Is beach volleyball the most popular sport in the world?

OK, so the Olympic Games in Beijing, China are about half over. See my China preview here.

The two major conclusions I have come to from tuning in to GE TV (NBC) so far are:

• Michael Phelps is an unbelievable Olympic athlete the likes of which we won't see again in a long time if ever
  
• Beach volleyball must be the most important, popular and entertaining sport in the entire world

On this second point, how else can you explain that every time you turn on a broadcast of the Games day or night huge chunks of time are filled up showing beach volleyball matches like Austria vs. Latvia, Australia vs. China and...most often of all, oh how painfully often...the US women's team vs. anybody?

Is it really just as simple as NBC feels that the American masses want to see scantily clad men and women (especially scantily clad women) athletes bouncing around on the sand? Or, similarly, do they KNOW that's what Americans want to watch and can charge the highest advertising rates for adverts during that coverage?

Hey, I think volleyball is a cool sport, and clearly the athletes involved in beach volleyball deserve all the credit for doing so well. But come on. Instead of the incessant beach volleyball coverage, lets see some other stuff - ping pong, shooting, more track and field, diving, soccer, regular volleyball, water polo, etc.

In the end, it's a shame that NBC feel coverage needs to be calibrated to continually meet the most base instincts of humanity (sex) rather than the higher minded beliefs (competition) that the Olympics are supposed to be about.

Algae Olympics

Well, GE TV (aka NBC) did a story today on the massive amounts of green algae that has recently collected in the Chinese bay where the upcoming Olympic games sailing events are going to take place.

NBC reported that there was a problem and even showed the thick green goop that fills a large portion of the bay, but as predicted they talked about how the Chinese were going all out to fix the problem...and talked to sailing contenders who said they were going to possibly have to plan to sail through the stuff. So, how to overcome.

Also as predicted there was one passing comment in the last 15 seconds of the story that said that perhaps, maybe the problem was caused by chemical dumping into the water, but that Chinese officials denied that this was the cause - blaming it on warm water temperatures.

I would have liked to seen a reporter with balls go check out what was beind dumped into the water and by whom.

Not an easy or safe task given the government there, but hey...aren't our media supposed to be seeking the truth? Not just parroting the government line - not to mention the Chinese government line?

NOTE: The pictures in this post were NOT taken by me.

Is Pollution an Olympic Sport?

Or, how will the media cover the pollution during the Beijing Olympics?

China is polluted. If pumping smog into the air was an Olympic event, China would be the hands down gold medal champion...by a long shot. They do it faster, with more volume over a sustained period of time than any nation on earth. With the Beijing Olympics coming up this summer, they have the addition of home court advantage.

Seriously, China produces enough smog to block out the mid-day sun. I was just there last month and at mid-day you could see maybe a mile with skyscrapers disappearing into a haze that looked like fog but wasn't. Beijing was one of the worst cities for this...trumped only by Shanghai.

That got me and some of my fellow China travelers wondering how the international media will cover that angle of Beijing during the games. Will they cover it like glamour events such as basketball, gymnastics and track? Or, will they minimize coverage like they do with sports like shooting, kayaking and badminton?

Clearly, the massive air pollution has the potential to inhibit performance for outdoor events. If this occurs, the Beijing Olympics will not be remembered as the big coming out party for China, but the "smog Olympics" with times/finishes including an asterisk.

The government is trying to minimize the Beijing pollution by shutting down factories in the lead up to the games, reducing car traffic and other measures. We even met a Westerner while hiking on the Great Wall who said he was in China to help them "seed" the clouds right before the games so it will rain and clear out the air. Good luck.

OK, the US media. NBC is the broadcaster of the Olympics for the U.S. They, like other mainstream media, are prone to puffery and letting the bigger story slide by without much comment in favor of sensation, celebrity or a good sex scandal. So, not much confidence they'll be seriously looking into how the smog may be impacting the games or the greater world.

But, here's the other thing. NBC is owned by GE. GE is one of the world's biggest manufacturers with big time operations in China. A polluter for profit. Guess who is also a major sponsor of the Beijing Olympics? You guessed it. GE. In fact, you can see their logo everywhere in public places associated with the games - starting when you arrive in China with placements in all Olympic advertisements in the huge new Beijing international airport.

GE will not be interested in anything other than a perceived spectacular success to these games. That includes minimal negative talk about anything - including pollution. Happy talk, happy talk.

So, predictions for NBC (sports and news) coverage of pollution in Beijing:
1) They barely touch it
2) When they do, they acknowledge "that the Chinese recognize that its a problem" but they are working on cleaning things up - queue the set piece on what the government has done to clear the air for the games
3) You won't hear about it again once the games are over

The only deviation from this I think will be if there is a major epidemic of poor performances or celebrity athletes pull out of competition...and even then, the games will go on and someone will win. You know, "overcoming the odds" of the pollution to win that gold medal.

I also predict that the foreign media - UK, Canada, France, Germany - will likely do more critical reporting on the pollution and how it is effecting the games and the world. But, we here in the US will not see that coverage - essentially, unless you go out of your way to look for it online. Something most people don't do.

So, in the end, I think the US media will report on pollution in Beijing like they will women's field hockey. They won't do it in any meaningful way.

If it comes to pass like this, it'll be a shame because China is the Olympic champion polluter and the games should be an opportunity to point that out...not to mention connecting the dots back to the US by talking about how a lot of the pollution there is generated by US companies making products that US citizens buy for cheap at Wal-Mart and similar stores.

We'll see. I hope I'm wrong.