Nightshift Sports Rio Preview: Allyson Felix

The Olympics 
One in in a series of videos on the 2016 Rio Olympics focusing on American Athletes. The series is produced by Sports Illustrated. This particular video focuses on American track&field star Allyson Felix.  One recommendation: play it full screen. It’s very well done. Embed courtesy of Sports Illustrated via YouTube .

Nightshift Sports Rio: Olympics On All Devices

The Olympics
From our friends at Wired magazine, a guide to watching the Olympics on all of your digital devices.
And, here at the media bunker, we have a very simple  system to keep up with the events, using Chromecast, a laptop, and a flatscreen. Go to NBCOlympics.com and select the events you want to stream. You then just bounce the stream(high speed internet helps and note that the resolution on the big flatscreen will not be as sharp as on the small laptop) from your laptop (using the Chromecast app) to your flatscreen(it will need the Chromecast device installed–a piece of cake and very inexpensive at $35, which is less than you’d spend on Margaritas on a Wednesday night out).  Works like charm.

Nightshift Sports Rio Preview: NYT Olympics Issue

The Olympics
This is a must see/read: another of the New York Times great journalistic productions, this one on the 2016 Rio Rio Olympics.  The Times continues to do great work and take big chances on big events. Lots of terrific writing and artwork. Nightshift Sports will be linking to lots of their material during the Rio games.

Nightshift Sports Rio: Photo Firehose

The Olympics
The Photo Firehose first appeared when the New York Times, Reuters, and other large photo agencies combined to live-stream photography from the Sochi Winter Olympics. It is a wonder–a never ending source of great shots coming at a mind-bending pace.

Don’t miss this one: click here for the Photo Firehose.  Keep it handy. (Note it’s live, not on time delay like some of the network telecasts…so…keep that in mind).

Nightshift Sports Rio Preview: BBC Coverage

The Olympics
In the U.S., Olympic Coverage is coming to a screen near you via COMCAST/XFINITY/NBC. But the Olympic Games are a worldwide sports event and coverage will vary (sometimes quite dramatically) from country to country. Here’s the BBC’s promotional video on their coverage of the Rio Games.
The Fine Print: Embed made possible via YouTube. Video produced by the BBC (all rights reserved, used by permission). 

Nightshift Sports Rio Preview: Official Guide

The Olympics

For the next 17 Days the Rio Olympics will provide a very necessary relief from the circus that is the current American Presidential race. For that reason, alone, we should watch. There is also the chance to see a lot of very-seldom-publicized and televised sports contested at the highest international level, a peak inside another country’s culture and lots of high stakes once-in-a-lifetime drama. Here’s overall spectator guide to the 2016 Olympics, produced by the Olympic Committee,  that should help you zero in on the events you really want to watch along with those you just don’t want to miss, along with providing some background about each sport.  The Ultimate Guide to the 2016 Olympics, at your fingertips.
 

Nightshift Sports Rio Preview: The Games

The Sports of the 2016 Rio Olympics: 
Just in case you were wondering what sports will be contested in the 2016 Olympics, here’s a complete list, along with some additional notes on certain sports. Most sports have male and female contests; some are male or female only, and in one, the equestrian events, men and women compete evenly against one another. This is the first post in a large number of posts on the 2016 Olympics.
Archery
Artistic Gymnastics (parallel bars, floor exercises, pommel horse, rings)
Athletics (in the U.S., we call this track & field ..141 medals handed out, 41 of them gold)
Badminton
Basketball
Beach Volleyball (mens and women’s competitions)
Boxing
Canoe Slalom (includes kayaks and canoes, in singles and doubles, on a whitewater slalom course)
Canoe Sprint (includes kayaks and canoes, singles and doubles, sprinting over a distance
Cycling BMX (the neighborhood kid who’s always jumping his bike off ramps? he might be in the Olympics)
Cycling Mountain Bike (tough uphill and even more technical and dangerous downhills…on bikes)
Cycling Road (traditional road cycling)
Cycling Track (the cycling equivalent of chess…indoor racing on a steep banked track)
Diving
Equestrian (eventing, dressage, and jumping–the three big events of equestrian..men and women compete against one another)
Fencing (men and women’s divisions in épée, foil, and saber)
Football (in America, it’s called Soccer–mens and women’s events)
Golf (back in the Olympics after a decades-long absence)
Handball
Hockey (field hockey, obviously not ice hockey, mens and women’s events)
Judo
Marathon Swimming (10KM–6miles–open water swimming, for both men and women)
Modern Pentathlon (one of the great under-appreciated Olympic events…look around for coverage)
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rowing (mens and women’s competition, in boats for 1, 2, 4, or 9 rowers)
Rugby Sevens (scaled down from the normal 15 men a side, this versions is faster and just as rough)
Sailing (Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, 470, Nacra 17–multihull sailed with male/female–and windsurfing, 49er and 49erFX)
Shooting (pistol, rifle, shotgun plus air pistol and air rifle)
Swimming (multiple events, mens and women’s and expect Michael Phelps to shine)
Synchronized Swimming
Table Tennis
Tae kwon do (attack style marshal arts)
Tennis
Trampoline Gymnastics
Triathlon (swim, bike, run)
Volleyball (indoor, with full teams, mens and women’s)
Waterpolo
Weightlifting
Wrestling
 

Wedge Thoughts

Paying Attention: If you like golf, you probably love golf equipment. Maybe you’re one of the many readers of GolfWRX, which typically features a series of photos of –wait for it--the latest golf bags filled with the latest golf clubs used by the pros, at each tournament (this set of photos from last week’s Canadian Open). These photos run on Golf WRX on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; coverage of the tournament takes up Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And, if you’ve seen the equipment photos from GolfWRX, then you’ve probably seen photos of wedges with unusual sayings, stampings, and markings on them. It’s just a form of customization that lots of the pros have started using. The full story on this trend was in this Sunday’s New York Times. It’s a good, short, informative read. Necessary info for golf (and golf equipment) fans everywhere.