My most favorite moment of the Olympics was when they ended and NBC's poor coverage of them . For what NBC shown in the past two wwks you could have viewed in 4 hours.

grannyjan: Sad that America has forgotten the beauty of choral music while much of the rest of the world still appreciates it. The beautiful music in the ceremonies was one of the BEST things about the Olympics. Putting ignorant people to sleep isn't such a bad idea! (Just kidding-too good to pass up).

Agreed. Video on their website was unavailable to international viewers, leaving me only with the Japan-centric event coverage where I live.

East Coast got the shaft too!

You are so right-especially the abrupt, tacky cutaway from the closing ceremonies-which were still in full force-to premiere their stupid marriage show. After TWO WEEKS of coverage to end like that! Ridiculous! I changed the channel as soon as I realized what happened.

amen to that! i think they should get another network to cover the olympics. nbc sucked.

We spent the first week of the Olympics in Canada and watched it on various Canadian channels. The coverage up there was about a sporting event and they showed--get this--sports! Imagine that. NBC's coverage except for curling, was embarassing and a shame. Scott Hamilton has to learn how to stop yelling and shut up while they skate. They should look at the various Canadian channels and learn how to present the Olympics.

One thing that really stood out to me is the way the Canadians (and the crowd) joyfully SING their national anthem whenever it's played instead of standing there chewing gum or looking like they can't wait until it's over. Way back when I was in high school our jazz band toured the US and Canada for 6 weeks and played an arranegement of OUR national anthem. Everywhere we went in Canada the people immediately stood and sang. Not so in the US and it was the Star Spangled Banner! On a side note, too bad "America the Beautiful" Isn't our anthem instead-much prettier and relevant than a song about our flag on one particular night.

. . . and America the Beautiful is a song within most people's vocal range! The Star Spangled Banner is a stretch!

There were certain 'stars' that got a majority of the media attention - too bad - someone like Shani Davis winning gold in two straight Olympics plus a silver medal was hardly mentioned.

Mike..."Figure skating ranks right with curling as a sport." Based on this comment, I will assume you've never had a pair of ice skates on, except maybe rentals at the ice rink.

The half-pipe clearly requires a lot of athletic ability, but all it boiled down to was everyone doing virtually the same thing, a 900 and/or 1080, with the deciding factor being who happened to make the cleanest landing. Aside from that making it boring rather quickly, I'm sure the rest of the world didn't appreciate seeing the boarders underwear.

"Pants on the ground. Pants on the ground. Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground."....comes to mind.....

Not to denigrate a sport -- White was AMAZING -- but let's see YOU throw a triple Axel and not land on your butt. Or throw your partner a quarter way across the rink -- while she spins in the air a few times. How about carrying her around the rink, over your head, with one hand? Oh, don't forget, while you're doing all that you must look good, interpret the music and entertain the crowd. No athleticism there!

While I don't want to degrade anyones athleticism. I believe anyone who can throw down a 1260 McTwist or a triple axle is certainly more of an athlete than I will ever be. I really enjoyed watching all of the games. (Yes, that includes curling.)

However, I will say, I have a very hard time considering any event where the scoring relies on a judges opinion for a score as a "Sport". In an real sport, you get points for achieving an objective. It doesn't matter how much style or grace you do it with. You either do it or you don't. An event where an opinion of style enters into the scoring is more of a "competition".

Plaidhunt...then I guess the snowboarding half-pipe and the ski jumping with all the twists and flips falls in the same category, as those are all scored by judges opinions.

Athletically, it is more difficult to skate the way figure skaters do than the way ice hockey skaters do. Reason is, in hockey, you move your arms in the way the body wants to move, bio-mechanically correct swinging the arms for counter-rotation. The figure skaters do not have that luxury. They have to move their arms and legs in ways counter to the way the body wants to move them for balance and counter-rotation. They literally have to over-ride the bodies instincts. The hockey guys are tremendous athletes, but just try to imagine them having to skate and interpret music at the same time.

Once again, I'm not trying to belittle anyone's athleticism. It simply a matter of the rules of the event. Opinions on style should not enter into the actual outcome of a sport. You either achieve the objective or you don't. The puck either goes in the goal or it doesn't. It doesn't matter if you do it standing on your head or not.

If you wan't to compare athleticism of figure skaters to hockey players, you could consider the beating that hockey players take night after night and still play at their peak. But that's actually another discussion.

The total American lack of understanding of curling as a tough competitive sport is why the US usually ranks near the bottom of the standings at Olympics and World championships. Those who consider curling not to be a sport would end up falling on their faces most of the time if they ever tried it. Competitive curlers spend as much time in the weight room as any endurance athlete. Curling at the elite level, as you saw at the Olympics, is an endurance sport in the same way as Biathlon is. Having coached at the national level and officiated at the world level, I can assure you that curlers are definitely athletes. Both US curling and US health care rank among the worst in the world, and Canada among the best in both.

TFH, re figure skating, ya and keep a smile on your face also. Ever see a smiling jogger?

In regards to your comments about the hockey finals, Flying Horse, we agree -- it was hard not to be happy for the Canadians. Especially since so many NHL players were on the Canadian team, including our own Pittsburgh Penguin, Sidney Crosby!

Oh dear God, I hope NBC listens. The coverage was terrible. I love curling, but theres no reason I should have been able to watch as much of it as I did and so little of everything else. The rest of the coverage jumped around so much I couldn't keep track of what was coming next, like when I wanted to watch the Bobsledding finals which kept getting interrupted by exhibition figure skating. And I changed the channel to briefly to see if Hawaii had been washed away by the Tsunami only to hear the RESULT of the Bobsled finals. NBC - You're fired!

I just wished NBC had mentioned curling. I know CNBC and USA had all the curling coverage but NBC never mentioned curling in the night time showing. Closing ceremonies were good but moved really slow. Otherwise the Olympics was really good.

I felt like Mr. Costas was a bit aloof, and arrogant during the coverage as well. Certainly didn't represent the spirit of the games very well at all.

Every Olympics here in the US it is the same. We do not see too many other countries perform and that is sad. I would like to see other countries and learn about their athletes but we don't get that.

It is a treasure to see a smaller country that does well. Even a fourth or fifth is a great accomplishment for a small country.