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Showing posts with label #DCBlog #DCGames #Olympics #sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #DCBlog #DCGames #Olympics #sports. Show all posts
If you know me personally or through social media, it's no secret that for these two weeks or so you'll have to get used to me being crazy about that one event I look forward to more than any other in the sports world. For 17 days every two years, fans, viewers and an entire world come together to watch the excitement, human drama and the spectacle that is the Olympic Games... and we are at the halfway point of its latest version in Paris, France amidst so much anticipation for what could be the most memorable Olympiad ever -- one that has had the world buzzing since it began even before the Opening Ceremony.
A tweet years ago by longtime TV medical correspondent, Bay Area native Dr. Nancy Schneiderman sums it up: "More people watch The Olympics in the US than the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL combined. Amazing." From a broader standpoint, it's the only sports event with an equal viewership ratio split of 50-50 among both genders, and both the Summer & Winter Games are one of three major sporting events on U.S. television (the Kentucky Derby the other) to regularly have a larger ratio of viewers among women than men. And considering the enormous interest in women's sports in the past year being coupled with so many storylines coming in, a record viewing audience is anticipated for Paris 2024.
Like many other sporting properties - unlike most other TV programming, The Olympics is one that brings families & friends together: both those who are avid sports fans like myself, and those casual viewers who might not know everything about sports but are suddenly thrust into it all just by the pure spectacle. This includes those who might not be into football & historically preferred Downton Abbey or the Puppy Bowl than the game (but who were drawn in by the romance of the world's biggest pop star and a tight end), but are into gymnastics, figure skating and the athletes' most inspiring stories. In fact, the Olympics typically is the only event that come close to the NFL as far as TV ratings & viewership go in the fragmented television landscape... and no matter the country, Olympic broadcast rights are among the most-coveted anywhere in the media world.
But when you go inside the broadcast operations either inside the International Broadcast Center or at the respective venues, there's so much more to what viewers see on television, on radio, on their computer and on their mobile device. It's the finished product to as much as seven years' worth of planning, four years of preparation and hard work by thousands of people working for both the host broadcaster, Olympic Broadcasting Services, and the respective rights holding broadcasters from countries around the world. Their mission: capture the power, strength, speed, skill and spirit of competition at its best; tell the stories of athletes who most might not know but out of nowhere become the most well-known people in the world; and to provide viewers the best seat in the house, thanks to the most complex and dynamic broadcast operation anywhere.
Last year -- just as it was in 2015, DCBLOG devoted a series of posts to covering the world of sports to coincide with last summer's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympic Games. In addition to covering the finale of Season 2 of MTV's The Challenge All-Stars this weekend -- during this month of February and continuing into the month of March as well, we're offering a special Winter Edition of "Summer of Sports" to cover not only the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics, but also Super Bowl LVI which takes place this weekend in Los Angeles following the expanded 17-game NFL regular season and historic conference playoffs, as well as the traditional slate of big sports events of the year's first quarter.
If you know me from the social sphere, then it's likely that you know that I have four principal passions of mine: MTV reality TV shows, music, Las Vegas and sports. And on the topic of the ladder, the consequences of the past couple years has been able to produce a packed schedule of sporting events: more overlap among the four major sports leagues, international soccer, golf and so much more.
But if you've been following me on @DC408Dxtr in the past seven months or so, then you know that the main event is ongoing... and it's the one event than I look forward to more than any other: the Olympic Games. What we're seeing right now is taking place in a shorter turnaround than it has been in three decades: two Olympics being held within the space of a calendar year -- once the norm when both the Summer and Winter Games were held in the same year until a '90s scheduling change separated them and have made the Olympics a more frequent happening taking place every two years.
For this sports fan who loves so many of the kinds of sports that don't get the mainstream exposure, Olympics time means that I get to become a super-fan whenever the calendar hits summer or winter in an even-numbered year -- or in this case, last July 20th followed by February 2nd over a week ago. Whatever the case -- and aside from few exceptions like working on this blog and getting sleep, over the past decade or so I have altered my schedule for the one and only thing that I consider getting to binge watch when I go into full Olympic mode. Both Tokyo and Beijing represent the latest installment of this obsession I have with the world's greatest sporting spectacle.
As Posted in an extended Notes post on DCNOW on Twitter (@DC408DxNow) after NBC's primetime presentation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Closing Ceremony last night on Sunday, August 8th, for which DCBLOG posted this site's season preview of The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies shortly afterward.
And so, twenty days after it began, we have arrived at the end of our marathon.
The Olympic Games are my one & favorite sporting event — the one that puts my love affair with the whole sports world at large on display, as one who doesn’t like to settle with having being enamored with endless coverage of the same three sports. There’s nothing quite like having so much diversity of the events I love take over my attention for these three weeks from archery to yachting and everything in between. Nowhere is the true definition of an event that offers something for everyone is more valid than in this Olympic arena, and the addition of new sports have broadened its appeal to a new generation — reflective of its wholesome and inclusive nature.
It’s with that in mind that these were the first Olympics that I have gotten to fully enjoy all of it on my screens in addition to on TV. The premise that the financial disaster but bold experiment of the Olympic TripleCast had in 1992 laid true to me this time: watch what you want, when you want, and how you want from the comfort of your couch — and during a time where we’ve all been at home. And thanks to upgrading my technology and the streaming revolution we are in now, I’ve been able to watch at least part of every sport of these Games, and being able to watch them on here on this DCNOW Twitter hub each and every night of these Games — one of the first of these live reaction accounts & a running real-time feed of what’s been going on in Tokyo.
These Tokyo Olympics were the Games that, in many’s minds, shouldn’t happen, in the wake of everything going on in our world still going through a deadly pandemic. Long before it became part of our sporting landscape here at home, the Olympics have long been used to having everything being held in a bubble setting of sorts with all events along place in a central location in the host city & country. But remarkably amidst so much naysaying, the organizers managed to pull this thing all off… and while it remains to be seen what the final costs will be, every member of the Tokyo organizing committee, sport governing bodies and volunteers who gave their time to work this event can take pride in being able to bring this to all of us this safely.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable facts about this fortnight and in the biggest event to be held in these times: even with all of these many complexities — and with only a small handful of athletes having to withdraw despite a gradual spike in local cases during this month, not one single session of competition across the 41 different sports was lost due to an athlete returning a positive test — and the only delays or changes to the mammoth competition schedule of these games was due to Mother Nature. It was something that wasn’t even possible just a few months ago, but thanks to all these strict health protocols in place, we were all kept safe & sound, and that in itself is an amazing achievement.
But that doesn’t mean that things have been okay: controversies and logistics aside, what happened with Simone Biles and many other athletes here brought into focus the toll that both these Games, the past year and the five years of training has had on their mental health. Being away from family & friends, the pressure that comes when 4 billion people are watching, and competing in empty competition venues have put a different face and human personality to these people. And the chatter on this topic will continue long after these Games end when the athletes settle back into the real world and being people like us.
There’s a lot of things that define the modern Olympics and the world of high-performance sport that takes this spotlight only under the glow of a burning flame, national pride and the five rings. But in a world in need of a sense of inspiration, at its heart this event brings this divided world all together by the power of watching the world’s best and seeing endless moments that have made us cry, laugh and stare in awe. While we’ve sorely missed the presence of fans in the venues who would’ve filled the stands, their roars have been heard from half a world away, and thanks to the virtual technology that’s kept us all connected you can’t help but see the reactions from around the world of just how much the undeniable power of this event still resonates 125 years after it began — the ultimate celebration of the human spirit.
It’s been a blast, Tokyo… and it’s been a pleasure for me to translate my Olympic fandom to all of you here. And the nice thing about these Games being held a year later — in six months from now, we get to do this all over again in Beijing in the wintertime. Until then, ありがとう and so long.
130 years ago in a western Massachusetts gym, Canadian James Naismith came up with a new idea to keep his Springfield YMCA PE class active during the harsh winters of the Northeast, and basketball became his magnum opus. The game would ultimately catch on in every aspect you can think of: the NBA becoming the second most-popular of the four major U.S. sports, the college game forging its identity early on & where March Madness takes over our attention every spring, and a sustained run of dominance in the international realm for the U.S. program.
Wherever you go in this country and elsewhere, a basketball hoop is found everywhere outside of gyms and arenas: they're stuck to the back of farmhouses and the top of garages, in every public and private parks, and dedicated courts next to parking lots in city streets. And it's with the inspiration of the ladder in mind that, this year, has seen a second form of America's own game being brought into the big time: a form of basketball that has its roots in the streets, and where millions of youngsters play this game after school and on warm days during their summer off from school.
Three-on-three basketball -- or officially classified at 3X3 -- is one of several new sports to make its debut at the Tokyo Olympics, along with surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and the freestyle variation of BMX. And while many of us were waking this morning, today saw its crowning moment on sports' greatest stage, as the first Olympic gold medalists were crowned. But to better understand what this new aspect of a game we love, it's worth taking a deep dive into its journey to this moment.
Friday marks the official opening of The Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan, with the Opening Ceremony to take place in the new National Stadium, at the site of the first Olympics to be held in Asia in 1964. The Opening Ceremony will feature all the pageantry that's associated with the opening act of the world's greatest sporting spectacle, and this year will take on greater meaning after the events of the past year. It will culminate with the entrance of the Olympic torch, and the eventual lighting of the Olympic flame, marking the climax of a journey that begins in the birthplace of the Ancient Olympics, and culminates in the Olympic city to officially begin the Games.
When the Ancient Olympic Games were originated in Olympia, the Greeks lit perpetual flames in their temples having being lit by the sun's rays, and where eternal flames burned at the altar of goddess Hestia, Zeus and Hera. Even today, the ritual of the torch being lit still remains to this day, and it's here where the modern Olympic torch relay begins at the ruins of the Ancient Olympic Stadium, which hosted every Ancient Olympiad from 776 B.C. until it ended in 393 A.D. more than a millennium later.
It's after the torch is lit that its global journey begins, with a relay that usually spans around 100 days and reaches its climax with its arrival in the Olympic Stadium at the end of the Opening Ceremony. But given the extraordinary circumstances of an Olympics being postponed by exactly one year to the 125th anniversary of the first Modern Olympics in 1896, the flame has been safely kept in the host nation until it was reignited to provide a sense of hope during this time of peril in our world. Fittingly enough, the Tokyo relay began again in March to coincide with the arrival of Japan's iconic cherry blossom season.
Pic: Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee
The roots of an Olympic torch relay in modern times began in 1928 when a symbolic flame was used in Amsterdam, and eight years later the idea came into fruition when the head of the Berlin Olympic organizing committee found that torch races were held in ancient Olympia. It gave him inspiration to have the flame be lit in the original Olympic Stadium, and then be transported to Berlin through a relay in Greece and the host city, and later through the host nation.
Those who carry the flame on these Olympic torch relays convey messages of peace on their journey the same way that messengers proclaimed the Olympic truce around Greece and later to the world, while the torches they run with have become icons themselves. Along with Olympia, the relay also makes a stop in the first host city of the modern Games, Athens and the original Olympic Stadium used for the 1896 Games, before it begins its journey towards the host nation.
An average Olympic torch relay sees thousands of torchbearers of all ages carry the flame, while tens of thousands of miles are being accumulated along the route, while also embracing many different climates from the snow to the beach to even being underwater while en route to the Sydney 2000 Games. As it passes through cities, towns, regions and monuments via all kinds of transport, communities all being united by the awe-inspiring sight that comes when something as mesmerizing as the flame passes by.
Then, comes the moment everyone waits for: the torch arrives in the host city just days before the Opening Ceremony - and it's during the main event itself that enters the Olympic Stadium. The identity of the final torchbearer and the one who lights the cauldron is as closely-guarded a secret as any that only a handful of people know about until the moment arrives, which creates for the most dramatic and moving moment of any Opening Ceremony.
Typically, the honor of lighting the flame goes to a member of the host nation's proud Olympic & sporting history: the last two times the Games were held in America, the honor was bestowed upon Muhammad Ali in Atlanta and the Miracle on Ice hockey team in Salt Lake City. The flame has also been delivered in dramatic fashion at the Ceremonies, from Antonio Rebello's flaming arrow in Barcelona to a ski jumper two years later in Lillehammer.
So, which prestigious Olympian from Japan's proud sporting past will have the honor of lighting the flame -- or will it be someone else? Friday will offer the answer to that question, all following a night of celebration and hope that begins an Olympic Games that is truly unlike any other.
Whenever Super Bowl Weekend rolls along on the sporting calendar, it's as if it is the only thing that matters in the sports world on the first weekend in February. It's the most popular sport in the United States, this country's biggest one-day event, one of the world's biggest sports leagues, and the intersection of sports, pop culture and all that represents America all rolled into that first Sunday of the second month of the year. But those who are into the broader world at large in athletic competition know that the NFL Championship Game is just one event in a slew of those that take place around the wide world of sports.
Right now, the NBA and NHL are nearing the halfway points of their shortened seasons as well as European football as the Champions League's knockout stages kick off shortly, while the year's first Grand Slam tennis tournament is taking place down under in Australia - and today saw the biggest race in NASCAR, the Daytona 500, take place in Florida. Soon, NCAA March Madness will be upon us as college sports' biggest event returns, plus golf hitting its stride in the 2021 portion of its "Super Season," Major League Baseball starting up Spring Training, and a number of other big events - most of which didn't take place during last year's unprecedented sporting shutdown, which allowed MTV's The Challenge and Total Madness to take center stage during the quarantine period.
But on the horizon, the focus will turn to two of the world's most important sporting events, for which one member of the cast of the current season of Double Agents knows so very well. And while the focus was on Tom Brady's Buccaneers facing Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs in Tampa, over in Europe that agent achieved something so big that, had it not been for the GOAT winning his seventh Super Bowl, this would've been THE big sports story of last weekend. And if not for the link it has to what's called the fifth major pro sport, than this would not have made a blip on the radar, which channels the general interest outside of the fortnight of the events that make up the world's most famous five-ring circus.
This week marked one year to go to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, taking place in the winter resort town of PyeongChang, South Korea. If you know me, the Olympics are the one sports event I look forward to more than any other, and embodies the philosophy of diversity I have watching all sports and appreciating the athletes who compete on sports' grandest stage. DCBLOG can cite one very important partner of the Olympic Movement as an inspiration of sorts to how this site gets to present our coverage of the Trifecta here and the stories of this ecosystem.
Aside from my MTV connections, I've always had an equally great relationship with NBC Sports in being a loyal viewer, big fan and tremendous admirer of their exceptional work covering the sports world. You might say that anything that airs on the weekend on the network or during the week on NBCSN, Golf Channel and the CSN regional networks where I live is better quality-wise than the hot takes taking over their 3-& 4-lettered rivals in the sports media world. Them also being the Olympic broadcaster for 30 years also makes having a 17-night appointment with sports' biggest event feel that much more enjoyable for me.
NBC's way of telling the stories of the athletes who compete for gold serves as a template to how I get to tell the stories of the people of the Trifecta to all of you on here, in addition to offering everything else DCBLOG offers each week...sharing that passion for quality that I put forth in these posts. And Thursday, a transition of power took place at its most prominent position.
Credit: NBC Sports Group
Bob Costas began his broadcasting career in the 1970's where he went to college, at Syracuse University as a proud alum of that upstate New York college. There started a career in sportscasting that would ultimately take him around the world, which included stints in St. Louis calling the ABA Spirits on radio powerhouse KMOX and in Chicago with the Bulls, among others. In 1979, an icon of the TV business Don Ohlmeyer, who was executive producer of NBC Sports at the time, called him up and asked him to bring his talents to a national audience, and Bob made his debut covering a weightlifting event shortly thereafter... The rest has become history.
In 37 years at the Peacock, Bob has represented the heart & soul of NBC Sports, becoming one of the network's most recognizable faces and voices. Virtually every event - big & small - that NBC has covered, he has contributed at in some sort: spanning the NFL, the golden age of the NBA on NBC, Triple Crown horse racing, golf, NHL and beyond. His love of baseball - best exemplified by having a Mickey Mantle baseball card stuffed in his wallet - flourished there as a play-by-play announcer on NBC's baseball Game of the Week in the '80s, which has parlayed into having a prominent part of the MLB Network in addition to writing several books on his favorite game since childhood.
His versatility of hosting, play-by-play, reporting and interviewing has also afforded him to host several talk shows including the late night Later with Bob Costas; contributing to NBC News the exclusive interview with disgraced Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky, and providing bold halftime commentary on the NFL's off-field dealings. And that has translated into winning 27 Emmy Awards - more than any other broadcaster in history and spanning the three main TV genres of sports, news and entertainment; plus many other awards, accolades and acclaim from his industry peers.
But to both the passionate sports fan and those casuals who don't watch sports regularly, Bob is best known to everyone as the longtime primetime host of NBC's Olympic coverage. In 1988, he hosted late night in Seoul, and four years later his Later executive producer (and a protege of influential ABC Sports & News executive Roone Arledge) who had become executive producer and NBC Sports head, Dick Ebersol, upgraded Bob to the big chair. There in Barcelona where the Dream Team debuted - and in every Olympics NBC has broadcast since (spanning all but two since summer '92), Bob has proudly served in that position for eleven Games, taking viewers from venue to venue, interviewing athletes and newsmakers, and all else that makes the Olympic host job as highly-coveted as any in the television business.
That journey has taken him to Atlanta, Australia, Salt Lake City, Athens, Italy, China, Canada, London, Russia and, most recently, to Rio de Janiero...traveling a good portion of the world as much as my parents have as of late. He, like everyone else, watched in awe when Muhammad Ali lit the cauldron in Atlanta, stood in Tienanmen Square a day after the bold Opening Ceremony in Beijing, flew into Vancouver via a seaplane, chronicled the entire journey of Michael Phelps, and interviewed hundreds of medal winners and newsmakers including two Presidents. You pretty much knew this was gonna be Must See TV the moment you heard Bob's voice in the opening tease that began NBC's primetime broadcast to the tune of John Williams' Olympic score.
Credit: NBC Sports Group
On Thursday - one year before the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games, Costas - now in his mid-60's - announced on NBC's Today Show that he will be stepping down from his Olympic hosting duties and passing the torch once held by Jim McKay - who crafted the mold of hosting an Olympics at ABC - to another fellow Syracuse alum, former ESPN & ABC broadcaster Mike Tirico, starting next February. Last year, this site looked at how pivotal Tirico's move from ESPN to NBC was in being a game-changer in sports media, as viewer habits are changing, talent are switching networks and those who've been in this business for very long, including Bob, are either retiring or reducing their work load.
With him being one of the best broadcasters of his generation and also one of the most versatile and hard-working as well, there's been wide industry sentiment, including at his old employers, since yesterday that no one is more deserving of inheriting the Olympic host job than Mike. Having developed 25 years' worth of his craft hosting and calling the NFL, NBA, golf and so many other sports, plus hosting the past two FIFA World Cups and returning to Rio last year as a NBC daytime host, Tirico has accumulated the credentials necessary to handle the job of hosting an event that attracts a routinely large audience every night for two weeks, which was once of the key factors in him making that move. And ironically, Mike was the first recipient of a sportscasting scholarship made in Costas' name at Syracuse back in 1987, making this all come full circle when he moved to NBC last summer and gaining this promotion to primetime.
As someone who stood literally many feet away from him when I was at the Niners/Seahawks game on Thanksgiving in 2014, I have enjoyed Bob's company for those two weeks every two years since I was in elementary school. He has no doubt enjoyed a tremendous run as NBC primetime host, doing that for a record 181 nights over 24 years, which doesn't include of course that well-known bout with pinkeye that saw him miss a week's worth of competition at the Sochi Winter Games earlier that year. As he now inherits an emeritus role at NBC Sports similar to what longtime NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw has at NBC News, Costas says of his successor, "NBC has made the right choice and I could not be more happy about that."
Tirico tweeted afterwards, "Thanks to Bob, the entire NBC Sports team and so many of you who reached out today. So excited for this new chapter with the NBC Olympics family." Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth had similar sentiment: "Mike Tirico is the gift that keeps on giving. He will be a great Olympic Host. Lucky to have him at NBC. Bob Costas never flinched when it came to journalistic integrity at the Olympics. Harder than you will ever know." And over at ESPN, Mike & Mike co-host Mike Greenburg added, "Congrats to Mike Tirico on the Olympics, the biggest gig in the industry. You couldn't be more deserving than he is. And congratulations on a job brilliantly done for 24 years by Bob Costas, the best there has ever been in our line of work. #Respect."
While Bob will be dearly missed on the host chair - and considering what happened recently in the nation's capital, you simply can't ask for a better or smoother transition than with Costas passing over his Olympic hosting job to Mike Tirico. One versatile broadcaster who's been the best sportscaster of his generation for as long as I've been around, now passing the torch to one who's already had a great career and is on the verge of greater things, and also is appreciative of Mike's broad resume.
This move echoes what happened in 2009 at NBC Sports' other high-profile property of the NFL: when John Madden retired from Sunday Night Football after a classic Super Bowl XLIII, Collinsworth was brought in from the studio to take over alongside Al Michaels. That transition was likened by those at NBC as "going from Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle," and SNF has remained the gold standard among NFL broadcasts, much the same way as the Olympics and all of NBC Sports' content over the years are around the industry.
That chair will no doubt be in great hands going forward with the network's long-term Olympic partnership stretching over the next decade. And while it came as a little bit of a surprise to some that this move has come a little earlier than planned as it was thought this was going to occur at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, it's no surprise Mike Tirico has earned his moment to debut in a year from now in South Korea, and Bob Costas has earned his place as the best of all time in sports television.
Below is a video of Bob hosting NBC's Football Night in America from Levi's Stadium on Thanksgiving night 2014.
For basketball fans, this summer of 2016 has been the most interesting offseason in the Association in recent memory...one that began on Father's Day with a Game 7 for the Ages in an all-time NBA Finals. That night, the Golden State Warriors, 73-9 in the regular season, played for survival on their home court in Oakland after squandering a 3-1 lead over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. A man who came home to Northeast Ohio years after being scolded by them for leaving for Miami, delivered an all-time performance and turned into an immortal in his hometown as the Cavs became the first road team to win an NBA Finals Game 7 in almost four decades, and the biggest major postseason comeback in American sports since the Red Sox twelve years earlier.
It's after this loss that the Warriors looked to rebound from this monumental collapse by making the biggest power move you can make, and successfully landed the pride and joy of an entire heartland in Kevin Durant. Afterwards, a tsunami of free agency activity ensued: Dwayne Wade returned to his roots in Chicago, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah reunited in New York, Pau Gasol went to San Antonio as the Spurs began the post-Tim Duncan era, Dwight Howard headed over to the Hawks, Jeremy Lin brought Linsanity back to the Big Apple to Brooklyn, and Harrison Barnes & Andrew Bogut joined Dirk in Dallas.
And if the countdown to the 2016-17 NBA campaign couldn't get even more amped up as you can possibly get, there's also the fact that this is an Olympic year, and that the many of the best of the best would be spending a summer not relaxing after a long season, but committing themselves to playing for country than city, and playing for the right to be true world champions...as Olympic gold medalists in basketball. Same for the women in them taking a month off of WNBA play to enjoy the strongest visibility that their niche following of women's professional sports can get in a four year period, a year after the U.S. Women's National Team became a pop culture phenomenon.
Basketball is an American-made sport invented by a Canadian, but has gone on to become the most international of the four major U.S. sports: the NBA is watched avidly by fans on all six continents, for which each of them have solid national teams that don't always get a chance to compete together as much as other major team sports. But when you look at the game played at the Olympics, and the one we all know and love here, there's some numerous differences. And there's also a proud history of players representing the U.S. in Olympic and international play as well.
On Wednesday, August 3rd, competition kicked off at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as the action began - as it always does in the summer games - with the first group stage matches in the women's and men's soccer competitions - two days before the Opening Ceremony officially began the Olympiad. These Games have been anticipated for some time, but after a slew of controversies taking place in the lead-up to this first week of August the attention has turned, as they should be for the next two & a half weeks, on the athletes and the moments they're bringing us from Brazil. So far, the focus has been mainly on them and we've had plenty of great moments with more to come.
The past three years, American soccer fans have been inundated with the very best "the beautiful game" has to offer as the sport has risen in the world's largest sports market. The 2014 FIFA World Cup attracted record attention here as once again the U.S. followed the fortunes of the Men's National Team in record numbers in Brazil. This year, Copa América Centenario brought top level men's international soccer to these shores for the first time since the '94 World Cup, and overseas there was UEFA EURO 2016 where Christiano Ronaldo and Portugal win the title and capped off a summer that also saw him and Real Madrid capture the Champions League. And as its new season begins, the Premier League has grown in stature in America with NBC's unparalleled commitment to England's pastime and Leicester City winning the EPL title in true underdog fashion.
But above all else, the biggest story in American soccer, has been the Women's National Team. For one month in June and July of last year, sports fans once again became enthralled in a sport that until the '90s has not thrived in a country grown on a different sports agenda, but this time it was a team that became a pop culture phenomenon. And in a 16-minute span, they went to another level as the United States women won the FIFA Women's World Cup for an unprecedented third time. It would become the defining moment of American soccer in the last 25 years, and quite a ride the women's program has gone through to get to this position as the dominant force in the women's game, despite the ending they had in Rio. In spite of all of this incredible success, it hasn't always been gold for a sport now entrenched as one of the most popular.
With The Challenge: Rivals III now in our rear view mirror after an eventful finale, and Are You The One? Season 4 into its homestretch, our focus here now shifts a bit to our second annual series of blog posts covering the sports world. Last year during a momentous sporting summer, we took a look at soccer, golf, tennis, poker, UFC, Tour de France and Aussie Rules football, and you can check out those posts there. During this Summer of Sports and stretching into the fall, we'll offer a look at the big sports events taking (or have taken) place this summer as well as various topics on the sports we love.
But for so many years now, I've placed one event at the top of the pecking order when it comes to events I look forward most to in the sports world. Yes, we had a successful Super Bowl here in the Bay Area back in February, the Warriors won the NBA title last year and are poised to come back after a devastating Finals loss to the Cavaliers, as are the Giants who've won 3 World Series titles. But that one event I look forward to is one that is the epitome of a true world championship, competed for by athletes from nations all over the world, with the whole planet watching it all unfold.
For 17 days every two years, it's become a ritual for me to alter the schedule I have a bit and tune in each day and night of the fortnight to the biggest sports spectacle in the world. Being someone who follows a wider variety of sports than the average American sports fan whose preference of sports are different than that of fans outside the continent, this is the one event where my passion for the entire sports scene is on full display. And this will be reflective in how I will be turning that passion into these posts as, once again as it was with the Sochi Winter Games two years ago, I will be doing regular posts on the Olympics during these Rio Games.
Welcome to DC GAMES '16: DCBLOG's look at the aspects of the Olympics and the name I'll be utilizing to brand my live tweets of the Rio Games on my DCNOW live hub. And as the world comes together tonight for the Opening Ceremony inside the iconic Maracana Stadium, we begin with a primer of what the Olympic Movement is all about. Just as a slew of numerous events are taking place around it, the latest chapter of this now 120-year odyssey is about to hit into overdrive.
