Olympic Viewing: Straight shooting, dwindling viewing

Highlights from television coverage of the Sochi Olympics:

STRAIGHT SHOOTERS: Sweet analogy Saturday by biathlon play-by-play announcer Bob Papa that drove the sport home for many viewers. Papa compared the pressure faced by biathletes at the shooting range to that felt by amateur golfers nearing the end of a round with the chance to break 80 for the first time. In a tight competition, that final shooting stage winnowed the field of gold medal contenders from four to two, Germany and eventual winner Russia.

RATINGS: Friday’s prime-time coverage averaged 14.9 million viewers, easily the smallest audience of the games so far. That was well below the 24.5 million for the comparable night in Vancouver, which featured performances by Lindsey Vonn and Apolo Anton Ohno, and 15.9 million for the same night in Italy in 2006.

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David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter@dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.