I watched the Olympic Men's Triathlon on NBCOlympics.com last night. We had to download Microsoft SilverLight, which is quite good for live streaming video. A big improvement over other streaming video plug-ins. However, it was a weird experience because even though there was really good coverage with a lot of different cameras, there was no commentary what-so-ever. There was ambient audio of the race itself, in fact you could hear cicada as the athletes cycled or ran by trees, but as far as any play-by-play type commentary, nothing. I wasn't expecting Bob Costas to provide commentary, but it seems as if NBC could have got an intern or an announcer who was on double-secret probation to say something. It appeared as if a German guy won.
The experience did underscore for me that although triathlon is a great participation sport, it really isn't a great spectator sport. For that reason, I doubt if it will ever go beyond cult-sport status. But I kind of like being apart of something that is somewhat unusual.
I also decided that I am really glad the USTA doesn't allow drafting. Not only because I don't like being involved in pelotons, they make me quite nervous, but it is even less interesting to watch as a spectator.
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