Last week we wrote about the U.S. women’s soccer team tackling “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus.
But in the never-ending quest to have every human being on Earth record a “Call Me Maybe” music video, the U.S. swim team has obliged. To be fair, they did a much better job than the soccer team did with “Party in the U.S.A.” No one was signing on the toilet, for instance.
I’m rather impressed by the fact that they actually got the whole team involved. Even Michael Phelps opens the video. I’m surprised he didn’t big-time them, honestly.
Franklin, the 17-year-old who is swimming in a U.S. women’s record seven events in London, really dominates the video. She already took a bronze as part of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay on Saturday. That would be the 6-foot-2 Franklin who opens the airplane sequence with some serious dance choreography. She’s easy to spot throughout the video with her very long, straight hair. Elizabeth Beisel, who took a silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley Saturday, is also easy to spot thanks to her bleach-blonde hair.
I’m also a big fan of Ryan Lochte’s contribution at the 1:01 mark where he stares indignantly at the camera and then blows it a kiss. That is a boss.
This post is on tape delay
Maybe the most amazing part of the U.S. swimming video is that NBC didn’t hold off on showing it until the last day of the Games.
Every Olympics we go through the same thing with NBC as it shows events only on tape delay. The network has finally provided live streaming coverage online, but the streams are way too clogged and constantly go through starts and stops. But on the live stream, you get the British announcers who were awful in my first experience listening to them cover swimming on Saturday. It might just be the laid-back British style, but there was no enthusiasm whatsoever. They truly Joe Buck-ed every call. It would’ve been nice to hear Rowdy Gaines and Dan Hicks on the call.
Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte met in the 400-meter individual medley at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. It was shown on NBC on the East Coast about six hours later, and the West Coast didn’t get to see it until literally the next day.
But maybe most egregious of all, NBC didn’t even stream the Opening Ceremonies online. The West Coast was watching them until midnight their time, which was 8 a.m. in London! They had already long been into the first day of events. NBC’s excuse was that the ceremonies were “too complex” for us to understand without the expert commentary of Matt Lauer and Bob Costas. If you watched the ceremony, you are still waiting for that expert commentary just like I am.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports. Is it possible Dick Ebersol is still using a calender from 1996 and doesn’t realize what year it is?
