Olympic picks

By Barry Horn
Knight Ridder News Service

The diving competition is just one of the sports likely to get lots of air time with the NBC networks' expansive Olympic coverage. Associated Press and Advertiser library photos Follow the games Olympic coverage will be included in The Advertiser's daily sports and news sections.

Opening Ceremony 6-10 p.m. tomorrow on KHNL

Iraqi Soccer Iraq is back, playing Portugal in a game broadcast 7-9:30 a.m. today on MSNBC.

Dream Team See the U.S. men's basketball squad on KHNL Sunday morning.

No one could possibly accomplish such an olympian feat.

Officially starting tomorrow with the opening ceremony in Athens, NBC and five cable siblings in the General Electric empire — as well as NBC's secondary channels — will be offering 1,210 hours of coverage. Broken down, that's more than 71 hours per day. Surely, TiVos and VCRs from coast to coast shudder at the prospect of recording the entire load.

Put in perspective, NBC and company will offer more coverage from Athens than was offered from the last five Summer Games combined.

What to do? Strategize. Here are some recommendations.

FIVE STORIES TO WATCH

Opening ceremony, 6-10 p.m. tomorrow, KHNL: It may sound trite, but some might argue that it's all downhill after the Parade of Nations that marks the beginning of the Games. Athletes from a record 202 nations are expected to march. For a brief moment, it appears that all is right with the world. For those who want to focus on the U.S. team, know this: The nations will march in alphabetical order according to the Greek alphabet. That means the U.S. will come after the United Arab Emirates but before Japan.

U.S. women's gymnastics: Traditionally the most popular event among TV watchers, it's no wonder that the competition drags out for more than a week. The world champion U.S. women debut in prime time on KHNL Sunday — Day 2 of the official competition — and will be around for your viewing pleasure until Day 11.

Dream Team*: The U.S. men's basketball squad is traditionally called "The Dream Team." This year's edition should come with an asterisk. It is notable for the players who declined invitations to play and those who accepted only to withdraw for myriad reasons. Still, you've got to like the chances of any team captained by Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson and coached by Larry Brown. See them in the 6 a.m. to noon slot Sunday morning on KHNL. If the Dream Team* doesn't win the gold, there will be plenty of finger pointing at those who stayed home.

Track and field: Will there be more gold medals or drug suspensions handed out? Either way, suspicion is sure to reign when running, jumping and throwing events start airing on NBC in prime time (5 to 10 p.m.) Wednesday. Things have gotten so bad, there is a movement to throw out all the old records and start anew. But that doesn't apply to Hawai'i hero Bryan Clay, whose decathlon events begin Aug. 22 at Olympic stadium.

Iraqi soccer: Iraq is back, playing Portugal in a game broadcast 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. today on MSNBC. This will be the team's first time in the Olympics since 1988. You may recall that former Iraq Olympic Committee head, the late Uday Hussein, son of Saddam, was accused of handing out barbaric punishments when the soccer team's performance did not live up to his lofty expectations. When the team qualified for its first Olympics in 16 years in its nation's No. 1 sport, it heralded a symbolic return to the international sports community.

5 TV ANALYSTS TO CATCH

Ambrose Gaines IV (Swimming): You can call him Rowdy, everyone else does. He won three gold medals in the pool in Los Angeles 20 years ago. He's glib and knows his strokes. Athens will be his fourth tour of duty as an Olympic TV analyst.

Tim Daggett (Gymnastics): Back in 1984, Daggett earned a perfect score of 10 on the high bar to clinch the first-ever gold medal for the U.S. men's gymnastics team. He also won a bronze on the pommel horse. This will be the fourth time he has served as NBC's man on gymnastics.

Cynthia Potter (Diving): As a competitor, she was a member of the 1972, 1976 and 1980 U.S. Olympic diving teams. As a broadcaster, she will be working her fourth Summer Games. She won a bronze medal 28 years ago in Montreal. She was the women's diving coach at SMU from 1981-84 before leaving for the University of Arizona.

Bill Clement (Badminton): What's a former NHL All-Star and top hockey analyst doing as a badminton analyst? Well, he was a two-time high school champion in the game back in Quebec. He worked for NBC as a hockey analyst in Salt Lake City at the 2002 Winter Games and happened to mention that badminton was in his blood.

Lewis Johnson (Track and Field): Johnson's star is on the rise at NBC. Athens will be his third Olympics. He worked the Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the Summer Games in Sydney. He proved himself an able analyst and reporter in Sydney when French sprinter Marie Jose-Perec mysteriously fled Australia. He's a former 800-meters man who made it as far as the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Trials.

The planned broadcasts from Athens almost triple the 440 hours that NBC beamed back from the Sydney Summer Games four years ago.

Athens' coverage has been expanded to add Bravo, USA and broadcasts offered by local affiliates on secondary channels available via satellite and digital cable.

The expanded coverage allows fans of low-profile sports to see events that in the past received little or no television attention — such as badminton and team handball. Expansion of the coverage was accelerated by NBC's parent company, General Electric, acquiring Bravo, Telemundo and USA.

Because of the time difference between Athens and the United States, just about all the live coverage will come in the mornings and the afternoons. But if anything really significant happens, NBC will hold it for taped coverage in prime time.

For viewers without cable or satellite, NBC will offer 226 broadcast hours, concentrating on swimming, diving, gymnastics and track and field.

For the first time, all 28 Olympic sports will be broadcast in more than just snippet form. "By and large our cable coverage is intended to reach the true fan of all of these sports, so we're trying to show them wall-to-wall coverage of the event," said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics.

Needless to say, the thrill of Olympic victory and the agony of defeat will be available virtually nonstop.

NBC will broadcast Olympic coverage in prime time from 8 p.m. to midnight and 12:35 to 2 a.m., with an abbreviated replay available from 2 to 5 a.m. Earlier in the day, KHNL will have coverage from 12:30 to 4 p.m.

Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC and USA will add to the airings.

MSNBC will carry events primarily from 4 to 10 a.m. on weekdays, with Bravo fluctuating its coverage, and USA primarily from early evening to the morning.

Somewhere, makers of eye drops to soothe tired pupils must be celebrating.

How in the world does NBC plan to top itself for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing? Can it go more than 1,210 hours?

"I think it's fair to say that this is really an experiment," said Randy Falco, president of the NBC Universal Television Networks Group. "Some of it will work, some of it won't."

Toward that end, the final judgment, as it always is in the television business, will be made by the tips of viewers' fingers. That is, if the folks at home can go the distance.