It’s fun to look at video and photos of Slovenian Alpine skier Tina Maze, and American counterpart Julia Mancuso. It’s also fun to watch NBC Sports group gloss over the fact that the XXII Olympic Winter Games are being held in a real life version of Borat’s village in Kazakhstan. Well, that’s not fair. It’s only like Borat’s village when it comes to human rights, politics, and basic infrastructure.
Just look at who Russia chose to light the Olympic torch
The Russian skater who just lit the Olympic flame tweeted this doctored, racist photo of the Obamas last September. pic.twitter.com/kQhIDqXwki
— Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) February 7, 2014
That’s right the Opening Ceremonies are happening right now, so what you’ll see Friday night on NBC is tape delayed. Peter Dinklage the “Winter is coming” guy from “Game of Thrones” will narrate the nearly seven-minute opening tease that will begin tonight’s Opening Ceremony propaganda from Sochi, Russia.
The opening showcases the history and culture of the world’s largest country, as well as the athletes viewers will become familiar with over the 17 days of the Games. Olympians featured in the tease include Shaun White, Gracie Gold, Shani Davis, J.R. Celski, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Ashley Wagner, Julia Mancuso, Bode Miller, Mikaela Shiffrin, Tina Maze, Aksel Lund Svindal, Yuna Kim and Alex Ovechkin.
Did we mention Tina Maze and Julia Mancuso? Good.
Remember during 2012 London when #NBCFail was trending all the time? Well it’s about to happen again. NBC Sports Group sent out a link to a snippet of their video introduction tonight from the Opening Ceremonies. Not the whole video itself. And not the code to embed the video. To see you have to wade through all the corporate buzzwords and marketingspeak.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)