Spoilers, spoilers everywhere

On the Fly (as published in The Democrat on August 7, 2012)

I have a love and hate relationship with the Olympics. Don’t get me wrong; I love it, I truly do. There’s no other sporting event like it and to see the triumphs and heartbreaks each year is everything that a sports fan could ask for.

But this year, I also have a big problem with it: The spoilers.

The 2012 Olympics will go down in history as the first Olympiad to play out in the social media era.

Social media sites such as Twitter bring users news to-the-minute, but can pose difficulties for fans of the games. That’s where the spoilers come into play.

With the Olympics playing out in London, six hours ahead of Mississippi’s central time zone, the quality primetime television programming is all shown on tape delay, and we watch as the Olympic athletes in London sleep.

While delayed programming of Olympic events has never posed much of an inconvenience in the past, Olympics fans who also use Twitter have been on the receiving ends of multiple headaches caused by spoilers on their news feeds.

Readers who don’t know anything about Twitter should ask their children, grandchildren, or neighbor’ children what Twitter is. Answers shouldn’t be hard to come by as its use has become quite common. Millions use Twitter each day.

I am a user. Because of this, I have not been able to watch primetime Olympics without already knowing the results of what is coming on television. That takes a lot of the fun out of the games.

What good is it to watch Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte go head-to-head in the pool when you’d known the results for hours? While it’s still enjoyable to watch, it loses its intrigue. It’s like watching a movie that you’ve seen before. I watch Forrest Gump every time I see it on television and I enjoy it, but it’s not as interesting when you know what’s going to happen next.

While that is a down side to the 2012 Olympics, the positive is that the 2012 Olympics offers better access to the games than ever before.

Each event can be viewed live online at www.nbcolympics.com, and, at any given time, users may choose which event they’d like to watch. For a noted sports junkie like myself, this is an invaluable addition to the coverage of the games.

It’s also of great benefit to the athletes. Not every event is shown on television, even on delay. There are events, such as Judo, which never make it to the small screen, because they lack the popularity of larger events.

If Coldwater’s Trell Kimmons participated in Judo, the people of Tate County may never be able to watch their hometown hero’s Olympic journey unfold, until now, thanks to the online video content.

Not everyone has daily access to this content, but luckily for Tate County residents, the men’s 4x100-meter relay Kimmons will be running in, is one of the most anticipated events of the second week of the Olympics.

Kimmons’ 4x100 relay is expected to begin Friday, Aug. 10, with the qualifying heats at 1:45 p.m. CST. The final round of the event is scheduled to begin Saturday, Aug. 11, at 3:00 p.m. CST.

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