Olympic fever is sweeping the nation and the globe. This is only day two of competition and yet lives are being altered in order to watch qualifying rounds of such culturally-significant sports as two-man rowing and four-man rowing. It really is captivating in its own special way, though. This is probably the only time when rowing can be seen on TV, much less on a Sunday morning in the middle of August. The added element of different countries being represented by people with seemingly strange names in a location as distant and intriguing as Beijing, makes it all the more interesting.

To watch Olympic rowing on television isn't something that is likely to fall on anyone's "to-do" list, so NBC employed some strategy by placing it directly after USA men's basketball on the lineup. NBC must know, that no matter how obscure the sport, it has the potential to grab attention if it can somehow be on in front of someone. After only a few minutes of viewing, questions start to come to mind about the intricacies of a sport like rowing. Then it becomes a challenge for the commentators to answer those questions as quickly as possible. It's almost as if the viewer is thinking "I'll only watch this until I find out why there are people riding bikes in the background of the rowers." Well, that question was quickly answered. It's coaches that shout encouragement to the rowers and try to chart their pace and progress.

Back to the commentators, that must be an interesting life to lead. Surely these people aren't only qualified to broadcast international rowing? To only be of legitimate use every 4 years when the Olympics come around must be disheartening. Many people might be just as qualified to broadcast baseball as football, but it seems unlikely that a deep knowledge of rowing, or judo or steeplechase for that matter, is lurking in the deep recesses of a broadcaster's brain. This is clearly highly specialized work and just another reason why the Olympics are actually great, no matter how strange or irrelevant it seems.