A few things I learned from watching the Olympic games in Rio

The Olympics in Rio are over, and the spectacular athletic extravaganza delivered most of its promised glory, at a cost of a few billion dollars.

These days, the spirit of the Olympic ideal is adjusted to suit 21st century ethics.

Considering how in the early days Olympians would be stripped of their medals for receiving a hint of sponsorship, I’d say we have reached the opposite bank of the river.

Never before have I seen so many commercials with US Olympic athletes parade on NBC.

Most were about food us commoners consume, such as yogurt and cereal. Others were about cleaning agents, supermarket brands and more.

I cannot blame the athletes for using their ability to bring their image’s familiarity along with consumer products. Why let the IOC reap all the profits, after all?

On the subject of TV coverage, NBC failed, in the opinion of many, to deliver a pure Olympic spectacle.

Focus was on US athletes and their overly-dramatized profiles, with the occasional segments on some international athletes – particularly if they were rivals of Americans in the sports. The opening and closing ceremonies were not broadcast live, to allow for the show’s segmentation with numerous commercials.

Luckily, I ditched my TV and NBC early on, watching instead the superb BBC online streaming; the latter was achieved with the help of a VPN that would give me an IP in the UK.

I was able to soak into the sports of the Rio Olympiad unlike any past Olympics in recent memory.

The BBC coverage was nothing short of absolutely spectacular: informative, global and well-spirited, even when the focus changed temporarily to feature British athletes.

A job well done, BBC.

Onto domain names and Rio 2016.

Many of the Rio Olympics medal winners don’t seem to care for registering their full name, preferably as a .com.

Some do, especially when they are massively sponsored, but most athletes seem to rely entirely on an Instagram, Facebook or Twitter profile to engage with their followers.

With that in mind, I saw several such domain names getting registered by opportunists.

Do they truly believe an athlete would pay money for an aftermarket .com, when they didn’t spend $10 to get it in the first place?

As a side dish, social media created plenty of memes, leading to more pointless domains being registered, such as PhelpsFace.com and LochteGate.com.

The hashtags will outlive the .com, rest assured.

Olympic trademarks extend to the city+year identifier, and the IOC seems to chase those that as much as tap onto a city’s *potential* as an Olympic host. That, I understand.

So Tokyo 2020 it is.

I plan to watch it from behind a VPN connection, such as PureVPN.