From: jswartz@mbunix.mitre.org (Swartz)
Subject: Gymnastics Coverage: Moronic Announcers 
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 12:21:11 GMT

In article <159tldINNd1b@agate.berkeley.edu> jen@savanna.Berkeley.EDU (Jennifer L. Corkill) writes:
>
>I agree whole-heartedly with Peter's slam of the sportscasting of this
>summer's Olympic games.  I, however, do have a lot of complaints about
>the coverage of the gymnastic events (and the diving competition...).
>I think 85% of what I've heard during the actual performances and the
>time immediately following routines/dives has been about the LANDINGS!
>If I hear one more time about how a very competent athlete screwed up
>his/her landing (with oh so tragic consequences) and not one word about
>the other very difficult elements of a beam, bar, or floor routine (or
>dive), I'm going to vomit.  (Actually, the MUTE button seems to have
>helped a lot).
>
And did last night's coverage of the women's all-arounds take the cake or
what?  What annoying crap we had to listen to!  Like how many times were
we going to have to hear about Kim Zmeskal's fall off the beam in the team
competition, and then her botched landing on the floor exercises last night?
And then, on her final routine, when she was out of medal contention, I've
got to listen to comments like, "That's a major, MAJOR deduction!  I have
never EVER seen Kim make a mistake like that!"  Or the worst one that they
have been using on almost every competitor:  "Here's the move where she
fell at the last competition/practice . . ."  How many times did we hear 
that Svetlana Boginskaya was like a mother or big sister to Tatiana Gutsu?
Show us the picture of her in tears one more time please?

More irritation:  On Svetlana's last event (beam), she needed a very high
score to take first, and the instant that she had a balance break, we hear,
"Nope, she lost it RIGHT THERE!"

Then there's the video footage they showed after the competition was over
(the slo-motion stuff set to dramatic music) -- and what great moments of
the competition do they choose to show us?  The mistakes and the tears, 
instead of focusing on the great moments and joy.  Yes, apparently America
watches the Olympics to see our atheletes mess up in competition.

And perhaps the worst thing of all:  After the competition was over, we
had to listen to the announcers boo-hoo and bitch about how Shannon Miller's
vault was so much better than Tatiana Gutsu's and how therefore Shannon
deserved the gold (apparently they forgot about the other 3 events).  These
professional announcers were acting like parents at a Little League baseball
game where all the kids are having fun and the parents are complaining 
about the umpires and how there kids are so much better than all the other
kids.  I was, however, so glad to hear Shannon's comments after the 
competition about how happy the whole experience was and how the competition
was great and all -- I hope the stupid announcers learned something about
what the Olympics are Really all about.




-- 
JOHN A. SWARTZ - The MITRE Corp. Bedford, MA * John_Swartz@iegate.mitre.org
"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
 One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."  J.R.R. Tolkien
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv