Olympics: Trampoline is good TV

It’s trampoline time at the Olympics on Friday with live men’s qualifying on MSNBC and NBCOlympics.com at 9 a.m. ET, and the final following at 10:26 a.m. ET online and in primetime on NBC. (That’s U.S. champion Steven Gluckstein pictured. The women, including American competitor Savannah Vinsant, compete Aug. 4.) Commentator Tim Daggett, who says he stands the whole time because “I want to be able to duck,” shares three reasons why we should tune in.

1. Outrageous air. They go twentysomething feet in the air, about as high as your house. When you’re standing next to the trampoline, and you see these guys jumping, you first of all are like, Ohmygod, they must have a mental disorder. And I mean that in a good way. The air that they get is unreal.

2. They’re the best in the world, but I’d be shocked if someone doesn’t come off. It’s a little bit like going to a NASCAR race or a hockey game, because there’s always somebody that flies off — and people do like shows like Wipeout. Even in the finals, where it’s the very best, someone could try to push a little bit harder. If they take off a certain angle leaning back or forward too much, they’re gonna not just land on the mats around the trampoline, which is scary, too, they’re gonna miss the entire trampoline, and it’s a minute angle. Imagine it like you’re a really good dart player in a pub, since we’re in London. You line up, and you pull back the dart slowly in front of your nose, and you keep your eye focused, and you just toss it easily, right in the center. In trampoline, they have to hit the center, but instead of having that dart in front of your nose, pulling back and tossing it, they have to toss it like a woman’s softball pitch. They have to take that dart, fling their arm completely around using their entire body, and whip it as hard as they can and hit the bullseye. That’s pretty hard to do. Usually, you take out someone who’s sitting on a bar stool when you do that or it breaks a chandelier or something. The power, combined with the absolute necessity for being precise, is incredible.

3. To hear me say the words “Fliffis” and “Triffis” a lot.

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