Rhythmic gymnastics and synchronised swimming

[JellySaurus]

Two amazing disciplines that are never available to watch on TV. Watching the news last night, when the first ever British medal in synchro was reported, the connection was suddenly obvious: these are women's disciplines. I can't think of any other reason not to bother televising these incredible athletes.

They are televised…

What are you talking about, I've watched both of these every Olympics forever. SS is televised during the European Championships ( we went to Glasgow to watch it was amazing). EuroSport and other online outlets regularly show other competitions.

The BBC screwed up their Olympics subscription and got the lowest version this year that's why there's a serious lack of coverage for all sports and far too much talking heads opposed to the last few years when you could ' Red button' any sport

It's only a women's sport in the Olympics by the way, Men compete in other competitions

iPlayer - Artistic swimming Day 15, rhythmic gymnastics day 14

For full broadcasting for all sports you need to pay for a Discovery TV subscription

I always watched these as a kid too. I'm not sure what happened this year. I also noticed it wasn't as readily available as I'm used to. I'd be slow to jump to a conclusion why this is the case. (That said, I wouldn't put it past the BBC)

Discovery + have the TV rights for these sports and others. £3.99 for the month, I believe.

I really wanted to show my DDs these sports as I think they'd love them. Does anyone have a rough idea of when the BBC televised them if they did? Scrolling through iPlayer is impossible if you don't know the feed and the time.

@WickieRoy I've edited my post to include the iPlayer information.

We generally don't have many medals players in these sports so I dare say that's why there has been less coverage due to the BBC issue. You could get the Discovery app, or just watch performances on YouTube.

I haven’t watched much of the Olympics but one bit I did catch was the synchro swimming (or Artistic Swimming as it seems to be called in various places). It might not have got as much coverage as the athletics for example, but it was there.

And men have been able to join the teams in the Olympics for quite some time now. Whether they actually make the team is another matter, of course.

The BBC screwed up their Olympics subscription and got the lowest version this year that's why there's a serious lack of coverage for all sports and far too much talking heads opposed to the last few years when you could ' Red button' any sport

They didn't screw it up "this year". This was the case for the Tokyo Olympics too.

"Why didn't the BBC just pay more to have everything?
Quite simply because we take decisions over our spending very seriously as it is licence fee payers' money that we are using.
As much as we'd like to, we can't buy everything we want."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cjk3vkpxz1po

That's great, thanks @Singleandproud , will get hunting!

The Artistic Swimming was on the highlights bbc show last night. Gymnastics was all over the tv in the earlier days as that is when it was on.

I'm not particularly into sport, but these two disciplines are ones I do want to watch, but have always struggled to. Everything else seems to be televised at some point, but to watch these you have to pay an extra subscription or trawl through iPlayer. As a PP pointed out, they are very difficult to find. In earlier years, they would be broadcast at night, during off-peak hours. Now they are shunted off elsewhere.

Yes, men can now compete in the team artistic swimming events, but AFAIK there aren't any men this year. I expect a team with a male swimmer would make mainstream news regardless of nation or scoring.

There was loads of artistic gymnastics (beam, floor, bars etc) but not much of the rhythmic gymnastics (ball, hoop, ribbon).

But the BBC can’t afford to buy the rights to everything. Can you imagine the outrage if they tried?

Only because GB medalled. 'Gymnastics' rather process my point. Most people don't realise that there are two sets of gymnastics, and once all the beams and vaults and whatnot are done think that's all the gymnastics.

I watched the Artistic Swimming - I don't watch during the day so it's only the highlights in the evening. I missed the Rhythmic gymnastics (which are just unbelievable) but it's all on YouTube.
Gymnastics are one of the most popular sports at the Olympics (as is figure skating at the Winter Olympics).

Just seen some highlights on the BBC now

Artistic swimming duets was on live on the red button yesterday.

They are televised. I've enjoyed watching quite a bit of both.

Yes, YouTube is where I watch it.

Maybe it's not sexist, maybe it's technocratist. I only have basic TV services (Freeview?) and don't even know what red button is. I thought that was got rid of with teletext.

I watched the artistic swimming pairs on the main evening BBC broadcast yesterday

BBC s had sharply reduced coverage this year because of the Discovery+ deal, and lots of things haven’t been shown including male disciplines such as the rings, fencing (except sabre), most of the martial arts (only one or two weight categories)

Red Button is on Freeview btw

Honestly, I feel like gymnastics is one of the most visible Olympic sports?

I like to watch shooting, it's hard to find.

I went to see Artistic Swimming ( not a great name change btw IOC, do you call synchronised diving Artistic Diving, er, no you don’t) as a test event at the 2012 Olympics and was won over, it is incredible, they perform a mix of swimming/ gymnastics/ free diving and they do it smiling! Considering how much time they devoted to people shooting guns at invisible flying targets- invisible to me and most people - not too mention the hours they showed of people hanging about in boats and on sailboards waiting for the wind and the same people on the same horses jumping over very similar fences, admittedly in a fabulous setting , they could have given it a bit more airtime I think.

Not going to mention golf, football, tennis, basketball and other sports that you can watch interminably any day of the week.

I think there ought to be a Niche Olympics.

Discovery plus has shown every moment of both of these events , it’s there if you want to pay for it .

On your remote control, and when on BBC1 (or 2, 3 or 4) press the button (on mine, red) which brings up the index; news, sport etc. If red button services are available at that time, it will show at the top - at the moment, red button is showing "Watch movie star interviews", although it is actually showing women's weightlifting. Just click on that. Also look online at iPlayer - further Olympic coverage is available on there, although it is a bit late in the day for that 😀