London 2012: Live! Or not.

Last night, 17-year-old American Missy Franklin was getting set to compete for the Gold in the 100m backstroke. NBC had just done a fantastic feature about Franklin's life at school and at home, and she was really being set up to be one of the faces of these Olympic Games. It was around 9:00 PM ET.

Too bad the race had already happened hours before. 

And too bad that NBC aired a promo for "Gold medalist Missy Franklin" two minutes before she actually won the race. 

Whoops. 

But NBC isn't the only one playing spoiler. Yesterday, I was foolish enough to glance at a television screen showing SportsCenter. The ESPN Bottomline made sure that I knew how men's gymnastics would play out later that night. The US finished 5th. But not on television. That didn't happen until much later.

And therein lies the problem. Due to the time difference, all of the events in London are taking place from about eight in the morning to about seven at night. NBC could show all of these events live, but they have instead decided to forego showing the biggest events (swimming, gymnastics, etc) live in favor of pushing them to primetime. Thus, the only live events you may see on TV are volleyball, judo, handball, and various other peripheral events. 

NBC is allowing people to view a free online stream of the events as they take place. I tried that for the men's gymnastics last night. After about twenty seconds of one athlete's floor routine, I was treated to buffering, freezing, and eventually a blank screen. Apparently I'm not the only one who is having a problem. 

The decision to save events for primetime obviously makes sense from a ratings standpoint. Millions will tune in to watch the women's team compete for the team gymnastics title tonight. The same will tune in to see if Michael Phelps can become the most decorated Olympian of all time. Unfortunately, we live in a world of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and live feeds and blogs and ESPN and radios and televisions. 

WE HAVE TECHNOLOGY. 

We have technology that can tell us who is doing what at any given second. It's not even advanced. It's literally one person at the Olympics tweeting who won gold, getting retweeted a hundred thousand times, and just like that, the results are in. Now multiply that one person by dozens of reporters and a bevy of other spectators, and even the athletes themselves. There is no possible way to avoid finding out the results unless you turn off the internet, TV, radio, and your phone. Even then, you still might be subject to a spoiler on the very network who has it in its best interest NOT to spoil the race. 

I've already begun to take the precautions that I just mentioned. My TweetDeck has been turned off. Facebook is being checked sparingly. I want to see who wins the women's team competition tonight, and I want to see it with at least a little cloud of doubt hanging over the result. 

So yeah - big deal. Kid has to go a few days without his Facebook and his twitter. Tough life. 

But we shouldn't have to. Evidenced by their rebranding of Versus to become NBC Sports Network last January, NBC is trying to become a major player in sports. They have hockey. They have Sunday Night Football. And they have the Olympics. Sadly, they're dropping the ball big time on that last one. 

A sports network should dedicate itself to showing events live whenever possible. There is no difference between showing gymnastics live in the morning (and then replaying it at night) and not showing gymnastics live in the morning and tape delaying it until primetime. 

No matter what, the results are out there for all to see. At least give us the chance to see them while they happen.

And I'm not talking about a feed.