DaveWells.us

I’ve been watch­ing alot of NBC’s cov­er­age of the Olympics (or the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, for you purists) this sum­mer. Hav­ing been an aquaphile my whole life and a com­pet­i­tive swim­mer through high school, I’ve nat­u­rally been most inter­ested in the aquatic events. There’s been plenty of excit­ing swim­ming in prime-time, along with gym­nas­tics and track. I’ve also seen some div­ing, row­ing, tram­po­line, field, cycling, and bas­ket­ball. But the sport I’ve prob­a­bly seen the most of is vol­ley­ball. Why? I have no idea.

Sure, it was excit­ing to watch Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Trainor squash their com­pe­ti­tion for their sec­ond gold medal in as many Olympic games. It was also impres­sive to see Todd Rogers and the gar­gan­tuan Phil Dal­hausser fight it out for the gold. And, it was funny to notice that the Brazil­ian women com­peted in sports bras that said “BRA 1″ and “BRA 2.” But, why is there so much beach vol­ley­ball (and seem­ingly just as much of its less excit­ing sib­ling: indoor vol­ley­ball) being broad­cast live? It’s been on pretty much every night I’ve watched, and some morn­ings, as well. Vol­ley­ball isn’t exactly a huge spec­ta­tor sport in the US. Why is it get­ting so much more cov­er­age than other lesser-known sports? What about sail­ing, white-water kayak­ing, or ping pong? Where are weightlift­ing, ten­nis, and archery? And most impor­tantly, why is vol­ley­ball on now instead of the Mod­ern Pen­tathlon, which NBC’s site tells me is also hap­pen­ing at the moment?

“What,” you may be ask­ing your­self, “is the Mod­ern Pen­tathlon?” I asked myself the same ques­tion a short while ago while brows­ing the Olympics page on Wikipedia. It is, in short, the most bad-ass event at the Sum­mer Olympics, and it’s get­ting no TV cov­er­age. The Mod­ern Pen­tathlon is not a track and field event, as you might be inclined to guess. Instead, it com­bines skills from a range of dis­ci­plines: épée fenc­ing, pis­tol shoot­ing, a 200 meter swim, show jump­ing, and a 3 kilo­me­ter run. Yes: it involves run­ning, swim­ming, jump­ing over things on horse­back, shoot­ing at stuff, and fight­ing with swords. And instead of these impres­sive demon­stra­tions of modern-day-knightly skills, I’m watch­ing twelve men in short shorts hit a rub­ber ball back and forth. What the hell, NBC?