BBC Winter Olympics sob-story mini rant

With you Bruce. Phil Airtime putting in an oh-so-vital shift on all 'platforms' with this gushy tosh! This morning on R4 they were talking about it being too cold and too windy for the Winter Olympics. As someone said, the clue's in the title

The BBC? Biased? Puts me in mind of an old Marty Feldman sketch - https://youtu.be/lpA8Og-MsPE

OK I will bite! With winter sports, if you don't fall over often you are not trying hard enough/pushing your boundaries.

I agree there is no point in moaning about it though.

Bruce Woodhouse posted:

OK I have had a bad week. I also know squit about any Winter Olympics sport but I feel justified in this rant because a) I have had a bad week and b) Mrs W totally agrees and she is a far, far nicer person than me.

So. One of the UK snowboard skiers with maybe a hope of a medal falls in training and breaks her wrist. She soldiers on and the next day falls in training and fractures her heel, requiring surgery. Now this is portrayed as her being unluckily ‘robbed’ of her Olympic dream by the BBC team and the ever sympathetic Clare Balding.

Forgive me but isn’t the point of training in these slippy slidy sports to get better and not fall over (twice) and break bones? She was not mugged by an errant snowplough. She did not have a bizzare accident involving a bar of soap in the shower cubicle. Maybe falling over a lot in training means she needs to actually get better at this snowboarding thing? I am sorry she did not get to compete, she must be gutted but perhaps we should not treat this like she was robbed?

Then we have the serially falling over speed-skater Elise Christie. She fails to start well in her semi and ends up in a bad lane In the final of her event. She fails to start well and gets in a bad position in the track. Battling to get on terms she has her hand touched by the blade of a competitor (hardly a deliberate act)  then weeping she blames everyone else, ably abetted by a mourning Beeb. Nobody involved in her alleged ‘incident’ is disqualified.

Maybe Ms Christie should take responsibility for her performance? She was not cheated, she got beaten. Maybe she should get angry and go out and prove she can win in her last two events, and good luck to her if she does. If she fails maybe she is not the best in her discipline? Can anyone in the Beeb commentary team recall the name and nationality of the winner yesterday?

I wish the Beeb would develop just a smidge of objectivity with UK competitors.

Anyway the half-pipe looks awesomely rad doesn’t it. Bosh!

Bruce

I find the overt nationalism and partisan reporting of the olympics to be a real turn-off. Oh, and the corruption, self interest and cheating. In spite of all this, some of the athletes manage to rise above it and provide decent entertainment.

Bruce.

Give British Eurosport a try. They don’t only concentrate on events GB athletes are taking part in and don’t employ a studio full of so called experts providing pre and post event analysis.

No frills. They simply show as many events as possible, with perhaps a few words of wisdom from Jonathan Edwards.

Unfortunately theirs a lot of money to be made in British Olympic failure..... just ask Eddie the ‘ I didn’t  Jump very far’ Eagle....

Clare "bloody" Balding  isn't even there either.

Red Gerard the mop haired 17 yr old, proper showed the world how it's meant to be done with Slopestyle.

Hold on a minute am I missing something here, so you are all bemoaning the fact that the British Broadcasting Corporation who are funded by the British population are a bit partisan and biased toward the British competitors.

Bob the Builder posted:

Hold on a minute am I missing something here, so you are all bemoaning the fact that the British Broadcasting Corporation who are funded by the British population are a bit partisan and biased toward the British competitors.

Yes, exactly. But in my case you can substitute, American, Canadian or Australian into the country. I am interested in seeing good competition in sports in which I am interested. The nationality of the competitors is of no real consequence to me.

I don’t think it is a matter of being partisan, which is perfectly reasonable, but making excuses for them - in the case of the ice skater it was patently obvious that she wasn’t going to win unless several in front of her were to crash out, so suggesting that her unfortunate crash (to which she does appear to be prone) robbed her of a medal is simply rubbish. I agree with Bruce on this.

I have another gripe with the BBC: given that the Events are happening when most People in Britain are unable to watch, it is good that the in the evening the Beeb has an hour long highlights show on BBC1 and another hour long one following it on BBC4. But why, oh why, do they fill at least a quarter of the first show, with presenters chatting, footage from previous Olympics, showing photos that viewers have sent in of them dressed or doing something reminiscent of the Olympics at home? If those things are justified at all they should fill the gaps and provide links during the live transmissions. Then the second show repeats much of the first, or rather seems to show it all, but more fully, though gratefully with the presenter simply provinding links. Is there really only a total of about an hour of Olympics worth watching each day?

With just 2 hours a day of prime time telly devoted to an event that occurs only once every 4 years, shouldn’t they maximise the coverage of the event itself?

Bruce,

I appreciate that you have had a bad week, but I think you are being more than a little unfair to two very talented British athletes. 

Both of the athletes to whom you refer were not only genuine medal contenders, but were genuine gold medal contenders.

Katy Ormerod does not deserve the comment that "falling over a lot in training means she needs to actually get better at this snowboarding thing". As a 19 year old last year she actually won a World Cup Gold medal, so came into the Olympics with very high hopes in a couple of events. I think she has proven that is actually quite good at this "snowboarding thing" at the tender age of 20, and was simply unfortunate to suffer a couple of injuries in training just prior to the Olympics. She had very good reason to be upset about her bad luck, but I also think that she acted with great dignity when posting about her injuries on twitter.

The "serially falling over" Elise Christie is actually a serial medal winner at both European and World Championships over the past 6 years or so, although she has had more than her share of bad luck in her Olympic appearances up to now. If you check her record, you will find that in World Championships over the past 5 or so years she has won 3 golds, 3 silvers and 6 bronze medals - hardly deserving of the tag "serially falling over". Last year, she won 2 World Championship golds and a bronze (along with a further gold for overall World Champion), and was probably 2nd favourite coming into the Olympic 500m final behind the Korean skater who was (I thought unfairly) disqualified.

It's hardly surprising that Christie was very upset at having crashed out in the 500m final whilst in a medal position, and I think it was particularly remiss of her management team to allow her to be interviewed immediately after the event without having had time to compose herself and reflect on what had actually happened.

I for one hope that she will recover from the upset and win a couple of medals in the 1000m and 1500m events to come.        

Look we are a small Island without any Ski resorts and very little in the way of winter sport facilities so it is a big deal for us when we get the sniff of a medal our Winter sports stars are a bit thin on the ground and so we like to make a big deal about the ones we do have and when I say we I include the BBC.

Not commenting specifically on the two unfortunate British competitors, I do think there is an increasing trend at the BBC to think that simple sport is not enough. The viewers need to be "entertained" as well. My personal gripes, not enough action and too much time spent in the studio or on location with "celebrity" presenters gurning and smiling. My absolute pet hate is when they turn to "the reaction on social media" to provide enlightenment on what has happened. "Obvs gutted 4 Elise. Stay strong".

Hmack, all fair comments

My post was a wee bit tongue-in-cheek and also more a reflection the BBC coverage of these events than the reaction of the athletes. Having a studio team made up of competitors 'mates' is hardly conducive to a bit of independent and honest analysis. I do find their banality very irritating. Contrast with the honesty of McEnroe and Navratilova during the Wimbledon coverage. Praise where it is due, criticism when it is fair.

Bruce

Bob the Builder posted:

Look we are a small Island without any Ski resorts and very little in the way of winter sport facilities so it is a big deal for us when we get the sniff of a medal our Winter sports stars are a bit thin on the ground and so we like to make a big deal about the ones we do have and when I say we I include the BBC.

Add to it the obligatory exaggeration of emotion participants seem expected to demonstrate upon winning the spotlight events. Throw their gear, drop to the snow (or ice), start bawling, then wrap themselves in the flag they've just been handed. Social media is more focused on the athletes' reaction to winning rather than the performance that won the event. How many tweets will ensue from a medal win?

TV cameras dedicated to mom and dad's reaction, as if anyone expected them to be disappointed. Mom and dad raised their arms, jumped up and down, then hugged. Let's show it again in super-slow motion. The years of sacrifice by mom and dad exalted, as if the non-medalists took a different route. All the while obscuring the fact that the Olympic participants might not be the best athletes in their event, rather those with parents having disposable income enabling them to buy better training and time on the snow or ice.

Bob the Builder posted:

Look we are a small Island without any Ski resorts and very little in the way of winter sport facilities so it is a big deal for us when we get the sniff of a medal our Winter sports stars are a bit thin on the ground and so we like to make a big deal about the ones we do have and when I say we I include the BBC.

Yes, so it is great watching the events on the white stuff, and is precisely why more air time showing the British competitors in action in Korea would be good, instead of pandering to the egos of over-paid presenters and “celebrities”, and whilst there may be a place for reminding us of previous successes, keep the footage of that out of the short prime-time slots, but move instead fill any night-time gaps.

TOBYJUG posted:

 

 

Now that was a great film, and I think captured the spirit of the Olympics.

(BTW, I think the joint Korean team and OAR both capture that spirit)

And re both British competitors and films, the Eddie the Eagle film was both heartwarming and shocking in turn, with Eddie’s determination and the attitude of the British Olympic establishment.

Bruce Woodhouse posted:

Hmack, all fair comments

My post was a wee bit tongue-in-cheek and also more a reflection the BBC coverage of these events than the reaction of the athletes. Having a studio team made up of competitors 'mates' is hardly conducive to a bit of independent and honest analysis. I do find their banality very irritating. Contrast with the honesty of McEnroe and Navratilova during the Wimbledon coverage. Praise where it is due, criticism when it is fair.

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I did realise that, and I do agree with you about the banality of some of the presenters and of some of the television coverage.  

fatcat posted:

Bruce.

Give British Eurosport a try. They don’t only concentrate on events GB athletes are taking part in and don’t employ a studio full of so called experts providing pre and post event analysis.

No frills. They simply show as many events as possible, with perhaps a few words of wisdom from Jonathan Edwards.

No good if not available in your area!

Innocent Bystander posted:

fatcat posted:

Bruce.

Give British Eurosport a try. They don’t only concentrate on events GB athletes are taking part in and don’t employ a studio full of so called experts providing pre and post event analysis.

No frills. They simply show as many events as possible, with perhaps a few words of wisdom from Jonathan Edwards.

No good if not available in your area!

If you can get Sky TV or Virgin TV in your area, you can get British Eurosport.

I do not pay for TV other than paying the obligatory licence fee that funds the BBC. So I expect BBC coverage to be adequate.

Innocent Bystander posted:

I do not pay for TV other than paying the obligatory licence fee that funds the BBC. So I expect BBC coverage to be adequate.

I understand you don't want to pay additional for TV ... but if you were willing to; then Eurosports is available via online at £6.99 a month or 99p for the first month (no minimum subscription as far as I can see).

Can you get BBC red button. There appears to be one red button channel available for the winter olympics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/36722726

The summer olympics had four or five channels showing different events, without the studio experts.

No desire to pay for any TV services. We probably watch less than 2 hours a month on average, might well be zero some months. Watched one BBC4 documentary last year and I think that was it apart from a bit of sport and recording the occasional movie.

TV not much of a feature in our lives!

Bruce