The Olympics Sap-o-MeterAfter a week of Olympic-sized schmaltz, the Sap-o-Meter battles adversity.
By Josh Levin, Derek Thompson, and Chris Wilson Posted Friday, Aug. 22, 2008, at 11:00 AM ETThe Sap-o-Meter team chatted online with readers about this project; read the transcript. The 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.
On a day when America's relay teams both dropped the baton, the Sap-o-Meter had a drop of its own. After a week of sap scores in the mid-50s, NBC's commentators dialed down the schmaltz Thursday evening. The minuscule total: 35 Sap Points.
The night's most-sentimental figure was Cuba's Dayron Robles, whose gold in the 110-meter hurdles gave NBC its second deceased-parent narrative in as many nights. But just as one-time sprinting stud Tyson Gay bobbled the baton for the Americans, both stars from the sap list, mom and dream, had nights to forget. The maudlin pair scored two mentions each—their lowest combined score in Sap-o-Meter history. Fittingly, on a night with disappointments in track and field and a hard-fought gold in men's beach volleyball, battled (six mentions) and challenges (four mentions) combined to keep the sap from dipping to record lows.
Sappiest Line of the Day: NBC's Tom Hammond: "This race no doubt dedicated to his late dad." Bob Costas: "And if that's the case, doing his father and his country proud."—On Cuban Dayron Robles' victory in the 110-meter hurdles.
The Sap-o-Meter Tag Cloud
adversity
battled
cancer
challenges
courage
cry
death
dedication
determination
dream
emotion
glory
golden
hardship
heart
hero
inspiration
inspire
journey
magic
memory
miracle
mom
mother
Olympic-sized
overcome
passion
proud
sacrifice
spirit
tears
tragedy
triumph
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)
Josh Levin is a Slate senior editor. You can e-mail him at and follow him on Twitter. Derek Thompson is a Slate intern. Chris Wilson is an associate editor at Slate in Washington, D.C. Follow him on Twitter. Illustration by Nina Frenkel. Interactive feature design by Matt Dodson.
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.)
(8/16)
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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.)
(8/16)