How Good is Olympic Fencing Coverage in the U.S.A.??

[jbenjamin]

This is about my first year of fencing, and I'm wondering (because of the Olympics being next year in Beijing): How good is Olympic fencing coverage in the U.S.? Will it be on cable T.V.? or will you have to pay to watch it?

[HDG]

Basically nonexistent I'm afraid.

[jbenjamin]

wow... thats very depressing... do you know where i can watch it?

[rustica]

I am hopeful that television coverage will improve over Athens. After all, we most likely (we being USA) will have a strong defense of the Gold in Women's Sabre. Our women are growing stronger and stronger in foil, thus demanding more attention from the network.

If there isn't television coverage, there will be internet links. That's how we viewed it from Athens. The buffering was a serious annoyance, but better technology from 4 years ago should take care of that problem.

[seven6ty]

I was about to say, whoa, we have olympic fencing coverage now??

[the ancient one]

Historically the best way to get fencing coverage is to break a blade and injure your opponent. That can get you one or two minutes of air time, but a lot of repeats.

I remember the Lipitsky (phonetic) run through the chest footage got lots of airplay.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

There is a rumor--and a pretty sound one--that IF the US puts a fencer in the medal rounds in Beijing, NBC will provide substantial primetime coverage.

Now, some of us remember that there was a fairly significant full-bout viewing opportunity in Athens on Bravo, which was transferred to the "primetime" slot when Mariel went for the gold medal. There, the coverage, as I recall, shrank to the last couple of touches and flag waving after the fact.

Better than nothing, but nothing to get all verklempt about.

Hopefully, if the US repeats in the medal round, NBC will cover itself in glory.

[oiuyt]

Starting with Athens all Olympic sports get at least SOME coverage on one of the various NBC-affiliated networks. For fencing, as mentioned, that was pretty much exclusively on Bravo, with the exception of the ~3 minutes of primetime NBC coverage when Mariel won (nearly the entire L4 and bronze medal bouts were shown on Bravo earlier that day).

I'd expect we'll improve slightly on Athens. Perhaps a bit more than slightly with a repeat performance from our athletes.

-B

[jbenjamin]

for other countries, is fencing coverage the same as in the U.S? is it non-existent also?

[veeco]

France has great coverage, with color commentary done by ex-Olympic champions (Athens was covered by Philippe Boisse). They will show the medal rounds live on the national, government owned programs, but do have a bias towards French fencers, as in they might show only the last half of a bout if no French fencer is present.

I do recall that during Athens, the French commentators said that the Women's Sabre medal rounds were delayed because the US networds wanted some other event to finish before showing fencing in the US. In the end, it didn't really benefit the fencers, as they both had to wait with their gear on the strip. If that's the territory that comes with having fencing on TV in the US, I think I'd prefer not to have it.

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by veeco

I do recall that during Athens, the French commentators said that the Women's Sabre medal rounds were delayed because the US networds wanted some other event to finish before showing fencing in the US. In the end, it didn't really benefit the fencers, as they both had to wait with their gear on the strip. If that's the territory that comes with having fencing on TV in the US, I think I'd prefer not to have it.

That seems somewhat unlikely. I recall the L4 and Bronze bouts taking place at the end of the 5pm-8pm scheduled timeslot, then immediately cutting over to NBC for the brief clip of Mariel winning as the start of the primetime segment.

If the actual events were delayed that would have the medal rounds going at about 1am and the gold at 2am.

NBC has gone away from live coverage of almost all of the events of the Olympics when they're not in the Western Hemisphere. Here's a schedule from 2004 (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...z1s13pg10.html) where you can see how few events are listed as live.

Sounds like NBC was being made a convenient scapegoat.

-B

[edew]

Does everyone agree that ABC with Jim McKay did a helluva better job at showing the Olympics than NBC with whoever (Jim Lampley? Bob Costas?)

Even though ABC did start the "Up Close and Personal" BS, they did show the sports without having cutaways to something completely irrelevant every 30 seconds.

Maybe I'm misremembering....

[larkmaj]

Just about all the events in Athens were taped then aired, which made it rather difficult to watch when somebody would check the results online and stand there saying "I know what happens".

Originally Posted by Capt. Slo-mo

There is a rumor--and a pretty sound one--that IF the US puts a fencer in the medal rounds in Beijing, NBC will provide substantial primetime coverage.

The president of the USFA said this at the last CC.

Originally Posted by Capt. Slo-mo

Now, some of us remember that there was a fairly significant full-bout viewing opportunity in Athens on Bravo, which was transferred to the "primetime" slot when Mariel went for the gold medal. There, the coverage, as I recall, shrank to the last couple of touches and flag waving after the fact.

I remember that, we saw both semi-final bouts in their entirety, then the Bronze medal bout on Bravo, they then said that coverage for the Gold medal will be on NBC shortly. We waited excited to see it, and they showed highlights of the last few touches Mariel scored I think. Which is like showing baseball highlights of a couple runners crossing the plate. Needless to say I was not happy.

[piste off]

Originally Posted by edew

Does everyone agree that ABC with Jim McKay did a helluva better job at showing the Olympics than NBC with whoever (Jim Lampley? Bob Costas?)

No doubt. Lampley is an idiot and Costas probably just used the opportunity to try to be witty.

McKay was a class act.

Rick

[parrythis]

Originally Posted by edew

Does everyone agree that ABC with Jim McKay did a helluva better job at showing the Olympics than NBC with whoever (Jim Lampley? Bob Costas?)....

I do miss Jim McKay and ABC's Wide World of sports and seeing Vinko Bogataj go tumbling off that ski jump week after week after week to exemplify "the agony of defeat".

[Craig]

For the last Olympic Games a number of forum members were watching a live feed of the fencing events as they were streamed from an Italian web site. It was very cool to be watching the bouts in one window and contributing to the running commentary in another window.

Luckily for me, I'll be watching it live and then figuring out the fastest way to get writeups out on the site.

Craig

[Gav]

Originally Posted by Craig

For the last Olympic Games a number of forum members were watching a live feed of the fencing events as they were streamed from an Italian web site. It was very cool to be watching the bouts in one window and contributing to the running commentary in another window.

Luckily for me, I'll be watching it live and then figuring out the fastest way to get writeups out on the site.

Craig

Where are the feed this time around?

[jbenjamin]

Craig, what's the live feed you'll be watching?

[DJ Apostrophe]

Originally Posted by jbenjamin

Craig, what's the live feed you'll be watching?

He'll be watching the before his eyes feed, with amazing panoramic qualities... it is going to feel like he's there... because he's going to be. (Lucky bastard)

-w

[pokey]

Originally Posted by Craig

Luckily for me, I'll be watching it live and then figuring out the fastest way to get writeups out on the site.

So jealous! That sounds very cool.

Is this where one of us suggests chipping in for a satellite phone and a transcriber?