“The view” of the Olympics at John’s Pizza

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is hosting a series of viewing parties at John’s Pizza Works to gather the community in support of Mammoth athletes competing in the Sochi Olympics. But there’s one glitch— most people already know what happens before the competition airs on NBC Primetime.

“I think what our issue has been that our athletes haven’t been performing very well,” said Molly Dawoud, Events and Athlete Coordinator at MMMSA. “That’s been our biggest hurdle. The viewership hasn’t been what we’ve anticipated.”

NBC isn’t airing all events live, and even if they were, there’s a 12-hour time difference between Sochi and California. Given the reality of social media and the Internet age, it’s almost impossible to wait until the Olympics air on TV to find out the results.

Tuesday night was the first viewing party to watch Mammoth athletes Greg Bretz in men’s snowboard halfpipe and Kaya Turski, in the women’s slopestyle skiing.  Around 8:30pm, John’s was decently crowded but it was hard to tell who was there for the Olympics and who just came to eat. “I think the fact that everyone already knows makes it difficult,” said a representative of MMSA who was there with American flags to hand out and large posters to decorate.

And if you didn’t know the results before (I had kept myself in the dark), someone yelled “he got fourth!” after Shaun White landed his qualifying run, advancing him to finals, where he ended up placing … fourth.

People were still waving the American Flags and cheering on Bretz in the finals, who ended up placing twelfth after falling on both his runs. Unfortunately Turski didn’t qualify for finals and her qualifying runs weren’t shown during prime time.

“I think it’s about watching the actual runs,” said local Kalyn Lepre. “Even if you know the results, it’s still exciting to watch.”

Even less people showed up on Wednesday night to watch Stacey Cook, who placed 17th in women’s alpine downhill and Kelly Clark, who won a bronze medal in women’s snowboard halfpipe. There wasn’t a MMSA representative handing out American paraphernalia. “We had another party going on for the trade show at The Underground,” said Dawoud. “It’s about resources.”

There are two more view parties scheduled, to watch Trevor Jacob in men’s snowboardcross on February 17 and Johnny Teller in men’s skicross February 20. “We’re hoping to do a little more around Johnny,” said Dawoud. “We’re trying to get NBC up here to do some shots at the viewing party. If they come, we’ll have flags, America Tattoos, some red, white and blue shirts … If they come.”

If nothing else, John’s Pizza Works is festively decorated in red, white and blue and is offering all night happy hour at the viewing parties.