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@ReiWhat type of pasta is this? Ziti, rigatoni?

I had to go and hunt it up. Is this the video causing the fuss? I can’t see the big deal - it’s just a video animation. Not like it’s trying to be a photo realistic deepfake.

Interesting developments reguarding Luge: https://www.reuters.com/sports/cas-partially-upholds-russian-luge-appeal-neutral-status-2026-games-2025-10-31/ The Russian Luge Federation won an appeal at CAS to be able to compete as neutrals in qualyfing events after the IF (FIL) voted to make them remain excluded, but it was a parcial victory, as they did not get an immediate reinstatement. Just imagine if they try the same to FIS...

Guess what, they actually posted the original drawing submission of the mascot, after the reception to the AI images on the launch have been fiery on social media: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQgsA_JD7Oy/?igsh=MTUydGVxeXlhdWN6Mw==

just more garbage. 🙄

Really good choice. This time around, he should have Tom Cruise pretend to be James Bond jumping out of a helicopter. But instead of Queen Elizabeth, he can have Meghan Markle of Monteceito (who met and knew Liz) and lives 90 miles north of LA, jump out of the same copter. Meghan was shown the other day at the World Series game at Dodgers Stadium and would be a good symbol of the 2028 Olympics. I really liked this segment from the closing ceremonies of the 2000 summer games. Seeing the guy driving around the stadium in this small vehicle and crashing into the stage and causing people standing on it to fall, and then chasing spectators on the field to run around in mock panic, was hilarious. You done good, Sydney. Real good. ^ haha. That was such a great moment in Olympic ceremony history. Only equaled by the tricycles of 2016 and the pick-up trucks of 1996

Hey, you're a bigot...and racist, xenophobe and homophobe too. And really stupid. You'd make an ideal producer for the 2016 Olympics ceremony! Or the 1996 one. Nothing better than this segment from the opening of the Centennial games. You done good, Atlanta---and David Mischer, the TV producer from LA. Too bad Mischer isn't still alive so he could work on the ceremonies in LA, right in his own backyard. I want the 2028 OOC to be inspired by this. They hopefully duplicate it minute by minute. The tricycles of Rio were no match for the pick-up trucks of Atlanta.

It seems that actually the mascot has a human creator and was selected in a Mascot Design Contest, as per IOC article; https://www.olympics.com/en/news/dakar-2026-mascot-ayo-unveiled So it might be that the organizers decided to "perfect" it with AI (the eyes seem like that generic ai cartoon style, but that might be overthinking it)or the mascot itself has no AI. However, that doesn't escuse the video of being AI generated at all!!

That said, I admit I would have been curious to see people say, "No, it's perfectly possible to do that in 2025 with a country that has plenty of oil!" and see their arguments. That could have been funny.

Funny, I was checking to see this. So far, no Telemundo US-Spanish language Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage to report from NBCU. It did air the Beijing 2022 Spanish presentation. I do think Telemundo will return for this. After all, if you do such a massive TV sports event like that already, you would want to continue that. Don't forget there have been a few US Hispanic/Latinx Winter Olympians in the past few decades, so it would like to broaden their appeal and promote them to that US Spanish audience--and hope to long-term build more US Hispanic/Latinx Winter Olympians. Got more thoughts on this TV4 makes a major investment with these Olympics being a constant presence in all three major news and current affairs programs, Nyhetsmorgon, Nyhetsdagen and Efter Fem extensively covering them. TV4's Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will have its own corner in the channel's studio and the content will be mixed in with the programs' regular content. From 6:00 in the morning Sweden/CET, the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will be broadcast all day, "combining sports journalism at the highest level with TV4's news expertise, a comprehensive coverage that only we can offer," says Johan Cederqvist, sports director at TV4, in a statement. Its biggest Swedish Olympic presentation ever. TV4 will have four studios on site in Northern Italy's Milan-Cortina, two of which are reserved for hockey (two studios in two different arenas in Milan), one for biathlon in Antholz and one for freestyle and snowboarding in Livigno. In addition, TV4 will be present at all Olympic venues in the Italian Alps. "We will create an Olympic pulse throughout the day, in joint coverage that has never been done before on television. We will really capture this people's celebration that the Olympics are," says Viveka Hansson, news and community director at TV4. So far, the channel has presented three names who will work for them during the Olympics: Henrik Lundqvist as an expert, commentator/program host Lasse Granqvist and commentator Petra Svensson – recruited from HBO Max. Actually, there's a fourth that just got added I made note on my last post here: Annette Norberg as curling analyst: https://press.tv4.se/post/tv4-s-bevakning-fran-vinter-os-med-unik-kombination-av-de-olympi https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/a/4B6JaG/os-kommer-vara-konstant-narvarande-nar-tv4-storsatsar https://omni.se/tv4-om-vinter-os-ska-fanga-folkfesten/a/yELdne The nicest thing about this OC broadcast lineup for NBC is they got someone with a strong sports background in Gannon, not just with figure skating and a member of the 1982-83 North Carolina St. Wolfpack NCAA national championship basketball team, and Shaun White, who is supposed to appear during the Parade of Nations. Something that was missing in the recent ones because of no sports background involved; this is after all a sports event. The celebrities angle would make more and better sense with Los Angeles coming up, but it still need balance. And yes, as Baron notes, there will be on-the-ground NBC reporters talking with US medalists (and some foriegn ones) in Verona's CC.

Altho there will certainly be press boxes at the Arena -- and remember they will be doing the live interviews of US medallists during the coverage. So that'll have to be done on the floor in Verona.

What @baron-pierreIV said. 99.99% sure it'll be live, but they haven't decided who the broadcasters will be. I'm guessing they'll use Tirico and maybe have him with Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. Although they might go in a different direction since they'll all be in Milan while the closing is in Verona. And I agree with baron.. NBC learned their lesson that using random celebrities is not the way to go. Use people with TV experience, whether they are sports broadcasters or talk show hosts. Like the combo of Savannah Guthrie and Terry Gannon for the opening, although that's going to be a really long day for Terry following the start of the figure skating team competition.

I found out today, and I hold my hands up, that this is not real. Feel a bit grubby falling for this AI slop, believable though it is. I was at least correct in saying it'd never be built though , and reading the article below I'm not sure the actual design is much more realistic.... The actual stadium proposed for construction in NEOM has been officially listed as one of the 15 host stadiums being either renovated or built from scratch for the FIFA 2034 World Cup for almost a year, and the Saudis do plan for it to be 350 metres above the ground. That is because they plan for it to form part of The Line, a proposed smart, green city in Neom that will eventually extend in linear fashion for over 100 miles across the northwest Saudi province of Tabuk by 2045, powered entirely by renewable energy. https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/46763808/no-saudi-arabia-not-building-world-cup-stadium-top-skyscraper

The mascot has been revealed... Meet Ayo! A young lion wearing a tingandé, a traditional hat worn by the Fula people. It's name means "joy" in Yoruba. Unfortunately, the video that the mascot was shown in was AI generated... I guess this means Ayo has the title of being the first (?) AI generated Olympic mascot.

Whoa there, watch out for blasphemy, you risk quickly getting a severe reprimand from the chief inquisitor of the IOC!

TBD doesn't indicate whether it will be Live telecast or not. Since it's under the Talents' column, all it means is that they haven't finalized on who will commentate the CLosing broadcast of the real Games. I have a feeling they might include ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis since she is now an NBC commentator and AF 2030 will be in her country, so she would be a creditable behind-the-camera host/co-host. Just so long it isn't that dumb Kelly Clarkson and WTF SnoopDogg from 2024!!

I think LA28 will be in good hands for Ceremonies. While Rice and Winston (both Brits, I think?) are mostly TV execs, at least Givens has a solid Olympic ceremonies resume as good as Ballich and Birch. Besides, how could LA not work with Givens when he is a southern California fixture? He started in LA 1984 when he provided the color cards for that giant colored card stunt showing only 84 nations -- not all the 140 nations who participated then. So, in a way for him, it will be a homecoming. And he had a much larger portfolio with Salt Lake 2002 when he was in charge of all Imagery of 2002. I believe he came up with the design for the SLC 2002 medals; and it was Five Currents who connected George Tsypin with the Kremlin to do the Sochi Ceremonies. In 2006, Gavin Newsom had him head San Francisco's bid for the 2016 USA candidature. I remember visiting the early offices then. LA28 will be his crowning achievement. I hope they immediately sign Bad Bunny (over Snoop Dogg any day) to headline the Opening!! 🤪

Here's the link of his profile work. He did Salt Lake 2002, London 2012, Beijing 2022 https://fivecurrents.com/

Will the Closing Ceremony be broadcast live? because it says TBD

Yeah, the classic Saudi playbook. Talk about creating a massive conflict of interest. There’s surely no way the whole Olympic esports venture can continue under the Bach blueprint. It needs a whole new rethink and rebrand if they ever want to try it again. Oh well. Kirsty gets to demonstrate her dynamism by “pressing pause” again.

Whoa, that's also interesting. This also explains a lot about the Esports Weeks and Series progammes. It was all in the family! So, does that mean that the Esports Games idea is dead then? If it was so rotten... Wait a little, we are talking about sport officials, it probrably gets worse then we can know. And still, it was officialy created in a session, so it has to be a little hope for Olympics 3: Eletronic Bogaloo. If they actually manage to make a decent game selection... And also, the saudis are now making their esports games without the rings anyway and with game industry support(Hey, did you know, they bought EA, the FIFAEAFC, Madden and NHL guys just now?), so there's that. If the IOC don't move fast, these Esports Games might just become a nothing burger, with only sport games no one cares about. Maybe that was the intention anyway, given how they tried to do this so far.

Or maybe it was the IOC drawing the curtains and shredding the evidence on the corruption claims that were implicating a few high ranking IOCers, including Kirsty’s husband. There’s been a bit of a lingering smell bedevilling the whole sorry operation. Olympic esports corruption: minutes expose IOC propaganda and incriminate Ser Miang Ng and his family business Corruption complaint against senior IOC member Ser Miang Ng: "prevent any further significant breaches from occurring before it is too late" …The case of Ser Miang Ng and his children's businesses and companies raises further interesting questions. Some of these revolve around the Global Esports Federation (GEF), also based in Singapore, whose board includes Ser Mian Ng's son Chong Geng Ng and which is headed by Paul Foster, former chief of protocol at the IOC. During the founding phase of the GEF, which was always viewed with suspicion by many experts and was the subject of business intelligence investigations on more than one occasion, a certain Tyrone Seward was also a member of the board for several years. Mr Seward is from Zimbabwe. He is the husband of IOC President Kirsty Coventry…

We have our team! Ben Winston will serve as Executive Producer and Creative Director, and Scott Givens will serve as Executive Producer - Production. Winston's Fulwell Entertainment and Givens' FiveCurrents will merge as FulFive, which will serve as the production company for the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies. The company will be led by Givens and Ryann Lauckner. https://la28.org/en/newsroom/la28-announces-production-team-and-company-for-opening-and-closing-ceremonies.html

Oh, I like that. Striking and modern but not over the top. Classy looking podium. Very Italian.

Correction, gave a quick look now, they still have the rights for 2029, but it is actually flopping. Another thing i forgot to mention that is actually very important: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esports_Nations_Cup