cyranoVR's Journal: It's Finally Happening: Fencing in Prime Time

NBC is playing the Gold Medal Bout between Mariel Zagunis and Tan Xue of China in PRIME TIME.

TURN THE CHANNEL TO NBC NOW

Holy crap.

(Bob Costas on fencing...hehe I always joked about that, and now it's actually happening)

UPDATE:

They only showed highlights from Mariel's bout with Xue..but they showed it at 8:15 PM - when 20-odd million Americans are watching.

US Fencing is about to E.X.P.L.O.D.E.

beat me to it

[robi2106]

I was going to find your most recent post and then reply to let you know about this. Pretty slick. I guess the 9 hour delay gives them enough time to decide which events are the most exciting and if an american wins. Since we have a women that won in the fencing, then it gets play time.

How cool is that. This time I am not going to miss it!!!!

jason

Affiliate

[robi2106]

For our affiliate, it looks like fencing starts at 7pm followed by the swiming and gymnastics.

jason

Awesome

[Eluvias]

Good thing we've got a slight jump ahead of the crowd, eh Cyrano? :)

Zagunis

[ces]

Amazing. This is the first US gold in fencing in like 100 years isn't it?

Wasn't Zagunis a late addition to the US team (due to another fencer dropping out)?

Slate was calling her medal match the highlight of the games so far.

Re:Zagunis

[cyranoVR]

Yes, yes and yes

And the Men's Foil team just beat Germany [nbcolympics.com] and is Fencing for the Bronze against Russia later today!

Re:Zagunis

[ces]

Hopefully someone makes a Olymic highlights DVD that shows events like Zagunis' match in full without the cutting to "highlights-only" and without the idiot commentary or human intrest crap.

BTW I really want to shoot whoever came up with the idea that women would only watch sports if broadcasters turned it into a fucking soap opera. Its totally runing television sports coverage in the US, especially NBC's Olympic coverage.

Sadly I missed the women's fencing coverage and I'm not going to be able to watch th

Re:Zagunis

[cyranoVR]

There is a live Italian Television feed available. I used it today to watch US Men's Foil fence for the Bronze - they lost :'(

DoggyVR is cowering in the other room still because MrsVR and I were screaming our lungs out watching our friends fence.

Anyway, Team Men's Epee is tomorrow, and the US squad might just turn in another historic performance. Check out latest journal entries for the RAI Sport webcast link.

Re:Zagunis

[ces]

I have a somewhat stupid question:

What is the best fencing event to watch for someone who knows next to nothing about fencing? And which events are more interesting the men's or the women's?

Re:Zagunis

[cyranoVR]

Not a stupid question at all...

Epee is conceptually the easiest to watch, as the first fencer to hit scores. Saber and foil have rules of "right of way" in which the fencer who initiates the attack is awarded the point, regardless of who hit first - this makes them more difficult for newcomers to understand. However, foil and saber are generally faster and more exciting (IMO - and I'm an epeeist). Epee fencing tends to be more strategic and defensive, sort of like soccer (low scoring) compared to basketb

Re:Zagunis

[ces]

Thanks for the reply and the links I'll have to check them out.

I'd heard saber was the "most interesting" for the novice viewer.

As for the men vs. women I'd kind of suspected that was the case since it seems to hold for many sports such as basketball. If I watch basketball nowdays I generally prefer the women's game but that is more a matter of the BS at the NBA level ruining the men's game at all levels than necessarily a dislike of power moves.

I suspect that if I watch more fencing, I'll find that like