The Olympics Sap-o-MeterMore tears, more moms, more dreams, and three new Sap-o-Meter records.
Updated Monday, Aug. 18, 2008, at 12:19 PM ETThe Olympics Sap-o-Meter is now a widget. Add it to your Facebook page or blog. Check out Slate's complete coverage of the Beijing Games.
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StumbleUponIt was all moms and tears over the weekend as Michael Phelps faced down history and NBC's Cris Collinsworth stared down a moist-eyed Alicia Sacramone. Remarkably, each night brought a new Sap-o-Meter record, cresting on Sunday with an unheard-of 64 Sap Points.
Phelps and his mother, Debbie, were front and center for much of Friday and Saturday night as the U.S. swimmer collected the last of his record eight gold medals. Aside from the usual standbys—dream and proud fared well, topped off by a pair of miracles—moms and mothers were mentioned 13 times Friday night. But the highlight of the night came when Mark Spitz—who until last weekend held the record for golds in an Olympics with seven—spoke with Phelps over a live feed from Detroit and described his own memories of Olympic glory: "It was the mystery, the magic, the wonder and innocence of never having done it before," Spitz said. "Those are the seeds of my creativity that developed in my story. Michael chose his own path, and I'm so happy I am here to see it." The final tally: a then-record 50 Sap Points.
But in these Olympics, records are made to be broken. Saturday saw a new hero emerge in hero, which tied its opening-day record with four appearances. Coverage of the women's marathon provided plenty of opportunity for schmaltz, peaking with commentator Ed Eyestone's tribute to Romanian champ Constantina Tomescu-Dita: "Think about the difference from 2004, Dita running in that incredibly hot race. … She had to start walking because of heat stroke. She showed the Olympic spirit and started running again and finished in 20th place. You can be sure that every workout since then, she's been thinking about this moment, and this sort of redemption." Saturday's count: 54 Sap Points.
On Sunday, it was back to moms, moms, and additional moms, with 18 mentions of motherhood on the day—more than enough to vault mom ahead of front-runner dream to become the sappiest word of the 2008 Olympics to date. Also of note: a record four mentions of tears, several relating to American gymnast Sacramone's waterworks. A bunch of heroes, hearts, and challenges pushed Sunday over the edge, setting a record of 64 Sap Points that will be hard to beat.
Sappiest Line of the Weekend: "Through the rear view mirror, sometimes it seems like a foregone conclusion. But when it's beginning, there's all the sacrifice and a single mom and driving to the practices and the meets and the sacrifices that are made."—NBC's Bob Costas, talking with Michael and Debbie Phelps. (Emphasis on sap words is ours.)
For a primer on how the Sap-o-Meter works, check out our first entry. Did we miss your favorite moment? Send your Sappiest Line of the Day suggestions to .
Sap-o-Meter History
(click on any bar to read that day's entry)
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Remarks from the Fray:
Fantastic! This is the literally the best meta-analysis of anything ever created! (Yes, I know I am using treacle-speak--which requires misusing "literally.") I have disliked the Olympics for at least 20 years because of all the inspirational stories. Just show the d*mn games! Every single person at the Olympics has an inspirational story; and, by God, NBC will make sure we know about it--ad nauseum. One theory is that the treacle make sports broadcasts more appealing to women thus increasing the TV ratings; I express no opinion on that theory.
Treacle has infected every other sport as well. "LeBron James's dog's previous owner's daughter's friend had cancer!" If you try to avoid the treacle by attending the games in person, you get bombast instead. Everyone uses the "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE" style in arenas now.
All the athletes and all the facilities may be better these days, but everything else is worse.
--Travis McGee
(To reply, click here.)
Sappy though the television coverage may be, has anyone else tried the online coverage? It is absolutely amazing. Not even an audio commentary -- just pure events. And you can watch many of them in their entirety.
The internet coverage is the The Best Coverage of the Olympics Ever.
--zzzuucx
(To reply, click here.)
You don't need a meter to detect the inanity of NBC's Olympics and other sports coverage. Just a pair of ears and an interest in the sport involved -- which their commentators typically are lacking.
But NBC is outdoing itself with the Olympics. The other night there was a woman's swim heat and one of the competitors was named "Miley". That caused the NBC commentator to completely ignore what was happening on screen and go off on a riff about Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana. If you made up stuff like this in a novel, people would say it was too unbelievable!
--bubba_barry
(To reply, click here.)
Any chance of exporting the Sap-o-meter technology to Australia?
Trust me. Over-the-top, myopic and occaisionally nauseating Olympics coverage is not an exclusively American phenomonon. We might have to change a few of the key words or phrases to include gems such as "Aussie battler", "ANZAC Spirit" and "mateship", but otherwise I would love to run the Sap-o-meter over the 7 Network coverage.
--Downunder bloke
(To reply, click here.)
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