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“Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius breaks down at his bail hearing in Pretoria, South Africa. The Paralympic superstar is accused of fatally shooting his 30-year-old girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
(AP Photo/Antione de Ras - Independent Newspapers Ltd South Africa) -
The moment Armstrong lays blame on his sponsors (for tacitly knowing about it, and even funding his habit) or on the cycling world, or on anything else is the moment where you might want to just turn off the television, because you’ll know that he really isn’t very sorry for anything. He’s just sorry that the proof of his doping became too overwhelming for his own ego to continue to deny.
— Marc Ambinder says Lance Armstrong deserves nothing -
According to Nielsen, a record smashing 219.4 million viewers tuned in to watch Gabby and Michael and Usain compete, making the London Games the most-viewed event in U.S. television history. Here, a look at some numbers underpinning NBC’s success:
215 million — Total number of U.S. viewers of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the previous record-holder
5,535 — Hours of Olympics coverage NBC broadcast over 17 days
2,000 — Hours of U.S. TV coverage of the Beijing Olympics
9 — Channels that NBC Universal used to broadcast the games, including NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, two HD-enabled channels, and a 3D channel.40.7 million — U.S. viewers of the London Games opening ceremonies, an Olympic record
5 million — Comments about the opening ceremonies on Twitter and other social media, according to Bluefin Labs
31 million — U.S. viewers of the London Olympics closing ceremonies
31.1 million — Average U.S. viewership of London Olympics during prime time
27.7 million — Average U.S. viewership of the Beijing Games during prime time, 12 percent less than this year
(Source: theweek.com)
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The London Games were the first to take place since Twitter exploded, and boy, do tweeters love Usain Bolt and The Spice Girls.
150 million — Tweets posted about the Olympics140 million — Approximate number of active Twitter users
9.66 million — Mentions of the Olympics opening ceremony on Twitter in a single day
80,000 — Tweets per minute about Usain Bolt’s 200-meter gold win, the record for tweets per minute during Olympic competition
116,000 — Tweets per minute (or roughly 2,000 per second) about the Spice Girls performance during the closing ceremonies, the record for that evening
(Source: theweek.com)
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Top: Captured in a multiple-exposure photo, America’s Danell Leyva performs his horizontal bar routine in the men’s gymnastics event final Aug. 7.
Left: Italy’s Giulia Lapi and Mariangela Perrupato appear to be walking on the surface of a rippling pool in this underwater shot taken during their synchronized swimming technical routine qualification round Aug. 5.
Right: Turkey’s Merve Aydin cries after coming in last in her women’s 800m round 1 Aug. 8.
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Can’t. Stop. Watching. The maker of Tide and Pampers essentially “dares you not to cry” with its commercial, “Best Job,” says UPI’s Kate Stanton. A reworking of its successful 2010 Olympics ad campaign, says Meg Carter at Fast Company, “P&G pushes raw emotion to the tear-jerking nth degree with its depiction of mothers worldwide raising children to become champions and sharing their triumph.“
Check out our list of the best (and worst) ads to come out of the London Olympics.
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This is what winning looks like. Australia’s Sally Pearson collapses to the ground after winning the gold medal in the women’s 100m hurdles final Aug. 7. Of her first gold medal, Pearson said, “It’s been a 12-year dream that has finally come true.”
This slideshow of overjoyed, triumphant Olympians will make you feel happy.
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I’ve seen people having sex right out in the open. On the grass, between buildings, people are getting down and dirty.
— Hope Solo, goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s soccer team, estimates that 70 to 75 percent of Olympians are hooking up in the Olympic Village. -
One of the most emotional moments from the London Olympics: Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang finishes the 110-meter hurdles on one leg after crashing into his first obstacle and injuring his achilles on Tuesday. At the 2008 Olympics, he’d failed to clear a single hurdle, even though just four years prior, at the 2004 Games, Liu became the first Chinese man to claim a gold medal in track and field. This time around, he hobbled to the finish and was met by Balazs Baji of Hungary, who raised Liu’s hand in the air to declare him an honorary winner.
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Good morning, and enjoy this: 12 eye-popping Olympic bodies
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Forget the face paint. These spectators take national pride to new heights with gaudy, sometimes inexplicable, full-body attire.
12 ridiculously costumed Olympic fans: A slideshow(Source: theweek.com)
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Whether it’s a minor stumble or a major face-plant, falling during the Olympic games usually means only one thing — goodbye gold.
Here, 10 epic falls from the London Olympics
(Source: theweek.com)
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“On Sunday, Usain Bolt upheld his record as the world’s fastest man in front of a worldwide television audience of 2 billion people. Alas, none of them were watching it in America.” —Tim Stanley at Britain’s The Telegraph.
NBC’s hoary tape-delayed coverage of the Olympics has provoked an assault of complaints, particularly in the Twitterverse, where the network has become synonymous with the hashtag #NBCfail. And compared to the BBC, Britain’s state-funded broadcaster, which offers its audience as many as 24 separate live feeds on a variety of media platforms, NBC looks especially old-fashioned. The BBC’s goal is to air every second of every event as it happens, giving its audience “a more contemporary — even futuristic — TV Games,” says Eric Pfanner at The New York Times.
How the BBC crushed NBC and brought Olympics coverage into the future
(Source: theweek.com)
