Olympic Boycott Lifted, Immediately Reimposed

BOULDER, Colorado -- I was willing to lift the ban on the Beijing Olympics that I have imposed in my own home for one person and one person only. No, not Michael Phelps - the inimitable Usain Bolt.

Last night in a bar I caught a glimpse of the Jamaican's quarterfinal heat, and he was so magnificent I decided I had to see him run the men's 100 meter final. By midmorning I had already learned the result - Bolt shattered his own world record with an electrifying 9.69-second run - so I decided I would tune in to NBC's primetime coverage to catch the race.

After three hours of the women's marathon and a dozen or so swimming races, I still had not seen the final, which had taken place more than 12 hours earlier in China. I was getting sick of waiting. But when I went to NBCOlympics.com, there was not a single highlight to be found of Bolt's historic run. That currently remains the case close to 15 hours after the race - all NBC has bothered to put online is a recap and some still photos.

Rafat Ali of the Washington Post also made note of this glaring omission by NBC here.

NBC has long been touting how they will have the most hours of coverage of any Olympics ever, due in large part to their internet content. I do appreciate the ability to watch fencing online (though only a fencer could actually appreciate it because fencing is a rather complicated sport with arcane rules and scoring, and like many other fringe sports, it is shown online without any commentary), but the 1oo meter dash is one of the marquee events of any summer games, and NBC should probably offer some footage.

Apparently they would rather show you beach volleyball cheerleading, Bela Karolyi shouting, and a Hungarian weightlifter breaking his elbow in a rather grotesque fashion - these are currently some of the top highlights on the NBC site.

So I gave the Olympics a look-in, and it was a total waste of my time. Hopefully you sports fans who are not trapped in NBC's Olympic vortex have been given slightly better coverage.

And here's a little screw you to the folks over at 30 Rockefeller Plaza - footage of the race from French TV:

USAIN BOLT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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