Vancouver Olympics, the view from Germany

I''ve been watching the Olympics on German TV the last two weeks (What can I say, I'm a sport junkie).  I've notice a certain German perspective to the games from what I'm use to.

Having the games in western North  America is not ideal for European viewers and that may be one reason for what I've noticed. We are 9 hours ahead of Vancouver. That means 8 pm prime time in German is 11 am in Vancouver. So what we see have been predominately outdoor events that happen in the early afternoon.

But still, for awhile there it seem that every day I turned on the Olympics during prime time I saw ski jumping in some form or the other. It is hard to believe that this was just a scheduling fluke. There must be some deep German fascination with the sport. Certainly it is one that they have done well with in the past. But I don't think their results from this Olympics was up to their standards.

All these events look pretty much the same to me. Some relatively small, skinny guy wearing an over-sized, one piece suit slides on a board out the the center of the jump. He then places his over-sized skis into the pre-made tracks and places is goggles over his eyes. Then he pushes off the board, tucks, slides down the jump, springs at the end of the jump, takes an aerodynamic position that combined with the over-sized skis and suit creates some lift and flies down the hill. Scoring is some combination of how long the jump was, the position in the air and how well the jump was landed (although the person with the longest jump usually wins).

Somehow, they get 6 events out of this, but it looked to me like there were only 2 groups of athletes, one group that was pure ski jumpers, and another that competed in the combined (ski-jumping was used to determine the order of the start in a cross country race). Seemed to me that two events would do.

When not watching ski jumping, we would be getting cross country skiing/biathlon. Curling was the number three sport, but I do consider this a scheduling thing. I think Curling is one of those sports that is going on every day, all day at the Olympics. So if there is any air time that needs to be filled, Curling is available.

Alpine skiing was also prominent. But the way that they place the skiers in the event, TV can cover the whole event in a relatively short amount of time.

Bobsled and Luge also was closely covered. Understandable because Germany has always done well.

Speed skating (long track) events where Germany was expected to do well were covered in prime time. Those were Germans were not expected to do well, like the men's 1000 and 1500 meter where USA's Shani Davis won gold and silver, only had their results announced. 

What was not covered in prime time, or only shown briefly?

• Profiles of the athletes. The broadcasts were much more about the sport, that the personal lives of the athletes. They did bring some of the German athletes in to the studio for interviews after their events, win or lose. These did tend to be more than the two or three question interviews that we are use to. All the athletes seemed well-spoken and in-tune with the "Olympic-spirit".
• Figure skating coverage was limited to the pairs, where the Germans won silver.
• Ice Hockey games have been shown at 6 am. The German TV has been anticipating the Canada-USA match-up today. It will take place at 9:15 pm. I'll be watching.
• Short track speed skating was relegated to 2 or 3 am. The first I saw in prime time was last night, they showed the finish of a couple of races, an exchange in a men's team event, and the DQ of Ohon (I think from the 500m). In total, less than 90 seconds.
• Snowboarding and free-style skiing events were also relegated to early mornings. Skeleton events, likewise.
• Cut-aways prior to commercials or to fill between events were much more about the nature of beauty of western Canada, that about what was happening in the city of Vancouver.