Olympic Fever (muted)

While I am a fan of the Olympics, I've never really watched them as much as I am watching these. I've started to notice one thing... the announcers are annoying as hell. Take for instance, the female diving commentator telling the story about the America female synchronized diving team. She mentioned how one girl's family moved from California to the Midwest so that the two girls could train together because, "Its important to train in the same place for synchronized diving." Seriously?!? Or things like "this has never been seen before" when someone sets a world record. [edit] Joey's comment reminded me of another huge probel... The woman who interviews the swimmers after they win/lose a race. "What were you thinking on that final lap?". I bet he's thinking about whether or not they left the iron on in their room at the Olympic village. She asks the worst questions. Its already pretty hard to interview someone who is out of breath, but she makes it a much more excruciating process.

I've also noticed that the announcers for swimming, diving, gymnastics and track & field are obsessed with pointing out when their predictions are correct. Every time a race would finish, or the gymnasts would finish an event. The announcer had to point out, "Just as I predicted." So we've been watching most of it in fast forward to save time, but to also mute the announcers.

While I'm talking about the Olympics, why are they getting rid of Baseball and Softball, but keeping Equestrian? While it's impressive that they can make a horse jump over a wall, what is athletic about ride a horse? It seems like the horse should be getting the metal. Whats next? Auto racing?