The 2002 Olympic Games - Olympic Highlights

Nearly 2 hours captured on one DVD from NBC Sports - The best moments of the 2002 Winter Olympics from Salt Lake. You'll witness 17 days of stunning highlights such as: Gold medal winning performances from third-generation Olympian Jim Shea n the Skeleton, figure skating-sensation Sara Hughes, and speed-skater Apolo Anton Ohno; Follow the events making news such as the US medal sweep in the Men's Half Pipe to the controversy on ice in the Pairs Figure Skating competition; And wrap it all in between the pageantry of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Bonus coverage includes additional footage of Snowboarding, Bobsledding, and Downhill Skiing, plus interviews from a number of US and International stars!

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Although I am not a sport fanatic, there has always been something special about the Olympics in my mind, whether winter or summer. Therefore, when I saw this in the library, I thought it might be interesting to see some of the best of Salt Lake City.

Well, first off, I was sorely disappointed with the point of view taken for this project. If an American was a contender and did not win, it was played out as a huge tragedy, rather than (surprise!) somebody from another country being extremely talented. Of course, this is an American DVD about an Olympics that took place in America, but that doesn't mean that the Americans should win in every sport.

Secondly, this DVD only touches the very surface of the sports of the Olympic games. To anybody who has a deep love of any of the sports, seeing 5 minutes of that sport isn't going to make the price of the DVD worth it.

This DVD also 'makes nice' with some of the controversies that occurred. Of course, because the scandal with the judging of the pairs figure skating was such a big deal, and because it resulted in a second set of gold medals being awarded in that event, this was mentioned. However, I was hoping to get some clarification of what happened to Spain with at least one of the skiing events (I think they had a medal revoked), but as far as I saw, there was no mention of this whatsoever.

Not that I'm a huge figure-skating fan, but one of the things that sticks out in my mind is how incredibly Alexei Yagudin skated, and how the rivalry between him and Yevgenii Plushenko was so heated. In this trite overview, more time was spent introducing the American men's skaters, reducing the clip of Yagudin's performance to a few seconds (with some dumb fill-in music in the background) and no picture of Plushenko at all.

I think they would have been better off going all out, and making this into a disc set, where one could watch more of the sports, or taking some of the most popular sports (such as figure skating) and release the video of the competitions as individual DVDs.

11 of 12 found the following review helpful:

Best (but only) Video Scrapbook AvailableNov 06, 2002
A moving tribute to the games; however, I would have liked to see more event footage rather than just event highlights and those sappy human interest stories. Costas's voice is fine as narrarator (he's got my vote for the sequel too, if he wants the job). If NBC heeds the call for a follow up ("More Olympic Highlights" or "v2002.2") it would be great to see:
-more behind the scenes footage (perhaps never before aired).
-what it was like to be there: to obtain tickets and to attend an event (including traffic, bus rides, and security).
-scenes from the olympic village (athletes quarters), and olympic square/medals ceremonies (downtown).
-clips from Jay Leno's hysterical late night coverage (including "Ross the Intern's" live reports).
-medal award ceremony pagentry, awards, and concerts.
-and full coverage of sporting events including opening and closing ceremonies (even if it requires a boxed set).