Olympics

We've been watching the Olympic coverage in both German and English over here (Austrian and British stations). What is most apparent to our American-TV-viewing eyes is the lack of those sappy "personal interest" stories about the athletes. We haven't had to sit through interruptions in the action of how the athlete's brother donated the left side of his brain to his sibling so he/she could compete (camera pans to brother cheering/crying in the crowd). It's rather refreshing to just watch the sports. The European programs are as raw and un-edited as the American programs are edited and over-produced. It's simply the action with commentary and only minimal graphics and very few commercials.

Austria's Gold Medalist in the men's Big Ski Jump, Thomas Morgenstern (photo: Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach Feb 20, 2006)
Austria's Gold Medalist in the women's Downhill and women's Super-G, Michaela Dorfmeister (photo: Reuters/Max Rossai Feb 20, 2006)

We have also been learning some new words by watching the coverage in German. For example:

• die Geschwindigkeit (speed)
• die Mannschaft (team)
• das Rodeln (luge)
• die Auseinandersetzung (controversy)
• der Eiskunstlauf (figure skating)
• die Sammlung (accumulation)
• die Konkurrenz (competition)
• hochwertige (premium, high-quality)
• das Doping (doping)