Sports At Politics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not officially declare a single country to be an overall champion of each Olympic Games, although the IOC does publish a medal count for each Olympic Games, in which countries are ranked by most gold medals earned, followed by most silver medals earned, followed by most bronze medals earned. However, the U.S. broadcast rights holder for the Olympic Games, NBC, ranks countries based on total medals earned, followed by most gold medals earned, followed by most silver medals earned. This can result in discrepancies in which country is at the top of the medal count, as happened in the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics: in both instances, the United States was at the top of the NBC medal count, but the host country (China in 2008, Canada in 2010) was at the top of the IOC medal count. However, the traditional medal count isn't actually a great indicator of how well countries perform in the Olympics for a number of reasons....

Currently, NBC and cable networks that are owned by NBC's parent company, Comcast, hold the English-language broadcast rights to the Olympic Games, with the current NBC contract with the IOC scheduled to end with the 2032 Summer Olympics at a host city to be determined by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at a later date. However, if NBC loses money on the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics this year, there is the outside possibility that NBC, should it get permission by the IOC to do so, may sell the 2020-2032 Olympic broadcast rights to another network. A number of factors are working against NBC this year, including: The 15-hour time difference between Korean Standard Time and U.S. Central Time, resulting in almost convoluted scheduling for NBC's Olympic coverage NBC's decision to devote a large portion, but not all, of its over-the-air Olympic coverage to two sports (figure skating and alpine skiing, even though the U.S. isn't expected to win any medals in...

For the first time in the Winter Olympics, there will be a mixed team event in alpine skiing. The mixed team event is considerably different than traditional alpine skiing events, as, in the mixed team event, there are two competitors on course at any one time instead of just one competitor on course, and the competition format is that of an elimination tournament. A total of 16 countries will compete in the mixed team event, with each country entering a four-skier team consisting of two male skiers and two female skiers; each team is also able to enter an alternate skier of each gender who can replace a skier of the same gender. The Olympic format for mixed team alpine skiing will be a single-elimination tournament, with the final match, called the big final, being contested for the gold and silver medals, although the losers of the semifinal matches will compete in the small final for the bronze medal. Each team is seeded based on a ranking system by the FIS, which is the IOC-appro...

Unlike the new Olympic events in curling, long track speed skating, and alpine skiing, the new big air event in Olympic snowboarding, which will debut at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, replaces an event from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia that has since been dropped from the Winter Olympic program, parallel slalom snowboarding, although parallel giant slalom snowboarding will remain part of the Winter Olympic program. There will be separate big air events for men and women in Pyeongchang. Big air snowboarding is the only new judged event in Pyeongchang, and, for those of you who are ski jumping fans, think of big air snowboarding as more similar to the aerials event in freestyle skiing than ski jumping, although there are some differences between big air snowboarding and freestyle skiing aerials beyond the obvious difference of big air snowboarding competitors using a snowboard instead of a pair of skiis. In big air snowboarding, the ramp is a single...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the second blog post of a seven-part series of blog posts previewing the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a seven-part series of blog posts, titled "Road to Pyeongchang", previewing the XXIII Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.