plenty of experience in hosting the Olympics but they are both entering broadcasting in a completely different era. In 2012 the Canadian broadcaster, CTVGlobeMedia, took Olympic coverage to a new level when they would broadcast every single event of the London Games. They would have constant live coverage and replays on their main networks, CTV and TSN while sharing some with Sportsnet, and would put everything else online so that fans would not miss anything throughout the two weeks. The effort was noticed across the border in the USA where NBC would show everything on tape delay and would leave the online content aside. The network would get a lot of negative feedback for that as they many would see the coverage in Canada and wonder where they could get the same level of coverage. When the 2014 Olympics approached both CBC and NBC had the tough task of following up that coverage by making sure they had live coverage, despite the time difference, and plenty of online content to ensure nobody would miss anything. CBC has done it successfully this year as the level of coverage is the same if not more with live coverage in the early hours of the day and online content to ensure that every event can be seen. NBC has once again brought about the frustration of Olympic fans in the USA as the main network has little to no live coverage while NBC Sports Network is showing the live coverage. NBC Sports Network is not the main network and that is what has been annoying fans in the USA since the start of the Olympics. The live coverage is lacking in the USA but the one thing that has annoyed more people than anything else is that the USA has a tendency to show American athletes and nobody else. Fans are not seeing complete coverage of events as they show the American athletes then cut away to a different event. It has been a frustrating year again for Olympic fans in the USA and many are turning north of the border to Canada to find coverage as some have resorted to buying a Canadian IP address to view the online coverage from the CBC. There has even been a petition started to take the rights away from NBC, although that cannot happen, that has shown the fans are fed up. It has been a pattern of the NBC coverage and with the rights in the USA given to NBC until 2020 US fans can only hope that the 2016 Olympics on NBC will move into this century as fans are not happy and more may abandon the US coverage for the Canadian coverage if something isn’t changed.
Canadian Story:
Breaking the Streak
Jan Hudec would become the first Canadian in 20 years to win a medal in Alpine skiing when he tied Bode Miller for the Bronze medal in the Men’s Super-G giving Canada another medal to start the day
Racing Starting with Silver
Ski-Cross and Snowboard Cross were considered one of the strong points of the Canadian Olympic team and in the first day of medals for these events Dominique Maltais would show why winning a silver medal in Snowboard Cross
Canada’s First Test
It was the toughest game for the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team this year as they would take on Finland and it was a close one as both teams would not give up much with Canada’s Drew Doughty scored in overtime to put them into the Quarter-finals but out of the top spot
Continuing the Streak
Jennifer Jones has been on fire from the start of the Olympics as she would remain undefeated in the women’s curling tournament and would earn a spot in the semi-finals with her 8th win in a row while Brad Jacobs would earn his own spot in the semi-finals with his 6th and 7th win
Day 9 Medal Results:
Alpine Skiing
Men’s Super-G
1. Kjetil Jansrud (Norway)
2. Andrew Weibrecht (USA)
3. Jan Hudec (Canada)
3. Bodie Miller (USA)
Cross-Country
Men’s Relay
1. Sweden
2. Russia
3. France
Snowboarding
Women’s Snowboard Cross
1. Eva Samkova (Russia)
2. Dominique Maltais (Canada)
3. Chloe Trespeuch (France)
Speed Skating
Women’s 1,500m
1. Jorien Ter Mors (Netherlands)
2. Ireen Wust (Netherlands)
3. Lotte van Beek (Netherlands)
Day 10 Medal Events:
Biathlon
Women’s 12.5km Mass Start
Men’s 15km Mass Start
Bobsled
Two-Man Boblsed
Figure Skating
Ice Dance Free Skate (Final Event)
Freestyle Skiing
Men’s Aerials
Ski Jumping
Men’s Team Finals
Snowboard
Men’s Snowboard-Cross Finals
The Sport Addiction 