Winter Olympics brings out our sporting ignorance
Columnist
Australia's only biathlon competitor Alexei Almoukov heads from the shooting range. AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Andrew Vaughan
As the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games are consigned to history, the Australian public’s brief fascination with winter sports comes to an end, relieving us of yet another free-to-air sports coverage disaster.
Just like Channel 7 managed during the Beijing Summer Olympics and recent Australian Opens, Channel 9’s Winter Olympic coverage became a major talking point that overshadowed the Games themselves.
Sadly, Belinda Noonan has been discussed as much as Torah Bright, Eddie McGuire talked about as much as Lydia Lassila.
It’s become a familiar tune for Aussie sports fans as free-to-air networks fail to adapt to the changing technologies, viewing habits and expectations from audiences who in turn have grown tired of the commercial networks’ apathy and excuses.
What’s remarkable about watching this trend unfold in recent times is how the commercial networks seem so oblivious to the errors of their ways.
The catalogue of errors began well before the Games when Channel 9 and Foxtel assembled their teams of commentators and presenters.
The cult of personality, or, to be more accurate, the cult of celebrity that infatuates the Australian media, particularly television, has increasingly wormed its way into sports coverage.
How else could we explain the presence of Mick Molloy, Eddie McGuire and Ruby Rose (famous for reasons I cannot fathom) as the faces of the Games!
When you get people like Molloy and McGuire commenting on something as foreign to them as figure skating, they resort to banality and, in their cases, having to resort to appalling homophobic comments.
The fact that such comments were made on air in this day and age is shameful.
In other cases, the commentators seemed amateurish.
James Brayshaw, for example, did more howling than actual commentating in the snowboarding and mogul events.
Too often the Aussie commentators showed a lack of knowledge in the sporting events they were commentating on, let alone the athletes competing.
As Ed Wyatt, best known as the former face of SBS’s Super Bowl coverage, blogged: “Whatever happened to actually learning the names of competitors and how to pronounce them properly? How many times do we have to hear about ‘the Slovak,’ ‘the Chinese,’ or ‘the Canadian’.”
The athletes do have names, which deserve to be broadcast.
Thankfully Channel 9 relied on local experts for the ice hockey rather than the likes of McGuire who, let’s remember, in an interview with ice hockey’s greatest Wayne Gretzky, asked what it felt like to put “the ball into the net?”
They should have done this for the majority of the events that they, frankly, knew nothing about.
We, as Aussies, like to think of ourselves as sporting doyens. But when events such as the Winter Olympics come along, where we are far from the pacesetters in events that are largely foreign to us, our Australian-centric view of the sporting world is exposed.
Rather than rise to the occasion, accept their deficiencies in these sports and attempt to learn and expand their knowledge of them, media organistaions are found lacking and fail to rise to the occasion.
The media, therefore, watch as outsiders, inevitably making incorrect judgments and resorting to assumptions and generalisations.
So we are increasingly told things like: the Australian Open tennis is suddenly boring, unbearable to watch and irrelevant because there isn’t a competitive Australian; Mark Webber must be crap because he hasn’t rattled off F1 titles; and Cadel Evans must be a choker ‘cause he can’t win the Tour de France.
If Australia is going to increase its funding to winter sports, as has been discussed, then we should start embracing and understanding the Winter Olympics so at the next Games we don’t have to put with such rubbish coverage.
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Andrew Thompson said | March 2nd 2010 @ 8:07am | Report comment
Too true, Adrian. At the start of another rugby season, I again find myself wondering how long it will take Australian rugby commentators to learn that the South African surname that starts with “Van” is pronounced “fun” and not as in the vehicle? And that “Botha” is pronounced “Boor-te”, etc etc. Pathetic that, after all these years, these so-called professionals can’t be bothered.
Sam said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:15am | Report comment
Haha. So true, it’s the same with the Aussie commentators being unable to pronounce Maori and Pacific Island names in the NRL – you think they could learn a few names properly don’t you?
Ora said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:02am | Report comment
My pet hate is the way the commentators pronunce Highlanders in the Super 14 and Dunedin
IInstead of pronuncing them as one word it’s dragged ouot to sound like two.
e.g High – Laanders and yes I did put two a’s in there as the drag it out
Done eedin instead of Dunedin.
I’m sure we Kiwis probaly aren’t that much better when pronuncing Australian names but I guess the point of this article is some commentators are simply rubbish
Je Geniko said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Proper pronunciation for Fiji-born RL players:
Tuqiri is actually pronounced Toonggeeree (“q” as ngg as in finger & “i” as “ee” as in routine)
Civoniceva is pronounced Thee-vou-ni-theva (“c” is “th” as in “this”)
What I find funny is that the 2 players have resorted to using the bastardized versions that the commentators use.
Andrew Thompson said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:56am | Report comment
What I find even more amusing is how we Aussies love to point fingers at Americans for being ignorant of the world beyond their borders. And God help the poor sod who mispronounces “Geeelong”, “Melborn” or Bris-bane”.
Michael C said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:59am | Report comment
there’s an element of ‘when in Rome’ however,
for generations, people have moved to a new country and invariably given up on trying to get their name pronounced as it was back home,
and in the main – so it should be,
you anglacise it as much as possible, or abbreviate it or whatever,
reality is that in Australia a V is not an F. A J is not a Y, and ‘th’ is not a hard sound……otherwise, “Richard the Third” wouldn’t be nearly as ‘vague’ a rhyming slang!!!!
And it’s perhaps for the best that Australian’s remain ignorant to some of the correct pronounciations of some of the Maori locations in NZ……
Andrew Thompson said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:22am | Report comment
Yeah, yeah, sooner or later this dumb excuse would come up. We’re not talking about ordinary people having trouble with a migrant’s name and the migrant accepting a new pronunciation in order to fit in, we’re talking about professionals who get paid to provide an accurate commentary. Suck it up.
Michael C said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:36am | Report comment
The example though of a Tuqiri is someone who lives here permanently.
He has to suck it up or forever seek to ‘correct’ what in essence is NOT wrong.
e.g Volkswagon…..how many Australians refer to it as a ‘folksvagen’?? It’s not marketed that way into Australia.
It’s not a dumb excuse.
It’s due diligence on behalf of VW. Likewise, Australian’s seeking to market overseas need to take into account local conditions in such markets.
No big deal there. Surely.
Invariably – such as with the cricket – there’ll be a touring journo or two who jumps into the ABC radio commentary box and helps set the professionals ‘right’ for the touring team (who are not permanent residents of Australia).
And that I reckon is the fair distinction. Tuqiri I don’t reckon is a valid example. But, Mahela Jayawardene touring with Sri Lanka is.
Michael C said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:39am | Report comment
btw – my family Danish surname has been butchered by ‘Aussies’ for decades…….you learn to get over it and worry about more important things.
However, if I travel back to Denmark, people will pronounce it ‘correctly’…….for Denmark…(although, in years gone by there were a whole bunch of dialects in Denmark which might see a total lack of conformity there anyway!!)…not for Australia (or England, or USA for that matter).
Sam said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:45am | Report comment
Well if Tuquiri lives ‘here’ Michael C then i definitely agree that a couple of journalists should be able to get together and decide how he should pronounce his name. What a load of rubbish. Maybe they could just train their commentators properly rather than hiring a couple of ex-players who can’t bother to learn a few names. We’re not complaining about the average punter in the street here, but lazy commentators who get paid to do better.
Worlds Biggest said | March 2nd 2010 @ 8:16am | Report comment
I found it hilarious that Fox Sports Number 1 Rugby League caller Warren Smith was commentating on Figure Skating. The irony of it all !.
Marshall said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:06am | Report comment
He must have drawn the short straw for that one. How lost did he sound!
Farmer said | March 2nd 2010 @ 8:35am | Report comment
Totally agree.
Channel 9 shows it has no feel for sports comentating outside RL and cricket. It was totally focussed on celebrity commentators – Eddy McGuire – cliche ridden, lowest common denominator, low rent coverage. This coverage is so typical of Channel 9. Unwilling to do the hard yards, preferring to take the easy way out. It is a wonder we didn’t see Bert Newton hauled in to do a 20:1 on funniest crashes on the luge or downhill, with comments from a stable of C grade Ch 9 personalities.
It does not look promising for the London Olympics.
Marshall said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:01am | Report comment
The lowlight was def McGuire and Molloy’s comments straight from the 50s. Most commentating was awful. Real lack of respect for the Games.
Sam said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:19am | Report comment
I don’t know why they feel a second rate Australian commentator is going to be better than the experts from an overseas broadcast? People don’t care who they are listening to, as long as the commentator knows what they are talking about, and they can be understood – their accent doesn’t matter!
James said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:24am | Report comment
It’s an Australian thing. They do the same for the F1 GP, so at the Australian round we have to hear the locals who don’t know or follow F1 as closely as the British regulars. The worst is MotoGP where Channel 10 hosts commentate on the races from the other side of the world from their Sydney studios!
Hammer said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:22am | Report comment
C9 might not be Packer owned anymore but still has the “old family” system alive and well … Mcguire is rubbish pure and simple … Molloy – what was the point of him being there – first off – he’s not funny and anyway who though it would be a good idea to take a comedian (which in reality he’s not) to commentate on the games … Noonan was appalling with the over the top biased comments regarding the Russian “indigenous” routine – trying to whip up a storm that wasn’t there and Alisa Camplin was dreadful … the list is endless … London is going to be appalling
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:30am | Report comment
I didn’t watch much of it, but saw some clips on the news……one comment from Stephen Bradbury summed it all up for me. When commenting on the Ghanaian Skier, Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong aka” the Snow Leopard”…he said that he was not good enough and should not have been allowed to compete. This from someone who won gold because all the others in the race fell over seems a bit rich. The Olympics, indeed all sports, need these kind of competitors and and characters whose only motivation is to do their best and compete.
BigAl said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:58am | Report comment
The motto of the Olympics is . . . ‘Stronger, Higher, Faster!’ – i.e. it is for the elite competitor not the wannabes.
Sure there’s a place in sport for these, but its NOT the Olympics – though a fair few do seem to be able to sneak into the Winter Olympics.
James said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:30am | Report comment
I think this comment hits the nail on the head: “We, as Aussies, like to think of ourselves as sporting doyens. But when events such as the Winter Olympics come along, where we are far from the pacesetters in events that are largely foreign to us, our Australian-centric view of the sporting world is exposed.
Rather than rise to the occasion, accept their deficiencies in these sports and attempt to learn and expand their knowledge of them, media organistaions are found lacking and fail to rise to the occasion.
The media, therefore, watch as outsiders, inevitably making incorrect judgments and resorting to assumptions and generalisations.”
Look at the media. It is obsessed with sports it can control, it owns, it dominates, that is its own. Think AFL, NRL, Cricket.
In sports where we are losing control of or struggling in, think tennis, Rugby Union, etc, the media gets on top of ‘em and beats them down.
In sports foreign to us, the media just don’t get them and don’t care – motorsport, winter olympics, soccer, etc.
Nic Chamberlain said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:31am | Report comment
The most appalling sporting coverage I have seen in my life, and it’d be fair to say I’ve watched a fair amount.
I never thought any coverage could be worse than Channel 7′s coverage of the Summer Games, but I think Channel 9 has managed it here – quite a feat.
Eddie McGuire was a total embarrassment, the rest of the team was packed full of breakfast presenters who know more about the weather in Coober Pedy than any Olympic event. Great shout about Brayshaw, who I actually guite like on the footy show / 20:20 cricket, but all he did here was shout people’s names.
The obsession with showing Australians over gold winning events continues, as does the inability to schedule the games at peak times, as does the inability to show the best events (we weren’t allowed to watch the ice hockey final yesterday because of the Today show!).
Most galling of all is that these TV stations have digital channels, but choose not to use them. All they need to do is look to the UK and see how stations are using second channels to run uninterrupted covered, and then use the main channel for highlights, key events etc.
A major, major embarrassment.
Ora said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:23am | Report comment
We were so lucky in New Zealand and Sky had 4 channels dedicated to the olympics as well as prime giving free to air coverage
Colin N said | March 2nd 2010 @ 10:37am | Report comment
“All they need to do is look to the UK and see how stations are using second channels to run uninterrupted covered, and then use the main channel for highlights, key events etc.”
I thought the coverage on the UK was very good in the main. They, generally, had people commentating on sports they actually knew about. The exceptions was Steve Cram (ex-800 metre runner) doing the Curling and Sue Barker (ex-Tennis player), the Figure Skating. Cram was good, although Barker was at times out of her depth, but at least they had co-commentators who use to do these sports. Robin Cousins (1980 Figure skating champion) is an exellent co-commentator, as was Rhona Martin (skipped the Curling team to gold in 2002).
Ironically, the worse co-commentator was this woman who won gold in 1998 in one of the snowboarding events, but providede little or no technical insight into the sport. I think she was replaced after about 4 days.
Michael C said | March 2nd 2010 @ 9:48am | Report comment
Flying in Sydney based ‘breakfast TV’ personalities for the Melbourne Cup has been going on for an eternity now.
Sadly, it’s what the Sydney market seems to demand for something to be deemed ‘relevant’,
alas, the entire Australia view of sports is being dumbed down by the need to pander to the Sydney market.
(just wanted to test the water on this angle!!!)
btw – I did hear people who’d talked to James Brayshaw and he’d said that alot of these events were amongst the hardest he’d ever had to call, invaraibly because you only got to see the competitors in the last 100 metres and relied on monitors the rest of the time……perhaps better then to just go minimalist I guess.
For Ch.9 to bring in Molloy, they obviously hoped to do something along the lines of HG and Roy in Sydney in 2000 – - which to me was the start of this ‘FM radio’ style demeaning of the event……..seeking a juvenile laugh. It’s gone downhill since then……..so to speak!!!
You can’t blame it on the Winter Olympics – this has been going on across the board for at least 10 years now.
So, spare Eddie McGuire your wrath. Blame Roy and HG if anyone!!
Instead, let’s leave that approach to sports coverage in the post Sydney Olympics era…….a sad characteristic of the 2000s.
Let’s demand more ‘real’ coverage moving forward.
AndyRoo said | March 2nd 2010 @ 11:05am | Report comment
Roy and HG, Bruce Macavaney, Gordon Bray , Joanna Griggs lets not even mention the tennis…. the list of Channel 7 (run from Melbourne) atrocities agaisnt Australian sport continue.
Sydney does have SBS who’s world cup and tour de France coverage set a great example of how sport should be done. As does Fox sports to an extent (not a big fan of their rugby team but again it’s better than 7’s) again based in Sydney.
Michael C said | March 2nd 2010 @ 11:11am | Report comment
Hmmm…channel 7 national headquarters are up in Sydney.
You can’t blame Melbourne,
least of all for Roy, HG or Gordon Bray!!
Heck – it’s the Sydney dictators who cut off the AFL coverage before we get the song sung from the rooms of the victors.
They just don’t ‘get it’ up in Sydney….it’s not a sporting town. Sydney is a ‘gossip magazine’ town.
AndyRoo said | March 2nd 2010 @ 11:29am | Report comment
I believe the feed sent down to Melbourne is full of top quality journalism and insightful sports coverage. But once it gets to docklands the signal is scrambled beyond recognition.
Sadly it still wins the ratings.