As if the world doesn't hate the US enough as it is.

The WORLD hates the US?

Who knew?

There's a couple of issues:

• Swimming has for eons run on a morning preliminaries/evening finals program. Swimmers like it because (especially for the best athletes at a given event), the morning swims are tune-ups for the evening finals. And most swimmers just swim faster in the evening. It forces all of the competitions that lead up to the Olympics to change their scheudles so that swimmers can get used to the Olympic format. Hundreds of meets worldwide will be affected.
• By changing the schedule for US television, it does so at the expense of the rest of the world. The US gets to watch live coverage at 9pmEST, while Londoners are still at work at 2pm or Sydneysiders are getting ready for lunch at 11am.

So, the bottom line is that it puts US television coverage ahead of the needs of the athletes and the wants of fans in the rest of the world.

You type that as if the US televions networks are being selfish or something.

So the networks are just all about THEM THEM THEM.   Kinda reminds of [a thought I'd get beat down for]

Hate the International Committee, not the US.

I was waiting for you to tie this back to the Republicans.

Point 1: I'll buy that. Exactly what I was wondering. Ok, sounds selfish on the part of Amercan media (but are you shocked?)

Point 2: Then see my above post. Its about money and if England and Austrailia weren't willling to shell out the coin to win the rights, then there's nothing to complain about.

Thanks for clearing up the swim schedules, I didn't know how that worked.

Only Cheyney eats babies. Everybody knows that.

LOL, awesome post

OK...i'll narrow it down a bit:

Swimmers and swimming fans will hate us.

But, realize that the IOC made it's decision solely based on the request of NBC. I've been following this issue for months since it was first proposed, and I haven't heard one swimmer (of any country) or coach who thinks this is a good idea.

Yeah, I can just see the marches in the streets of Gaza and Tehran as they burn American flag speedos.

Far as I can tell, the US didn't do anything.  Although, I guess Cheney must've turned away from his "gas up/gas down" button long enough to intimidate the IOC.

Yeah, only some uptight Brit swimmers got their panties in a wad.  Does the east coast hate the west coast because they play MNF in prime time? 

Jim can turn any post into a US bash.  It's really a talent  

Jealous.

You know, they have this thing called "duathlon."

Hey...I love my country. I just wish it would stop being such an all-important bully.

And I realize that the US government isn't behind this. I never said that it was. American television is. But it's about how the world perceives it.

Think of it like this: what if NBC convinced the WCT to make Kona a 2 hour event, so that it could show it live, in its entirety?

Then why the title, Hates the US, vs. the apparently more accurate Hates the US Media. 

As for NBC and the WTC, not sure I see any comparison or your point. 

word

In all sincereity, it doesn't seem like it.

Well, the athletes and coaches will deal. But it's going to be a huge pain in the @ss. Every major swimming event from now until the Beijing games will have to alter their format so that the swimmers get used to swimming the Olympic program.

So, for instance, the US Olympic trials are a week long. During the week, finals will be swum in the morning in front of empty bleachers because people will be at work or school. The atmosphere will suck.