Steering clear of Olympic spoilers is sport in itself

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Mandy Hauck turned 25 on Wednesday, but she’s avoiding Facebook and her happy-birthday messages to steer clear of Olympic spoilers about her favorite sport, fencing.

Hauck also has deleted her iPhone apps for CNN and ESPN, opting for news from the London Games the old-fashioned way, via TV coverage that’s time-delayed by NBC for prime time.

The network is making live streams of the action available in real time online. Hauck’s hanging tough, though, in favor of doing actual work during the day as the marketing communications manager for a software company in Atlanta, a job that requires her to stay on Twitter while she attempts to stay away from its main page and trending topics.

“I enjoy the experience of sitting with my family and friends in front of the television and cheering for the athletes as if they were competing live,” said Hauck, a former college fencer who has been following two-time American gold medalist Mariel Zagunis in London. “It’s much more entertaining and enjoyable that way.”

It’s also incredibly difficult with social media in full flower. Olympic spoilers have people turning off phone alerts, hiding their iPads and shushing co-workers in search of simpler times, when screaming at the TV during nail-biting competition was a sport unto itself.

Pervasive spoilers even solicited an apology from NBC’s Olympics executive producer, Jim Bell. He tweeted a mea culpa for a Monday night gaffe, when the network ran a “Today” show teaser with swimmer Missy Franklin showing off her gold medal — just before the network aired the race where she won it.

Despite complaints, NBC’s corporate owners said Wednesday they expect to break even on the London games after once predicting they’d take a $200 million loss. On Tuesday night, 38.7 million people tuned in.