Confusion never stops, closing walls and ticking clocks...

The 2008 Olympics kicked off yesterday (08/08/08 at 8:08 p.m., actually) in Beijing, China. (I hear 8 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.)

And today begins a stretch of 8 days of swimming at the Games, with late nights in the USA thanks to t.v. network NBC. Based on the belief that slightly lower viewership for the 2000 Olympics was based on the tape-delay of things from Sydney (Australia) time (and not on the annoying way the network covers the Games), NBC got the swimming schedule flipped so that prelims are in the evening and finals are in the morning. And while this is possibly loved by South American swimmers who seem to have this format in their larger competitions, this time flip isn't going over so well with me (nor a lot of the swimming community, for that matter). Particularly given that the U.S. East coast is exactly 12-hours off of Beijing.

This means that when finals begin at 10 a.m. in the morning in China, it's 10 p.m. the night before here in Florida. 10 p.m.--that's when it starts! The finals sessions are scheduled (roughly) from 10:00 a.m. to noon local time, through next Sunday (August 17), which means that the (precious-to-NBC) live coverage goes from 10 p.m. to midnight. Sounds like a week of late nights if you're a swim fan...

I guess it's a good thing that morning practices aren't really happening for most U.S. swimmers at the moment: it being between seasons et al. But the timing does make me long for a tape-delay, which could allow the finals of events to be annoyingly sporadically placed during the evening's broadcast... at least then I might see some swimming in the 7 o'clock hour... (though I guess I could solve that by relocating to California for the week).

Though the flip does make the time of prelims: 6 p.m. Beijing time, a manageable 6 a.m. here in Florida. Though 3 a.m. on the West Coast sucks....

Now if only I could find consolidated results from prelims.


Lights go out and I can't be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
You've put me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and plead, singing