Tumbling to Beijing in AM

October 26, 2006

The athletes better get to bed early. ‘Cause NBC wants them ready to play early in the AM.

Swimming and most gymnastic finals at the upcoming Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics will be held in the mornings. This will allow NBC to televise those high-profile events live in the lucrative prime-time American market.

The IOC announcement brought swift criticism from Australia, whose powerhouse swim team and Olympic committee had lobbied for night finals.

''The only thing that gets me cranky is that (the IOC) have made the decision for commercial reasons, not for the good of the sport,'' Australian coach Alan Thompson said.

The decision by the International Olympic Committee on Thursday ends months of negotiations between the IOC, international sports federations and TV broadcasters, whose purchase of exclusive rights fees account for more than half the Olympic revenues.

NBC paid $3.5 billion to broadcast the five Olympics from 2000 in Sydney through Beijing. After struggling for ratings at the Turin Winter Games this year, NBC had argued for morning times not only for swimming and gymnastics, but also track and field and basketball for its prime time market.

With Beijing's time zone 12 hours ahead of New York, eight ahead of much of Europe and two behind Australia, all broadcasters wanted key events staged to pull in prime-time audiences.

Aside from putting swimming and most gymnastics finals in the morning in Beijing, the IOC decided that track and field finals, except for the marathon, will be held at night, while diving finals and the men's basketball gold medal game will be in the afternoon.

American swimmer Michael Phelps doesn't mind the change.

The six-time Olympic gold medalist has a stated goal of making swimming more than an every-four-years sport in the United States, and he wants to play to a prime-time audience.

''I'm glad to have so much time to prepare for the schedule. We've known a change was a possibility. Now that a decision has been made, we can focus on what we need to do to make the team, and hopefully get a chance to compete in China,'' Phelps said in a statement Thursday. ''It's a level playing field, and I think everybody will be well prepared for the Games, and we'll see some very fast swims in Beijing.''

IOC members defended the schedule, saying the outcome struck a balance among interests.

''One speaks of one or two sports, but in the end it's about 28 sports,'' Hein Verbruggen, the head of the IOC's coordination commission for the Beijing Games, said at a news conference. ''Such a schedule is a matter of discussion with the host country, the broadcasters and the federations. ... What comes out of it is a compromise.''

Philippe Silacci, spokesman for the international gymnastics federation said the changes were expected.

''There was a compromise but it really doesn't affect us very much,'' Silacci said. ''This decision does not change anything in the process of the competition itself.''

Interest in the 2008 Games are high, not only for broadcasters trying to hold onto viewers, but for corporate sponsors eager to tap the China market and for athletes who could pull in lucrative endorsements along with gold medals.

IOC president Jacques Rogge and members of the executive board reached agreement on the schedule in the last few days while he was traveling in China and Japan, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said.

The schedule was being sent to international sports federations and broadcasters Thursday, she said, and was not immediately being publicly released.

In reaching their decision, the IOC executive board members looked at past precedents, Davies said.

At the 1988 Seoul Games, swimming, gymnastics and track and field finals were held in the morning, she said. But in 2000 at Sydney, they were not, and the U.S. television audience dropped below expectations.

The final schedule puts rowing in the afternoons to catch TV audiences in Britain, where the sport is popular, while diving finals will be staged in the afternoons and evenings, for the Australians, Davies said.

To ensure that athletes' performance would not be affected by the scheduling, Davies said the schedule's early release gives competitors sufficient time to adjust their training. Also, athletes are being given longer time to recover between their last heats and the finals, she said.

''Our swimmers are professional athletes,'' Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said. ''We are confident they will now focus on getting the job done in Beijing.''