Shane Hamman - NBC Olympics trailer

[ChrisC]

Thought some of you might be interested in this : NBCs 2004 Olympics trailer features Shane Hamman!

According to the NBC website, their 2 1/2 minute tralier is going to play at 5000 movie screens and on TV for a whole month. Here is the NBC article on the trailer.

www.nbcolympics.com/sports/5020636/detail.html
There is a link on the right handside of the article where you can watch the trailer and view a 'behind-the-scenes' video.

Shane appears about halfway through the main video. He also appears in both 'behind the scenes' videos!

It's great to see some high profile exposure for Shane!


p.s. I won't spoil the surprise of what Shane does in the video, but its very cool!

[J65]

Hope you don't take my reply the wrong way, Chris, and it is just my opinion and I do not know your age and just posting an historical perspective from my part.

I really don't care about the Olympic results anymore. To discuss further from my perspective, the first Olympics I remember are the Munich Olympic games in 72. I was 7 at the time, and Olga Korbut and Mark Spitz, were the stars, plus at the time the Cold War was raging full blast and there was a (US)us against the commies theme in the televising. All of the sudden on one of the three channels we could get this spectacle for free and watch and eat popcorn.

Then the islmofascist's decided to put a murderous stinkbomb into the Olympic Games. I came home from school and my mother was glued to the television with Jim McKay and Howard Cosell describing what was happening to the Israeli athletes. An Israeli weightlifter actually put up a fight,but was shot. I watched also and really didn't understand. I was saying where is Mark and Olga, where is the spirit of competition. It was hijacked by terrorists.

There were other controversies afterwards such as a referee basically giving the basketball gold medal to the soviets and to this day the American team has not accepted that result, by refusing the silver medals.

Just some historical perspective, from someone who saw the Olympics back then.

[ChrisC]

John,

Interesting viewpoint (and no offense taken).

I know where your coming from w.r.t. the Olympics. Sometimes something terrible happens ('72), there seems to be a never ending progressive commercialization of both the coverage and the atheltes (amateurs?) and there are always controversial decisions. Sure, a**holes like the '72 terrorists try to ruin things, to me that's more of a reason to support the Olympics, not less.

Are there controverisal decisions - sure, all the time. Pick any sporting event and you will find at least one controversial decision (watch an NBA game and you get to see about 20 per game ). At any Olympics there is always at least one country who (often quite justifiably) believes their athlete has been cheated out of a medal. At the 2002 Winter O, the Russians, Canadians and South Koreans all felt slighted by refeering decisions.


Personally I'm still excited about the Olympics and will be cheering our athletes on from the comfort of my sofa.

I'm also excited about Shane Hamman's performance in the shw. He has a realistic chance of medalling. Whether he can beat Shezazdeh (sp?) is a different story. I'll be rooting for him to do so. If Shane wins the gold (or maybe if he even wins a medal) he will likely become more well known and popular than all of the top current bbers and powerlifters combined. (think wrestling and Rulon Gardner). This would be great publicity for olympic
lifting, but additionally given Shanes powerlifting background, it will hopefully pique interest in p'lifting too.

Chris.

[J65]

Thank you Chris for your well thought out and resaonable reply.

Not used to that on some of the political bulletin boards, I have posted to before.

I was just giving an historical perspective, and when I was growing up the Olympics were always promoted as US(Americans) against them(Commie Soviets) and it made great theater, especially since the Soviets were the "professionals"(getting everything provided by their state while the rest of their citizens were waiting in lines in Moscow to buy a banana), while the Americans and other athletes from the Western bloc were banned for taking a penny for a promotional endorsement That's what made the 80 USA Hockey team special in history. A bunch of rag tags taking on the Pros and beating them at their own game. The night that the US Hockey team won that night will never be forgaotten by me, it seemed that street parties erupted spontaneously across the country(also one has to remember that Carter was President, there were 44 American hostages in Iran, and the Soviet commies had invaded Afgahnistan)

The Olympics just to me(and many others I surmise by the declining ratings of Olympic broadcasts) don't seem to have that "umphh" anymore and also that is meant in no way to put down, Shane Hamman and his achievements, which no doubt he worked very hard to achieve.

It is a much more competetive world out ther in television now, than it was in 72, when most Americans saw the Soviet heayweight weight champion, Vasily Andraev(IIRC), on ABC, do a record clean and jerk.

Today the Olympics being broadcast by NBC are filled with taped broadcasts and way to many commericals. I can't blame NBC for the plethora of commercials, they gotta make back the obscene amount of money they paid to the IOC back.

[ChrisC]

John:

One of the reasons I decided to make this board my 'home' is that it's actually possible to have a discussion wihtout it turning into a flame war.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head in terms of resons for the decline in interest 1) In economic/military terms the US doesn't have a rival right now, that translates into less interest in US athletes who are competing ("fighting") against other nations. It would be interesting to see how the ratings situation compares to other countries since I'm sure the US is percevied as a rival by many countries. Olympic lifting is a great example, favorite in the shw is Iranian (Shezazdeh) who will compete against Hamman. I gaurantee that contest is turned into a Iran vs. US battle on middle eastern tv. not sure if enough people care about it over here though. One last comment: althought he ratings are declining, the Nielsen rating is still likely to be around 15-17, thats a non-trivial number of households who are still interested in the Olympics.

[J65]

"favorite in the shw is Iranian (Shezazdeh) who will compete against Hamman."

Sorry about this stroll going down memory lane and to even compare studio wrestling to a real sport such as weightlifting to show a corrollary, but your above quote reminds me of what happened in studio wrestling back during the hostage crisis. The big rivalry, at least that I saw on saturday afternoons, was between Sgt Slaughter and the Iron Sheikh. The Iron Shiekh would get in the ring and shout "Death to America" and Sgt. Slaughter and him would fight it out.

The rivalry between Hamman and Shezzadeh, unfortunately will probably relegated to late night coverage. Again JMO, NBC's coverage stinks. I'm used to the glory days of ABC's coverage, especially with Howard Cosell doing the boxing commentary.

Thanks for your replies and the best of luck to you in your future endeavors.

John