Normally in sports when I think of Alexander the Great, I have to admit that I think of Alex Ovechkin. This time around, though, it’s for Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada. Bilodeau is the first Canadian to win a gold medal on Canadian soil and though I’m very pro USA (being born and raised here) for the Olympics, I’m thrilled that he was able to accomplish this goal and to please everyone in Canada. When I heard NBC mentioning that Canada had never won a gold medal in a home Olympics before (having hosted two previous Olympic Games), I was stunned.

The excitement on everyone’s faces as Bilodeau won the gold medal for Men’s Moguls was amazing to watch and must have been great to experience in person. I’m so happy for everyone who was able to attend that event (and the medal ceremony I just got to watch, since prime time is delayed 3 hours on the west coast). Everyone they showed in the audience for the medal ceremony looked very proud to be singing their national anthem at a medal ceremony at home. I’m sure like many great moments in sports history many people who weren’t there will say they were present, but those who really got to experience those moments in person will surely never forget them.

Congratulations to the Canadian Alexandre the Great! He managed to take the lead and win the first gold medal for Canada at home. This surely takes some of the pressure off of the other Canadian Olympians, though I’m sure the men’s ice hockey team still feels a great deal of pressure to win gold.

As a side note, I’m no happier with the skating rules that allow someone who falls to win a medal (which happened in Torino) than I was when it happened in Torino. Ice skating and gymnastics just are not the same since they messed with the scoring.

As unimpressed as I’ve been with the reporters at the events in general (swimming & gymnastics, especially), I have really enjoyed the interviews in the studio with the athletes. I definitely have to give NBC some credit for doing a lot of those this Olympics. I really think it’s cool that they interviewed Arron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, & Jason Lezak without Michael Phelps and giving them a bit of the attention they deserve. Don’t get me wrong, I think Michael Phelps is probably the most amazing Olympian of all time and probably always will be, since he’s still very young. However, the other guys on that relay (especially Lezak, who did an amazing job in the freestyle relay) did a lot and deserve some credit. Without them (and Phelps’ other relay teammates), Phelps couldn’t have broken the record of 7 gold medals in one Olympics.

I was glad to see that the Chinese women got the bronze medal as well as the silver in beach volleyball. Of course, the match happened before the gold medal match last night, but I didn’t find out until after I got home and was able to watch Very cool for them to get their first two medals in beach volleyball when the Olympics are at home. It was the first time since beach volleyball was introduced to the Olympics that Brazil didn’t get a medal – they must be pretty devastated.

Kerri Walsh & Misty May-Treanor were the only Americans I’d noticed who actually sang the National Anthem until the women’s soccer team later in the day. It was great to see them win the gold medal again (in an exciting game that went into extra time, since it was scoreless at the end of regulation).

I can’t believe Japan won gold in softball. I guess that’s what can happen when you go into a game with everyone wondering if the other team will even score, rather than fighting to win. The US women must be crushed… Most of the games the US women played started out with the commentators wondering if the other team would get a hit, not if the other team would win. I didn’t watch the game, since I don’t find it very interesting when a team dominates a sport so much. I stopped paying attention to the US softball team years ago.

As a big volleyball fan, I can’t wait to see the US women’s volleyball team playing for the gold (after sweeping the match against Cuba). They’ll play Brazil in the finals. Brazil hasn’t lost a single set so far in the 2008 Olympics. Hopefully, the US will break that streak.

Until Wang Chen of the US beat South Korea’s Kim Kyung-ah to advance to the quarterfinals, the US had never had an Olympian get that far. Wang, born in China, had a lot of friends at the match and dropped to her knees crying when she won. It was an amazing match and is the first time anyone from the US has made it to the quarterfinals and Gao Jun of the US was eliminated just barely, losing 4-3 to Wu Xue of the Dominican Republic.

I hate that they cut the beginning of the men’s quarterfinal match (22-21 USA when they started airing it). So sad! I love volleyball and clearly the game was good – a game can’t be that close without being pretty exciting. The commentator even mentioned it. They did win the first set 25-22. They turned around the second set (losing 16-13) to win 25-21. They dropped the third set 25-27 and the fourth set 22-25, but came back to win the 5th set 15-13. I can’t wait for the gold medal match! In the next quarterfinal match, the commentators were saying they think the US will be the team to beat in the gold medal match, no matter who moves on. I hope they’re right. No matter what, it should be a great match and it’s their first appearance in the finals since 1988.

I don’t remember ever seeing a jump-off for gold and bronze in the equestrian individual jumping event. Both the US competitors jumped part of the decoration and Beezie Madden successfully completed the course and beat the time set by the German rider who started the jump-off for bronze.

I thought they might cut out a lot of the gymnastics gala, since they only showed parts of it Wednesday night, but fortunately, they showed it on Oxygen in Thursday night’s coverage. As a former gymnast and lover of the sport, I like seeing the gymnasts just let go and have fun doing the sport they love at the end of the competition and I’m glad NBC didn’t decide to cut this as they did so much of the gymnastics throughout the Olympics. I’m sure they didn’t show us everything, since they’ve been cutting a lot all along, but they did show a lot of great performances at the gala.

The interviews with all the gymnasts were great, too. I think Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin are great, but my favorite gymnast on the women’s team was Alicia Sacramone. It’s sad that she still totally blames herself for the team getting silver instead of the gold. There was quite a bit of a difference in the scores. I really don’t think she should blame herself, though I’m sure as the leader of the team she feels responsible. A lot of the blame has to be placed on the judging. There’s no way around that. It’s so funny how a female gymnast at 21 is already getting old for the sport and thinking she probably won’t be able to compete in the next Olympics. Very sad, since Alicia is my favorite from the team, but it’s what I expected.

Go USA!

Last night’s Olympics coverage had some of the most shocking footage (to me) so far in the Olympics. Although perhaps they should have given Haley Ishimatsu (the 15-year-old diver who just missed qualifying for the platform diving, coming in 14th when the top 12 advanced) a bit more time before her interview, I understand wanting to talk to her before she left for the night. Surprisingly, the reporter asking Haley how it felt to be so close to qualifying and not make it seemed touched moved by Haley’s tears and tried to comfort her. I was shocked. It was nice to see a reporter for NBC seem to care about the feelings of one of the athletes at the Olympics. Normally, it seems like they’re cold-hearted and actually enjoy asking questions like “So, you just missed getting the gold by 1/1000 of a second – how do you feel?” and concentrating on the negative side, rather than saying something like “You just won the silver medal, beating out tons of other athletes – how do you feel?” I appreciate the fact that one of the reporters actually came across as caring about an athlete. I’m sure it won’t last, but it was a nice touch.

The men’s volleyball match against Italy yesterday was definitely exciting. I know that the USA wasn’t expected to win and it was a huge upset, but clearly I was rooting for the USA and was going nuts watching them. I’d be rooting for them anyway, but with UCI’s men’s volleyball coach (John Speraw) there as an assistant coach to the team, I really want them to do well! I’m excited that the men’s volleyball team moved on to the medal round and I hope to see them play for the gold. Go USA!

Of course, watching the women’s beach volleyball finals wasn’t too surprising. I figured Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor would win the gold and be the first team to win back-to-back gold medals in the Olympics (teams often aren’t even the same from Olympics to Olympics, it seems). I’m so happy that they were able to achieve their dream and move on with their lives now, though I’ll miss them in London if they’re too busy with their families to participate. They’re a lot of fun to watch on the AVP tour and in the Olympics. I did think that the Chinese team might win one of the sets against May-Treanor and Walsh. They are a very good team. It’s amazing to me that May-Treanor and Walsh were able to get through two entire Olympics without losing a single set. They did face set points against other teams, but they never actually lost a single set to another team in the Olympics. That’s amazing.

Usain Bolt broke the 200m world record Michael Johnson set in the Atlanta Summer Olympics in 1996. Many felt that Johnson’s record was untouchable, but Bolt proved them wrong. Even people who aren’t interested in track & field seem interested in world records being broken.

Those who were talking about all the excitement being over when Michael Phelps was done swimming and the gymnastics had ended are really missing out on the volleyball, beach volleyball, diving, track & field and many other sports that are still going on (it’d take too long to list them all). I can understand the people who are sick of hearing about the “Redeem Team” and not being interested in basketball (I feel the same), but there are tons of other sports to watch – even BMX racing, which can be kind of fun to watch. The gymnastics showcase pieces are enjoyable, too. It’s good to see the athletes relax after winning their medals and have fun out there. I realize I’m not biased, since I’m clearly addicted to the Olympics, but a lot of world records have been broken in Beijing and many are starting to argue what I believe (that Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time – he’s only 23 and he’s already surpassed the lifelong totals of everyone who’s ever participated in the Olympic games – imagine what he can do since he’s not done in the Olympics yet). How can one not be interested in the Olympics with so much happening?

Go USA!

The final night of gymnastics event finals was certainly exciting. It was great to see Shawn Johnson finally get a gold medal and having Shawn and Nastia finish 1-2 in the opposite order was nice. It’s actually what I expected on floor the night before and I was so happy to see the scores. When Cheng Fei’s score of 15.950 was displayed for balance beam when she had almost fallen off, I was very worried that the judges were determined to score another gymnastics event horribly and I would be disappointed by the end results. However, I ended up happy with the results for the first two spots. The fact that Cheng Fei got the bronze medal is horrible for Anna Pavlova of Russia. Pavlova came in 4th place with 15.900 and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that she deserved the bronze medal. Russia finished the 2008 Olympics without a single medal in gymnastics. I doubt anyone would have predicted that before the competition began.

Jonathan Horton’s performance on high bar was amazing and I was surprised that the crowd actually booed when his score of 16.175 (putting him in 2nd place) behind Zou Kai of China’s 16.2. It seems a lot of people there agreed with me and thought Horton should have gotten a higher score on execution. I think the execution score of 9.275 was a bit low, even though it was higher than Zou’s execution. What is it about high bar judging? The 2004 Summer Olympics’ high bar scores are what caused the uproar that led to the scoring system change. Remember when Alexei Nemov had to try to calm the crowd down after his horrible score before Paul Hamm competed? The great part of this year’s high bar competition is that Horton was clearly thrilled to get an individual medal and he knew that he did a great job on his routine and couldn’t have done much better. It’s always good to see Olympians truly enjoying the moment and last night was a great night for the US gymnastics team.

The China vs. China women’s beach volleyball match early yesterday morning was amazing. The one team goes on to play Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh in the finals, the other plays for the bronze. I’d be surprised if the Chinese teams don’t get two of the three medals in beach volleyball. I’m guessing silver and bronze, since I can’t see May-Treanor & Walsh losing their first match in about a year in the gold medal match. Both medal matches should be very exciting.

The USA women’s volleyball team upset Italy in a great match yesterday to advance to the semifinals. They definitely seemed like they didn’t have what it takes to beat Italy for a while, but came back to win the last two sets decisively (25-18 & 15-6) and advance. Hopefully, they’ll have what it takes to make it to the gold medal finals. Clearly, I wish all the US teams well, but I’m particularly interested in the men’s volleyball team, since one of the assistant coaches (John Speraw) is UCI’s men’s volleyball head coach and I go to as many of UCI’s matches as I can. After the tragedy the USA men’s volleyball head coach had to endure, it would be really nice to see a bit of an up side for him and for the men’s team to win gold. They’ve been looking very good so far.

I don’t know of anyone who watched Lolo Jones in the 100m hurdles who didn’t want to cry when they watched her hit the 9th hurdle. She was pretty far ahead of the pack and doing so well. Then, all of a sudden, she clipped the 9th hurdle and dropped behind to finish next to last. The fact that she was still able to pull herself together enough to finish the race (and not even come in last) is amazing to me. My heart went out to her (and her family) as they cried when her dreams of a gold medal were destroyed. Lolo’s 26 years old, so perhaps she can try again in the London Olympics in 2012, but it’s so sad to see someone doing that well and being completely at the top of her game and then faltering.

I just bought a copy of last week’s Sports Illustrated with Michael Phelps on the cover swimming. I haven’t read it all yet, but I did flip through and it’s almost all Olympics coverage. If you love the Olympics you should definitely pick up a copy while they’re still available. The Sports Illustrated where Phelps recreated the Mark Spitz cover (for more information, click here, supposedly hit news stands today, but my local book store gets the new issues on Friday, so I can’t comment on that issue yet. I’m sure it’s mostly Olympics coverage, too.

Go USA!

Like many gymnastics fans, I could talk about the reasons I disagree with the judging in the Olympics until the end of time. However, anything that is judged is subjective and some people will see breaks in form where others will not. I think the point about the countries with the best gymnasts not having anyone judge the competition to avoid bias is also hurting the judging. I thought that was why they had judges from various countries and dropped the low and high before averaging. The countries with the best gymnasts probably also have the best judges, right? Perhaps they should make sure that there is ALWAYS at least one judge from each country with a gymnast in the competition. They’re dropping low and high, so it should still work out even if the judges are biased, right? I’m sure everyone who’s been watching the Olympics could talk about their ideas to improve the judging, but I’m not sure there’s a really good solution to the problem.

All potential judging errors aside, I think it’s horrible that when there are ties in gymnastics they don’t give out two gold medals (or whatever medal they tied). Why? They used to give out two of the appropriate medal. I think they should go back to that policy. Poor Nastia looked heart broken. How is limiting the number of judges that give you the number making the judging better and able to break the tie? When you drop out the second lowest score and take the average, the person who got the two LOWEST scores out of the two who are tied is the one who wins. How is that the correct solution to the tie? At least in the vault (where the men tied) the solution makes a bit more sense. Of course, the gymnast with the highest score on one of his vaults is also the gymnast with the lowest score out of one of the two vaults or the averages would not be the same. So, again, one has to wonder if this is the right way to solve the problem of ties in gymnastics.

I vote for going back to both getting the medal and everyone being happy. Awarding two gold medals and one bronze totally works for me. I can’t remember ever being this annoyed with gymnastics scoring. They’ve been using this scoring for 3 years, but there have never been problems like this. Do they do things differently in the Olympics somehow or is it just luck (or lack thereof) of the draw? A scoring system allowing someone performing a vault horribly to get a medal and someone who performs a vault almost perfectly to finish out of the medal race when she had the best execution score needs to be examined more closely.

Side note on Track & Field – I could not believe Jenn Stuczynski (the American pole vaulter)’s coach. She’s only been pole vaulting for 4 years and she’s won silver, coming in second to the best pole vaulter in the history of the sport and she’s a disappointment? I understand wanting to win gold, but perhaps he should be a bit more realistic. Jenn had just won silver. She beat out everyone in the competition except for the woman who’s been dominating the sport for years. How about congratulating her for a job well done? I thought the reporters had been rude during the last couple Olympics, but for a coach to treat his athlete like that is embarrassing! I hope he has apologized by now.

Go USA!

First, I have to give NBC credit. Although none of the US men qualified for the floor event finals, they still showed us the competition. I’m also happy that we were able to see all 6 routines during the event finals, rather than just being shown the ones they thought were going to win the competition. Turns out that they were wrong a couple of times. It was nice to see the whole competition unfold and get to see the scores and performances of everyone in the competitions. Such a great change of pace!

The judging on the women’s vault completely blew my mind. How can someone fall or take a couple huge steps and get a better score than Alicia Sacramone, who had very good vaults? It seems that the way to go in the vaulting competition is to try the hardest vault possible, even if you’re going to land on your butt, since you’ll get credit for the vault and your deduction for falling will be counteracted by the high start value of the vault. They claimed to try to improve the integrity of the scoring for gymnastics because of the issues on high bar in the 2004 Summer Olympics, but the scores have been a joke this year. The vault competition was as bad as the 8.8 Shawn Johnson got in her execution score on beam when she performed her routine flawlessly. They have to be kidding with some of these scores.

In good news, I thought that the women’s floor event finals were very fairly judged. I’m not sure how the commentators could possibly think that Nastia’s routine was “perfect” or showed how she was “gymnastics royalty.” Her routine was not as solid as Shawn’s and when the comment was made that they thought the medal would be gold, I really thought the comment was about Shawn (who was being shown on camera at the time). When the thought was clarified and I understood that it was about Nastia, I was pretty stunned. Nastia Liukin is a great gymnast, don’t get me wrong. She earned her gold in the all-around – completely. However, Shawn’s floor routine was better and she deserved to score higher. When the score came up, I actually yelled at the TV. I was so happy. Clearly, I wanted Shawn to win gold and I think that perhaps if she’d been up later instead of first she would have had a shot at it. Sandra Izbasa of Romania did a wonderful job on floor and deserves her medal. As much as I wanted Shawn to win gold, it was nice to see a girl from the Romanian team get an individual medal. The team medal was quite a surprise, it seems, though we weren’t really shown enough of their routines to form our own opinion and I definitely don’t trust commentators who think Nastia is always better than Shawn even if Nastia bobbled more and Shawn was flawless. I’m not sure why they don’t like Shawn’s style. Everyone loved Mary Lou Retton and they have the same style of gymnastics. I actually think Shawn is cuter and just as bubbly, so why don’t the commentators adore her?

I hope to see better judging as the event finals continue. I haven’t read the results, which it seems are already available. Someone I work with wanted to talk to me about events I hadn’t seen yet. It’s sad that the gymnastics judging has become such a joke. I also don’t like that we get to see how each country’s judge scored diving, but we don’t get to see that for gymnastics any more. I really would like to see the trends, since some of the execution scores have seemed very off. I’d love the opportunity to talk to the judges about some of the scores given and find out how they could deduct so much from some great routines.

In spite of the frustrations, I can’t wait to get back to watching the Olympics. It seems to be all I do these days, but it is only a couple weeks.

As for some other Olympic sports, I was bummed to see Nicole Branagh & Elaine Youngs break down and not make it into the medal rounds for beach volleyball. I enjoy watching them on the AVP tour and really thought the US could take silver and gold this year, since they wouldn’t have to meet in the round before the gold medal match as they did last year. The only match Youngs & McPeak lost in the 2004 Olympics was to May & Walsh.

Go USA!

If you’re watching the Olympics closely (even if you’re just watching the prime time coverage), you probably saw the wonderful interview with Michael Phelps tonight. This really impressed me, since NBC has not been as good about showing cool specials on the background of the athletes this year as they have in previous Olympic telecasts, which I’ve really missed. I like the personal touch and to get to know a little bit about the athletes. I have enjoyed the special pieces they’ve done about Beijing, but I miss the close-up looks at the athletes…

In any case, during this interview, Michael Phelps mentioned that he’s checked Facebook a couple times since he was in Beijing and commented on how high school people who picked on him are trying to add him as a friend. What’s funny is that I think this happens to everyone on Facebook. I’m sure it’s worse for a celebrity – especially one who can make people like my dad (who never really pay attention to the Olympics) care about getting home in time to watch his races live.

However, I do think that once people grow up and get away from high school for a few years they realize how pointless it was to pick on kids because they were different (whether it was a different look, different clothes, glasses, …) and though they will probably never become true friends, the definiton of friend on Facebook is closer to that of acquaintance (and some people are “friends” with a lot of people they haven’t even met on Facebook, bringing the definition of “friend” on Facebook even lower than that) and I think it makes sense to let bygones be bygones and be friendly with those who were in our schools even if we never got along then.

On a side note, I’m totally shocked that NBC is actually showing us the men’s floor event finals when there are no Americans involved. They started with a Russian, then a Romanian, the third routine they’re shosing us is a gymnast from Brasil. Why didn’t we see their routines when they qualified? Clearly they were better on floor than any of the American men that night, but NBC didn’t think they were important enough to make the coverage. Of course, I recognize them from the world gymnastics competitions, but I don’t think the coverage of the Olympics should be so centered around the US, China (clearly amazing gymnasts, but not always the best in every event), and Japan.

The announcers and extra “junk” seem to get worse every year on NBC. Last year, that horrible blonde reporter was rude to Michael Phelps right after he had his first finish that was not a gold medal. They consistently asked questions to the gymnasts that were equally rude. This year, they asked about how difficult it was to compete after his teemates had totally messed up (I can’t remember her exact words) when the gymnasts in question were well within earshot and even on camera at the time. I see no need for this. How many gold medals (or Olympic medals of any kind) do these reporters have? Why can’t they concentrate on the positive side?

Everyone was nice to Michael Phelps this year, but not every athlete can get a gold in every event they do. Michael Phelps is the first Olympian in the history of the Olympics to win 8 golds in one Olympic year and is the most decorated Olympian at age 23. One can’t expect that of anyone else. It’s hard to say if this accomplishment will ever be matched. I think the reporters should be polite to all the Olympians. These athletes aren’t being paid for what they’re doing and many of the athletes are not professional athletes. If a reporter wants to be rude to a star of the NHL, NBA, MLB, NFL, etc. I still think it’s wrong. However, those guys are getting paid a lot of money and can put up with a little rudeness from reporters from time to time when they mess up. A lot of the Olympians are kids. Michael Phelps was only 19 last year. The reporters should have been kind to him.

Just another way that NBC has completely disappointed me in their coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics. They seem to have more talking and less sports coverage per hour than they did in previous years. Even more upsetting, I found out from my best friend (who lives on the east coast) that the coverage there has not been going over the scheduled time as much as the coverage on the west coast. This probably means we are getting more commercials, since I can’t imagine them adding content.

I think it’s horrible that we don’t get the “prime time” (I use this term loosely, I do not consider coverage that ends at 1:30 a.m. prime time) coverage live, especially since many of the nights are scheduled to end at 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. and most nights have gone over this time slot by at least 20 minutes. At least one night went more than a half hour over the projected 1:00 a.m. end time. Since they’re time delaying the coverage on the west coast by 3 hours, they have plenty of time to cut out things like the gymnasts waiting (and waiting) for scores. While this coverage makes sense for the east coast, who is getting to see the sport live, it’s unnecessary when you’re getting a feed that is delayed by 3 hours and 3 hours is plenty of time to edit out enough to end the show on time on the west coast. Instead, NBC adds commercials and makes sure that those on the west coast are more sleep deprived than those on the east coast if they get caught up in the competition and can’t go to bed without knowing who won the gymnastics competition.

I would like to see an improvement in this area in future Olympic games.

NBC has made a big deal of talking about how the coverage of the Beijing Olympics is better than any other. They have over 3600 hours of coverage, but a lot of that coverage is online and since nothing is airing live in the west coast and I am recording more Olympics coverage than one can typically watch in a day, I have not been able to see if what I would like to see is online. I’ll check it out after I’ve finished watching the games, but a couple of my friends who have looked for what I would like to see haven’t been able to find it, so I don’t think NBC is providing the coverage I’d like.

I’m obsessed with the Olympics (to put it mildly). I record as much coverage as my one HD DVR will allow (and a lot of it has to be in standard definition due to the lack of space). Fortunatley, I’ll be back to DirecTV in time for the next Olympics in 2010 and will have two DVRs, enabling me to record more coverage. The Olympics will probably take me longer than 3 weeks to watch again that year – unless the coverage gets worse again.

This year’s coverage is the worst I can remember – even worse (in many respects) than the coverage CBS provided the one year they had the Olympics.

NBC has cameras recording everything at the Olympic games in Beijing, but I couldn’t even see all of the United States men compete in the qualifying competition for gymnastics. If the gymnast wasn’t from China, Japan, or the US, odds are we didn’t see them at all on the first night. In women’s gymnastics, the odd Romanian or German gymnast was shown, but basically the coverage the first night consisted of the American and Chinese women. Although I know they’re not the best, Australia has some really graceful women that I love watching on balance beam and other events. Why didn’t we see any of those?

I think any team making it to the team finals should have a couple gymnasts shown on every event. I think any gymnast making it to the all around competition should be shown on every event (including both vaults) and that every gymnnast not in that group making an event final should be shown competing on the apparatus they will be competing on event finals. I realize most of the US is not interested in all of this coverage, but many of my friends want to see it, so I don’t think it’s that unusual. I know that it doesn’t make sense to put this all on prime time, but why can’t it be available on a clean site (without results, so it’d be safe to look at even if one is a couple days behind, since they’re recording too much coverage) online, so I could watch it. Even if it takes a couple days to get everything online, I would like to see the rest of the competition.

Diving is another sport where they pick and choose what we are allowed to see. We often miss the first few dives and don’t see most competitors. I would like to see more diving available.

For swimming, running, etc. they can’t eliminate the countries that aren’t doing as well, since they compete against Americans and the best countries (if not America for that sport). Other events of track and field which just started are clearly going to be shown in much the same way as gymnastics and diving. We’ll be shown what NBC would like to show us and if we want to see a performer from another country, forget it.

There is a lot more beach volleyball, volleyball, handball, soccer, basketball, and many other team sports this year. NBC even has complete HD channels dedicated to soccer and basketball. Perhaps the answer is a channel dedicated to gymnastics & diving and another dedicated to track & field.