The Winter Olympics Are Here

Few events rival the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for pure spectacle. And though competition has already begun in PyeongChang, South Korea, the march into the stadium by the teams under their national banners is set for Friday on NBC at 8 p.m. ET.

Per NBC, live coverage from PyeongChang will begin Friday, Feb. 9 at 6 a.m. ET on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, and will feature the pageantry and the Parade of Nations with world feed graphics and the event’s natural sound (without commentators). Remember that South Korea is 14 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone.

The never-ending never-endingness of the Winter Games will now doubt glue your heiner to the recliner for the next two weeks as you take in figure skating, skeleton, bobsled and luge. Looking short term, here are a few other elements of our Weekend TV Six-Pack to make sure your gluteus maximus maximizes its time.

Saturday’s frozen offerings include men’s alpine skiing downhill from 8-11 p.m. on NBC. But one attention-grabber is curling, which continues to grow in popularity in the United States. The USA takes on Finland in mixed doubles from 9:45-11:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network.

Set the alarm clock on Sunday morning if you like live events – the USA’s women’s hockey team takes on Finland (them again?) at 2:45 a.m. Or just don’t go to sleep.

Got some goodies in college basketball, if all the ice and snow leave you cold. No. 3 Purdue, coming off a loss to Ohio State, plays No. 4 Michigan State on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN. At 10 p.m., ESPN gets a pair of ranked teams in No. 12 Gonzaga at No. 11 St. Mary’s.

A PGA Tour crown jewel, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is on Golf Channel on Saturday from 2-3:30 p.m. before hopping over to CBS from 4-7 p.m. CBS gets the bulk of the final round on Sunday from 3-6 p.m.

That’s about as eclectic as we can make the menu. As they used to say on ABC’s Wide World of Sports – spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports … the thrill of victory … and the agony of defeat.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman