NBC ignores ugly side of gymnastics

Phil Mushnick

EQUAL TIME

Every four years, NBC’s Olympic audience is expected to ignore what’s impossible to miss:

What’s going on with the women gymnasts? Are they free-range females? Or are they, as widely suspected and even reported — outside of NBC, of course — systemically growth deprived? After all:

1) Why, in their mid-teens to early 20s, are they almost all tiny? Dad’s shown; he’s about 6-foot. Mom’s shown; she’s 5-4. And their 17-year-old world-class gymnast daughter is 4-11.

Odd, no? For all the smiley face interviews, how do Mom and Dad explain that? How do they feel about it?

Reuters

BLIND SIDE: NBC’s Olympics gymnastics coverage does not address systemic issues that could cause the athletes to have brittle bones, pale skin and diminutive stature.

2) Why are they so under-developed? Virtually no breasts, no hips, no natural physiological — or just plain logical — progression.

Investigations have included testimonies by former U.S. Olympians that they were so training formula-abused that their menstrual cycles were delayed by years, and that they were so calcium-deficient during normal growth years that they are highly susceptible to bone breaks and other osteopathic issues — and for the rest of their lives.

The famous/infamous coach of the Romanian then U.S. teams of the 1980s and 90s, Bela Karolyi, was later accused by several of his former Olympians of verbal and physical abuse, including insults about their weight, demands to train and compete while injured, and reliance on near-starvation diets that made their bones brittle.

But the successes of Karolyi’s gymnasts seemed to justify, or at least excuse, such methods. And likely perpetuate them.

3) Why do so many have squeaky voices, the voices of 10- to 12-year-olds?

4) Why do so many have chalky, pallid complexions, as if just pulled from a freezer?

Or is all of the above just none of our N-B-C business? Again.

Costas does time-travel dance with tape-delayed events

Bob Costas is doing it again. As primetime host of another “plausibly live” NBC Olympics, he sounds committed to returning from London with his credibility.

He has been carefully able to speak the future in the past tense, which comes in handy when you’re promoting the primetime appearance of events long ago ended.

Thus, when referencing Michael Phelps, Costas said, “He swam,” followed by “and we’ll show you that later on.” It’s as if he’s giving the “hi sign,” a verbal wink that transmits, “You know that I know that you know.”

And in Phelps’ case, “later on” means far deeper into primetime, to hold those in the audience who don’t yet know the result or will watch, regardless.

On the other side of this Olympic coin is NBC’s “Today Show,” which every morning has banged the drums obnoxiously for primetime coverage of events — being held as “Today” is airing!