Why the Super Bowl and the Olympics will overlap next year
It's good for NBC
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The Beijing Winter Olympics are exactly one year away
That's right: assuming they actually happen as scheduled, there will be a Summer and a Winter Olympics within six months of each other. The one-year-delayed Tokyo Games close on Aug. 8, and the Beijing opening ceremony is Feb. 4, 2022. Two Olympics haven't been held this close together since 1992 — the last year before the Winter and Summer Games were staggered so that one would occur every two calendar years instead of both in the same year.
Another interesting thing about the date: traditionally, the Winter Olympics begin shortly after the Super Bowl. No one wants to go head-to-head with pro sports' biggest spectacle. But next year, for the first time ever, they'll overlap. Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles is on Sunday, Feb. 6 — two days after the Beijing Games officially open.
Why? NBC wanted it. Really wanted it. The Olympics' U.S. TV rights holder was scheduled to broadcast the Super Bowl this year. But it asked rival CBS to swap years and got the Beijing Games to open a week earlier than normal (you get this kind of pull when you account for half of the IOC's broadcast revenue) so that it could have both at the same time.
This way, NBC can sell Super Bowl and Olympic ads as a package deal. Plus, they now have the ultimate lead-in for their Olympic coverage. The Super Bowl broadcast, which is watched by more than 100 million people in the U.S., typically ends around 11 p.m. ET. That's noon the next day in Beijing — right about the time competition is getting underway. So you can just picture Al Michaels wrapping up NBC's Super Bowl post-game show by throwing to the Olympics. Maybe, say, a U.S-Canada hockey game starts at that moment to entice the football audience to stick around.
As for the competition itself, we have our first set of medal projections from a data company called Gracenote. Its model predicts Canada will win only 21 medals, which would be its lowest Winter Olympic total in two decades. That's pretty surprising when you consider there are far more events on the program now, and that Canada won 29 medals in 2018.
Before you panic, though, know that Gracenote's model uses results from recent "key competitions." Many of those have been disrupted — even cancelled outright — by the pandemic. A good example of how this can mislead the model is Gracenote's projection that the Canadian women's hockey team will end up with bronze in Beijing. Canada has never done worse than silver in any of the previous six Olympic women's tournaments. But it settled for bronze at the 2019 world championships, and the '20 worlds were cancelled. Gracenote's Olympic podium projection — U.S., Finland, Canada — is identical to the results of the '19 worlds.
Same for men's hockey, whose 2020 world championships were also cancelled. Gracenote's projected Olympic podium is Finland, Canada and Russia, in that order — exactly how the 2019 worlds played out. Also, it's likely that NHL players will return to the Olympics in 2022, which would render these predictions pretty meaningless.
As for Canada's next-favourite winter Olympic sport, Gracenote projects just one gold medal for the country's curlers. That's in mixed doubles. The model has the men's team taking silver (behind Sweden) and the women's team getting shut out of the medals for the second consecutive Olympics.
For what it's worth, here's what Gracenote's projected top-10 medal standings look like:
Quickly...
The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic teams say they will not boycott the Beijing Games. A coalition of 180 rights groups is calling for a boycott over China's reported abuses of certain ethnic minorities, including Uighurs, Tibetans, Inner Mongolians and residents of Hong Kong. Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker said his organization has "serious concerns" about the issue but believes boycotts "don't work" and would rather "engage and be part of a conversation, to amplify voices, to speak our mind on things that are important to us and to participate in the Games." Read more about the COC's and CPC's stance here.
The NHL is trying to tighten up. With 40 players currently on the COVID-19 protocol list and four teams on pause due to outbreaks, the league decided to make some changes. The glass panels behind the benches have been removed, Montreal Forum style, to improve air circulation. Also, players and coaches can't show up to the arena until an hour and 45 minutes before game time, and teams have been told to put more space between players in their dressing rooms. A total of 22 games have been postponed so far this season — all in the three U.S.-based divisions. Read more about the NHL's new measures here.
Things to watch on CBC Sports
North Courts: On the premiere episode of the new show about Canadian basketball, Vivek Jacob, Meghan McPeak and Jevohn Shepherd break down the men's and women's national teams' outlooks for the Tokyo Olympics. Plus, an interview with the commissioner of the fledgling Maritime Women's Basketball Association. Watch it on demand here.
Mikael Kingsbury's return: The reigning Olympic and world men's moguls champion is making his World Cup season debut in Utah after recovering from two fractured vertebrae. He's expected to compete in the men's moguls event today from 4-5:30 p.m. ET, and in the dual moguls event Friday from 2:30-4 p.m. ET. Watch them both live here.
Other live winter Olympics sports: Friday's streaming action also includes the bobsleigh world championships, and World Cup events in alpine skiing and ski jumping. See the full schedule here.
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