2016 Olympics - Opening Ceremony and beyond....

[kairparavel]

Ah, ok. 

You would think in this day and age, with the realization that people move about the world, feeds like this world just be open. I mean, it's not like NBC or CBC aren't getting tonnes of ad revenue. I'm not the only expat that would like reasonable access to my native coverage. 

[HexMachina]

35 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Yeah, the American commentators are the worst, and I find them especially appaling with gymnastics.  If you go catch up on some old videos on youtube from past events, like say the US Olympic trials, you'll just be cringing the entire time.  I watched one gymnastics event where one of the commentators couldn't stop pointing out how utterly adorable the gymnasts were or discussing the various colors of their leotards.  World class athletes and somehow NBC saw fit to turn this into a narration of how cute they were.  NBC gets away with it because there is no ratings competition.

I've been tuning into the Canadian feed and omg it's like a breath of fresh air.  Still some bits of casual sexism here and there, but the commentators tend to respect the athletes and the audience by allowing us to watch without talking over everything.  

The British commentary for the gymnastics is really good, at least I find it is. Helps that Beth Tweddle is there now too. But I think there has been a former gymnast doing commentary for a while now, although his name escapes me.

[DireWolfSpirit]

On August 6, 2016 at 9:51 AM, Relic said:

my favorite post by you, ever. Totally agree. 

Seconded, that was a refreshing account. I should like to see this ceremony on video or something eventually, as I was camping and missed the live broadcast. As long as I get to see a good portion of the Track and Field events and some of the Medal ceremonies and Closing ceremony I'll take those moments for now. I really love the Mens and Womens track races.

[Arkash]

Here in France we have two women who used to be gymnasts to comment the gym disciplines, so not that much sexism and they know how to respect quieter or musical moments and the physical effort. 

But yeah, each field is commented by ancient athletes of the discipline. It's not the case over there in the US ?

[Which Tyler]

21 minutes ago, Arkash said:

Here in France we have two women who used to be gymnasts to comment the gym disciplines, so not that much sexism and they know how to respect quieter or musical moments and the physical effort. 

But yeah, each field is commented by ancient athletes of the discipline. It's not the case over there in the US ?

I always thought that Ex-pro.s in the commentary box, usually alongside a professional commentator (usually a very-ex pro) was the standard?

 

BBC's team always used to be Matt Baker (professional commentator), Christine Still (ex-pro), Daniel Keatings (ex-pro) and Mitch Fenner (ex-pro coach). Fenner died earlier this year though, and his place seems to have gone to Beth Tweddle (ex-pro), who started the punditry game 4 years ago

[Dr. Pepper]

 

22 minutes ago, Arkash said:

Here in France we have two women who used to be gymnasts to comment the gym disciplines, so not that much sexism and they know how to respect quieter or musical moments and the physical effort. 

But yeah, each field is commented by ancient athletes of the discipline. It's not the case over there in the US ?

It is the case.  Nastia Luikin, the 2008 all around olympic champion, is one commentator.  Shannon Miller, a 1996 Olympic medalist, used to be a commentator. But they are always the only female and are always joined by two truly atrocious male commentators.  Currently, one is Tim Daggett, a former male Olympic gymnast.  He's such a sexist scumbag.  The other commentator is just some typical sports commentator who takes on the role of ignorant audience member.  

I also think the commentators are required to follow certain scripts.  They seem to have to deliver packaged-for-tv heartwarming athlete stories or random anecdotes the athlete told them several years before.  So with Simone Biles, it's over and over telling the audience that she was a former foster kid and that her parents aren't her 'real' parents but her grandparents (and they refuse to then refer to them as her parents, reminding us that they are actually grandma and grandpa despite the fact that they adopted Simone and she has always called them Mom and Dad. This story pisses me off) peppered with things like she wants to take a hacksaw to the uneven bars.  

In short, I think NBC makes them talk about certain things and in a certain way.  

Oh and by the way, you should just see the side stories they do.  Keeping with gymnastics, at the 2012 they took a break from coverage to do a side fluff piece on the Russian female gymnasts.  The whole thing was framed as them being annoying divas.  I'm not even joking.  I'm sure that youtube vids can be found on this, but it was all about how these women were difficult, they cried a lot, they made their male coaches roll their eyes.  Then throughout the competition we were reminded of this Russian diva thing.  So. Fucking. Annoying.  

[Kyoshi]

Thanks a lot for the clarification, Helena and Which Tyler

The South African commentary so far has been superb. It's identical between the two genders i.e. if I were listening on the radio and the gymnast had a gender neutral name, I couldn't tell if the commentators were referring to a male or female gymnast. They really provide a lot of technical (for a novice watcher lol me) insight. Like the height each gymnast reaches, the turn types and difficulty levels of the respective routines. [They even explained how the scoring works, especially for the synchronised diving events]. So as a viewer, I started to gradually see the faults I wasn't initially aware of, and I was therefore able to predict whether an athlete scored well or not. The side stories they do usually have to do with "rivalries." For example, if two athletes/teams are in the finals together then they'll mention that one of them won gold/silver either in the world championship or previous Olympics (or just placed outside the medals), thus the present is a rematch of sorts. I appreciate that even with all of that, they allow us to just watch once the routine starts. Most importantly, though, I maintain that the men's event needs a bit more glitter

I'm really over the swimming events at this point. There are simply way too many and I think it's ruining my enjoyment of it; it's also marring my view on some of the achievements. For example, I'm not particularly impressed by Michael Phelps's haul simply because he can get so many in Rio alone. While Wu Minxia got her 5 gold medals over 5 Olympic Games (I think). Also, there's just way too much swimming coverage on the channels I have access to. I'm over it. I want to see other things.

The most fun part about this has been watching it with family. Haven't been home in a really long time and gosh, the commentary in my house is hilarious.

[Criston of House Shapper]

The biggest problem about the Swimming coverage is the big breaks inbetween runs, especially during the night sessions. 8 people swim for a minute, then it's ten minutes of nothing, then 8 more people swim, then five minutes of nothing, followed by a 10-minute-long boring medal-ceremony, another 10-minute-break and then finally the next event happens. Is there really no way to speed things up?

[ljkeane]

It's interesting watching the Women's sevens, unlike men's rugby the Olympics has clearly been made a priority but the sport doesn't yet have the depth to have a long term tradition of a separate sevens stream so most of the sides have been put together in the last couple of years.

Canada and GB have taken a lot of players from their XVs sides and they tend to play with more of a XVs style than they probably really should in sevens (they take the ball into contact more than they should and they don't stretch the pitch as much as you see in men's sevens). Watching the US yesterday they looked like they'd brought in a lot of athletes from outside the sport, they were really physical and committed and their tactics were more of an actual sevens style but they lacked the basics to really commit defenders a take advantage of the space.

Australia look the best adapted side to playing sevens and the most skillful team but they do lack a little bit of physicality.

Australia win to make the final.

[dbunting]

16 minutes ago, Criston of House Shapper said:

The biggest problem about the Swimming coverage is the big breaks inbetween runs, especially during the night sessions. 8 people swim for a minute, then it's ten minutes of nothing, then 8 more people swim, then five minutes of nothing, followed by a 10-minute-long boring medal-ceremony, another 10-minute-break and then finally the next event happens. Is there really no way to speed things up?

Problem is if they speed it up we can't get all of the "great" side stories that we all look forward too!

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

In short, I think NBC makes them talk about certain things and in a certain way.  

 

Yeah, it's unfortunate that they feel the need to put a pro American spin on stuff instead of just showing it, but I am sure all countries do this. I mean, if you are watching in GBR I am sure all the talk last night was about Peaty and his chance at a new WR, his back story etc.. However, they shouldn't have pieces that try to show other countries athlete's in a bad light, no cause for that. If there has been doping failures then yes, mention it, but personalities, no, that's just tabloid level stuff.

[ljkeane]

Two yellow cards for GB in the sevens, that's pretty much screwed their chances unfortunately. They were really struggling to live with the power and pace of McCallister (who looks quite a lot like her brother), Woodman and Tui out wide anyway.

ETA: They probably should have started Waterman and Fisher to up their physicality with the benefit of hindsight.

[Slick Mongoose]

At least losing to the all blacks is familiar.

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

 

It is the case.  Nastia Luikin, the 2008 all around olympic champion, is one commentator.  Shannon Miller, a 1996 Olympic medalist, used to be a commentator. But they are always the only female and are always joined by two truly atrocious male commentators.  Currently, one is Tim Daggett, a former male Olympic gymnast.  He's such a sexist scumbag.  The other commentator is just some typical sports commentator who takes on the role of ignorant audience member.  

I also think the commentators are required to follow certain scripts.  They seem to have to deliver packaged-for-tv heartwarming athlete stories or random anecdotes the athlete told them several years before.  So with Simone Biles, it's over and over telling the audience that she was a former foster kid and that her parents aren't her 'real' parents but her grandparents (and they refuse to then refer to them as her parents, reminding us that they are actually grandma and grandpa despite the fact that they adopted Simone and she has always called them Mom and Dad. This story pisses me off) peppered with things like she wants to take a hacksaw to the uneven bars.  

In short, I think NBC makes them talk about certain things and in a certain way.  

Oh and by the way, you should just see the side stories they do.  Keeping with gymnastics, at the 2012 they took a break from coverage to do a side fluff piece on the Russian female gymnasts.  The whole thing was framed as them being annoying divas.  I'm not even joking.  I'm sure that youtube vids can be found on this, but it was all about how these women were difficult, they cried a lot, they made their male coaches roll their eyes.  Then throughout the competition we were reminded of this Russian diva thing.  So. Fucking. Annoying.  

Funny, not long after reading this here, I see an article on Yahoo.com about Shawn Johnson. There was a picture/video of her talking to a teammate after the teammate had a bad tumble, the broadcasters and media said it was her showing leadership as a 16 yr old and giving her a pep talk. She said she heard about it after and was embarrassed to say what she really said. She made a Harry Potter reference to her, nothing to do with pep talk or anything else. Another teammate used to carry a wand and cast spells on them during practice and she referenced her at that moment. She also killed the talk that the media had raised about her and Nastia Lukin (sp?)...saying they were enemies, she said they were BFF and roommates, read the entire Twilight books together.  

[Dr. Pepper]

30 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Problem is if they speed it up we can't get all of the "great" side stories that we all look forward too!

Yeah, it's unfortunate that they feel the need to put a pro American spin on stuff instead of just showing it, but I am sure all countries do this. I mean, if you are watching in GBR I am sure all the talk last night was about Peaty and his chance at a new WR, his back story etc.. However, they shouldn't have pieces that try to show other countries athlete's in a bad light, no cause for that. If there has been doping failures then yes, mention it, but personalities, no, that's just tabloid level stuff.

What?  None of my commentary about the American broadcast has to do with it being too "pro American".  It's about their bad commentary, with a special focus on the horrible sexism.  

[Which Tyler]

30 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Two yellow cards for GB in the sevens, that's pretty much screwed their chances unfortunately. They were really struggling to live with the power and pace of McCallister (who looks quite a lot like her brother), Woodman and Tui out wide anyway.

ETA: They probably should have started Waterman and Fisher to up their physicality with the benefit of hindsight.

And what a travesty of a law that 2nd yellow card offence is!

 

And yes; in the ladies' 7s only really Australia and New Zealand is made up of 7s players (or 15s players coached in 7s for more than 1 season). You can really tell by how they manipulate space on the pitch. Far and away the best 2 teams in the tourney; Aus my favourites; but a kiwi win would be no upset. I really wouldn't like to pick between GBR and Canada for the bronze though; mentally, GB won the previous encounter; but mentally, that beating by the kiwi's will be the more draining; especially that time down to 5.

 

 

As for swimming; I've been feeling for a few Olympics (since Sydney and Thorpe IIRC) that there's just too much cross-over between the lengths and techniques; that 1 person can win 10 medals in one games is just insane, and miles ahead of the possibilities for any other sport. It almost reduces the prestige of the medals won - in my mind. Can you imagine putting a similar situation to a different event? Let's ask Usain to run the 100m and 200m; and the 100m relay and the 200m relay; and the 100, and 200m running sideways; and the 100m and 200m running backwards; and the 100m and 200m hopping; and the 100m and 200m medley of running forwards, sideways, backwards and hopping?

[Dr. Pepper]

lol, running sideways!  For some reason this has cracked me up so completely.  Can't stop laughing.

But yeah, I think Michael Phelps is undoubtedly an amazing athlete but I get frustrated when he's called 'the greatest athlete ever' simply because his sport allows for so many medal events.  

[ljkeane]

3 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

And yes; in the ladies' 7s only really Australia and New Zealand is made up of 7s players (or 15s players coached in 7s for more than 1 season). You can really tell by how they manipulate space on the pitch. Far and away the best 2 teams in the tourney; Aus my favourites; but a kiwi win would be no upset.

I actually think the Australians are a lot better at creating space than the Kiwis, New Zealand don't have anyone as skillful as Caslick, and they don't really do much particularly inventive. What they have done is gone out and found some real physical specimens and they enough rugby nous to take advantage of them.

You can see what they want to do, anytime there's any space they want to get the ball to the edges, McAlister throws in a hard step to hold the outside defender and then gives the ball to Woodman. The problem for the teams playing them is there aren't many players with both the pace and strength needed to deal with that. The US caused them some issues by putting in some big hits but they didn't have the skill level with the ball to take advantage.  

[Maltaran]

2 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

BBC's team always used to be Matt Baker (professional commentator), Christine Still (ex-pro), Daniel Keatings (ex-pro) and Mitch Fenner (ex-pro coach). Fenner died earlier this year though, and his place seems to have gone to Beth Tweddle (ex-pro), who started the punditry game 4 years ago

They've just pointed out that Matt Baker was also a junior national champion before his media career.

[Which Tyler]

5 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

I actually think the Australians are a lot better at creating space than the Kiwis, New Zealand don't have anyone as skillful as Caslick, and they don't really do much particularly inventive. What they have done is gone out and found some real physical specimens and they enough rugby nous to take advantage of them.

You can see what they want to do, anytime there's any space they want to get the ball to the edges, McAlister throws in a hard step to hold the outside defender and then gives the ball to Woodman. The problem for the teams playing them is there aren't many players with both the pace and strength needed to deal with that. The US caused them some issues by putting in some big hits but they didn't have the skill level with the ball to take advantage.  

Yep, I'd agree with that - Aus the more intelligent play; but NZ the more brutally effective. They're a little bit one-trick-pony; but it's a damned fine trick. A bit like Saracens; or South Africa under Jake; or NZ '95 - it's one thing to know what they're going to do; but it's another thing entirely to stop them doing it.

Ever played a racquet sport with someone with a decent-but-inferior all-round game; but completely unreturnable serve?

4 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

They've just pointed out that Matt Baker was also a junior national champion before his media career.

Thank you - I was discussing this with Ali earlier - we were both convinced he was an ex-pro, but couldn't find anything about it anywhere (unlike all his media work).

[Kyoshi]

I now wonder if Dr Pepper's reports are a specifically American issue, which is why I think dbunting might have somewhat misncontrued it as "pro Americanism." Really sorry if I'm putting words in anyone's mouth.

I can't remember the last time I listened to, or watched a sporting event with such poor commentary. I can imagine it gets annoying, and I'm suddenly very thankful for what I've been getting on my end (I think I might have been a bit unaware of how good I have it).