Photo used under Creative Commons license from flickr.com user Christine Rondeau
With snow days and nothing to do, the winter Olympics could not have come at a more perfect time, and as someone who loves sports, you can bet NBC is the only station I am watching.
Without a doubt, there are many lessons I have learned from the Sochi games.
1. Male ice skaters fall a lot more than female.
2. Don’t pursue a music career simultaneously with your Olympic snowboarding career. Just don’t.
3. Olympic commentators use great descriptive phrases such as “just kept coming rapid fire — like a machine gun of awesomeness.” Or, “like caviar and vodka, made for each other.”
4. If you skate to the soundtrack of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” you WILL win gold.
5. You can fall twice during your routine and still win a medal.
6. Don’t watch luge on a full stomach, there is a chance you will become nauseous from watching. In fact just don’t watch it at all if you don’t like fast things.
7. Speed skaters thighs could be mistaken for tree trunks.
8. The movie, “Blades of Glory” has some truth to it.
9. The Olympic committee should pick a location for the winter games in a place that isn’t warmer than Atlanta right now.
10. There’s nothing greater than a good ‘ole USA, USA, USA! Especially after we beat Russia in hockey.
But the most important lesson I have learned is that female journalists can be as reliable and educated as males when anchoring the games. Even though the Olympics aren’t over, without a doubt the most significant event to me that happened would be Meredith Vieira being the first woman to ever solo anchor Olympic prime time coverage.
Bob Costas, who has been NBC’s Olympics anchor since 1988, had an eye infection and wasn’t able to work. Matt Lauer took over for Costas but had to go back to the United States for work. He even joked that he was running out of clothes. However, I wouldn’t exactly call this a “breakthrough” for female journalists because Vieira wasn’t scheduled to have her own prime time solo slot when airing had begun. But, I still view this as a victory for female journalists, even though she was third string, because it can spark an increase of more solo primetime sports coverage for women. I’m excited to see Vieira anchor the rest of the Olympic games and I hope these small steps turn into something bigger. And as always, USA, USA, USA!
