i Olimpiadi 2008 - Pechino

Like a good portion of the rest of the work, Mark and I have been hooked on the Olympics. However, this happens to be the first time for the both of us that we've watched the Olympics overseas and with a foreign perspective.

RAI due (2) is the official Italian broadcaster for the 2008 Olympic Games. There were a few things we had to get used to.

1. These Olympics are not in Beijing - at least, not according to the Italians. The 2008 Olympic Games are actually in Peking, or Pechino. Apparently, 'Beijing' was adopted as the capitol city's name only after the Communist take-over in 1949 and the introduction of the pinyin transcription system (the system used to teach Mandarin Chinese). The reason this is interesting in Italy is that 'Peking' was typically the name adopted by english-speaking countries in the first part of the 20th century. How the Italians tied into that...I'm not sure. Not a huge adjustment but the name issue definitely caused a double-take!

2. The omnipresent Italian national anthem. The only medal ceremonies we've seen have involved Italians (specifically, the gold for fencing was a big deal) so naturally, you're going to hear their national anthem. We had speculated, before the Olympics began, about whether it would be weird to see all this focus on Italy and NOT the U.S. as we're typically accustomed to. While it is strange to see all the sports that are not typically highlighted in the U.S. getting big press coverage here (fencing, again), the medal ceremony is NOT weird. In fact, I found myself getting misty-eyed watching the Italian embrace his gold medal and look so proud while his anthem played. Regardless of nationality, it is a moment to be proud of and to feel proud for the athlete.

3. The time difference. This sucks the most. Swimming has been on live in the middle of the night for us and I haven't watched a single moment. Wherever we are in 2012, I hope we're on a reasonable time-change cycle with London.

4. The focus on the U.S. There is a surprising amount of coverage on U.S. athletes! Of course, it's more balanced than NBC's coverage but I happen to be watching at this precise moment the U.S. v. Switzerland men's beach volleyball game. We were also lucky enough to watch - LIVE - the U.S. men's basketball game against China last night. As for Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Katie Hoff, Dara Torres, and all the other swimming stars, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed for the replays.