Talk

OH GOD YANBU! I record the highlights programme every night and fast forward through all the stuff that isn't actual sport – montages, 'previously on the Olympics' FFS, endless going over all poor Elise Christie's previous disasters. I think I'm left with about 15 minutes of viewing from the hour

I don't mind them repeating the curling all day every day.

Probably because most events are covered throughout the night. It's pretty much back to back then.
I always get ever so slightly annoyed when they decide to host an Olympic games in a different time zone, how very dare they ☺

A lot of the events are live till about 2 pm our time. The ski jumping was on at midnight their time the other night (3 pm our time) so there are events to show through the day

All we want is playback of events. Balding is dull and the other panellists can be quite shrieky despite their expertise. Jabber is not interesting, just play the events!

At least Clare Balding is a grown-up; many of the commentators seem to have been recruited from a school playground.

If you watch it online on the BBC sport website, you can skip to different events.

It has really annoyed me how much they are repeating certain things!

DD2 and I were watching some this morning. No idea who the commentator was but he got a bit over excited at one point and said 'It's not rocket surgery is it?' Not sure if he meant brain surgery or rocket science but it did make me laugh.

Ah yes - chemmy allcott, bless. Lots of skiing experience and British championships, career ended by injury , but does indeed come across as overgrown schoolgirl!

You should try watching it in the states! It's like there's only one country competing.

I watched the olympics there one year (1992 I think) the year that a British sprinter pulled a muscle but still completed the race at a limping walk, poor chap. Oh my god the coverage. The American tv channels basically just showed the American athletes and periodically re-ran the limping clip, sounding exactly like Kevin Costner at the beginning of "prince of thieves" when he drawls, "this is English courage" in his American accent.

Have to admire their patriotism!!

This is the episode I mean, if anyone remembers it:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2011/nov/30/50-stunning-olympic-moments-derek-redmond

Derek Redmond 400m. His dad helped him across the line but he wanted to actually cross it himself.

He is quite an inspirational speaker about it.

That's the one!

In the interview link above, he says he really believed he was running at first, thinking he might overtake enough people to win a place in the final. Poor Derek - it must be soul destroying to train so hard for four years, only to be let down by your body like that at the crucial moment

I am afraid we continually over hype our chances. A bit like the last Ashes series, the English and Scottish football teams and nearly every English rugby team bar one in 2003.

The commentators/experts get shoved into the limelight once every 4 years. Snowboarders are typically about 18 anyway!

DH and I think we should do better at Bobsleigh! We have such amazing F1 constructors one would think we could develop the best kit - like the cycling. Just getting a bit faster would help!

BBC are focusing on GB?

Whatever next?

It's all talk, talk, talk. Just show us the action!

wish they'd stop focusing on torvill and Dean. They're absolute crap compared to modern skating so let's see the good stuff and not their boring routines over and over again.

Bubbles I can't recall anyone overhyping the Scottish football team in recent years

I was really shocked that the pundits were saying our luge competitors couldn't do very well as their equipment was so basic, whereas the Germans, who win nearly every medal going, have top of the range sleds with different kinds of runners/blades for different ice conditions. Surely there's some millionaire out there that could buy a few extra luge sleds and then wait for the publicity to roll in once the team starts doing well?

BiologyMatters Yes! If I had a quid for every time I'd seen the bloody Bolero over the last week, I'd have… well, about seven quid, but still.

The amount of money they are spending on some special guests has irritated me this time for some reason. They had Amy Williams in the studio constantly and then sent her off to Korea for 3/4 days because obviously they had to have her in the commentary box for the skeleton races.

They haven't done that for the figure skating or the curling or whatever...

Also the constant palaver with coffeee/hot chocolate cups on the table/on the floor/being spilled in the studio is super annoying.

My favourite was watching the Beijing Olympics in the US when Rebecca Adlington won. The American commentator literally hadn't noticed there was anyone in the race apart from the American girl, and at the end he was like, And the winner is... pause... uncertain voice... Rebecca? Adlington? Like he'd never ever seen her name before.

They haven't done that for the figure skating or the curling or whatever

Those experts are already there. Robin Cousins is commentating on all of the skating and Jackie Lockhart all of the curling. They don't need anyone else there.

Amy Williams probably didn't want to go out for the full length as she has a small son about 9 months.

Got sick of hearing about Christie, god, she was dire. Melodramatic and let's face it, she tripped that Chinese athlete.

Bubbles I can't recall anyone overhyping the Scottish football team in recent years

Me neither. The general expectation is that they’ll lose embarrassingly (in the qualifiers, because they don’t qualify for the finals), is it not? And a perverse almost pride in how shit Scotland are.