U.S. Coverage of Olympics Sucks!

Yes this is a rant.

For both the summer and winter Olympics, NBC has the exclusive rights in the U.S. for coverage. So what does this mean for people following the Olympics? Well, you get the privilege of watching only the events with Americans competing, and only part of the time. Most of the other "Olympic" viewing time is taken up by these ridiculous and very predictable biographical pieces about the various American athletes and their "struggle" against all odds. Not to mention the very boring reports by their reporters where they discuss everything from tourism, to weather, to how the American athletes are faring. In the summer it was even worse, as the only events that were covered were swimming (by which I mean only Phelps was covered), gymnastics (only the American performances in the heats/qualifiers), and track. Period.

It's fairly vomit inducing.

So what about those of us stuck in U.S. but want to follow live the various Winter Olympics events from the speed skating heats to the women's free style downhill, the Men's full figure skating program and the Alpine skiing?

Well, I tried. I really really tried. I was even willing to pay a month's worth of subscription to Eurosport. But, almost all international sports channels will not link if your IP address is located in the U.S.

So I am now reduced to watching a Russian Eurosport link I found after a couple of hours of looking for a decent quality stream. You know what? I'd rather listen to Russian, than watch the American version of sports coverage which is so commercialized and dramatized it's lost all sense and meaning of the word "sport".

You guys are so lucky you have access to Eurosport. In my experience, it's the most sophisticated and broad sports channel out there.