Winter Olympics

paulisi · Tennis legend

Winter Olympics

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Anyone see the snowboard slopeski yesterday. Apparently the BBC had over 300 complaints about the commentators.
I though the commentary was hilarious, not quite what the BBC were known for.
The best bit was when the Austrian girl fell of the top and tried to get back up the ledge(tried being the operative word)
Looking forward to my sport, Curling, getting some good coverage - i think the men have a better chance than the girls.

Was that the event where the Bristol woman won the bronze ? I thought the commentary was brilliant !!! And I'm an old f'''t. (Well, old-ish . . . smile )

Snowboarding is a cool, young dude sort of thing - poeple should welcome a bit of difference.

(NB the French commentary team has had far more complaints because they've got the 50-year-old old school-boy network presenters who know a little bit about the Tour de France and absolutely zero about anything else, and they're pontificating on in their Parisian accents about all sorts of sports that they've no clue about).

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Brilliant event - never seen it before - and real fun coverage, but it did help me understand what I was watching

indiana · Tennis legend

The slopeski snowboard commentary was great and loved the enthusiasm too of our other competitor in the women's event who joined the commentary team for the final.

The way they ( especially her ) just yelled when the last competitor err unfortunately slipped ( guaranteeing GB the bronze ) was great as was her slightly more considered "Are we allowed to do that ?"

Real enthusiasm plus knowledge. Gawd knows what all the complaints were about.

The long course speed skating final event where they added two runs was rather interesting in that it was commentated on by two pretty innumerate commentators, which was rather problematic.

tommymac · Junior player

I missed the event due to work, what was the reason for the complaints? I hope its not because they cheered when someone fell to guarantee us bronze...

Ratty · County player

tommymac wrote:
I missed the event due to work, what was the reason for the complaints? I hope its not because they cheered when someone fell to guarantee us bronze...

Generation Gap issue. Those of us over 35 don't like to be reminded that younger people have more fun.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Made up phrases, very odd comparisons and the odd innuendo plus cheering when the opposition failed towards the end. Still it was fun.

I want to watch the curling, but it's on too early for me.....5am, 10am or 3pm - annoying.

freerider · Futures level

paulisi wrote:
Made up phrases

phrases weren't made up. Just would appear made up to the first time viewer. If you had never seen tennis before you might think 'ace' 'smash' 'bagel' etc were made up terms... just that there is so much of it in snowboarding.

Also cheering when grasser fell, is the equivalent of us cheering if novak served a double fault mp down against murray in the wimbo finals not how you would want to win it but still massive celebrations)

indiana · Tennis legend

Good comparison, freerider. If tennis had just been invented it has many weird and wonderful terms and as for that football soccer thingy !! I thought they used their terminology but also were educational, being well aware that this would be new to most viewers. They brought the viewer into their world. Was good.

And enthusiasm at effectively the moment a rare GB Winter Olympics medal was won ( let's not say first on snow as Mr Baxter might just be reading ! ) Go GB ! They were broadcasting for the BBC to the UK, and I suspect many nations' commentators could still outdo them for partisanship.

From another hardly young f**t.

philwrig · Hall of fame

If you can't support your home team, then ........

korriban · Challenger level

The freestyle skiing and boarding commentary has been a hoot. Amy Williams seems a natural too. Weird to hear Sue Barker actually commentating.......well, sort of.......

Claire Balding outstanding once again. Matt Pinsent appalling as always when unscripted, but he's too influential to drop.

I always want to punch Hazel Irwine, but she's rarely on in the evenings. Why has she dressed like a 60 year old since her mid twenties? Why does it always feel like she's researched everything like a swot, and recites her questions as though they have been repeated in front of the mirror overnight. And why does it feel that she has consulted a thesaurus to give herself a range of ways of simply asking her guests the same question again and again......

How would you "sum up" what you saw? "put into words". "summarise". "describe". "reflect". "judge". Oh Hazel!!

My fave moment was seeing the Russian soldiers' singing "get lucky". If its on Youtube a must see!!!!!!!

SMC1809 · All-time great

I'm a big fan of Hazel Irvine. Not sure who this Hazel Irwine is though.

steven · Tennis legend

korriban wrote:
The freestyle skiing and boarding commentary has been a hoot. Amy Williams seems a natural too. Weird to hear Sue Barker actually commentating.......well, sort of.......
Claire Balding outstanding once again. Matt Pinsent appalling as always when unscripted, but he's too influential to drop.
I always want to punch Hazel Irwine, but she's rarely on in the evenings. Why has she dressed like a 60 year old since her mid twenties? Why does it always feel like she's researched everything like a swot, and recites her questions as though they have been repeated in front of the mirror overnight. And why does it feel that she has consulted a thesaurus to give herself a range of ways of simply asking her guests the same question again and again......
How would you "sum up" what you saw? "put into words". "summarise". "describe". "reflect". "judge". Oh Hazel!!
My fave moment was seeing the Russian soldiers' singing "get lucky". If its on Youtube a must see!!!!!!!

Re. earlier posts - I've got nothing against enthusiastic commentary (quite the opposite - even if I'm watching a sporting event on non-UK TV, I much prefer the commentators to get excited for the home team than to hear them trying to be over-professional), but the word that kept coming to mind listening to the snowboarding commentary was 'airheads' - then again, many of the competitors seem the same ... or seem to think it's cool to give the impression that they are - the amount of dedication that must be needed to pull off some of the stuff they actually do tends to suggest the opposite! Watching the women's slopestyle final with someone (non-British, though I'm not sure that made any difference!), the commentary was just embarrassing though. Still, actually complaining to the BBC about it - that's a bit sad.

I agree that Clare Balding has been outstanding (again) - does she ever sleep?! She seems the perfect anchor for stuff like this - able to reach out to those who aren't sporting fanatics while being so professional that she keeps the fanatics happy too. She also doesn't take herself too seriously - pretty much vital when you are doing the job she is doing, where mistakes are inevitable.

I don't mind Hazel Irvine, I must admit. I haven't seen/heard much of Matthew Pinsent this time so can't comment - was he ok doing the rowing at London 2012? (I don't remember)

Then you have Steve Cram, who proves (unlike so many ex-tennis players) that ex-sportspeople can make good commentators if they care enough and work hard enough. He's a bit out of his depth technically doing the curling, but doesn't try to pretend he knows it all and does a very good job of it, I think. Actually, I have to admit that to me, the Winter Olympics means curling (which I find strangely fascinating), figure skating and the odd bit of mucking around in the snow when there's no curling or skating on LOL

The BBC have footage of the Russian police (there seems to be some confusion as to whether they are policemen or soldiers) at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26149549, though the original (pre-Kremlin performance) from late last year is probably more fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P08B_lBUL0E

indiana · Tennis legend

Ice Hockey too !! Men's competition started today. For me the Olympics is ice hockey, curling, downhill skiing and sledging ( or luge and skeleton to some ! )

I agree about Clare Balding. Great moment this afternoon when before some classical cross country sking she went into a short, surprising effective and also quite amusing demonstration of the difference between classical and freestyle, in shoes on concrete as opposed to on skis with ski poles on snow. The camera cut away with her signalling to the crew that she was going to have another go at looking fairly silly :)

freerider · Futures level

indiana wrote:
Good comparison, freerider. If tennis had just been invented it has many weird and wonderful terms and as for that football soccer thingy !! I thought they used their terminology but also were educational, being well aware that this would be new to most viewers. They brought the viewer into their world. Was good.

A classic example that made me chuckle was after the men's snowboard slopestyle final Graham Bell was interviewing Billy Morgan. Billy said "Go big or go home, I thought I'd go out and just huck it" (Huck is a freesports term for going big all or nothing)... cut back to the studio. Hazel Irvine "We do apologise for any viewers at home who were offended by Billys language there"