BBC Athletics commentary is dire because.......

The ones I object to most are the early morning ones in the studios- two black women who seem to think they need bare arms and low cut tops every day to present sport in a studio, and two dull white men in suits who drone and are personalityless. All awful
And the woman interviewing athletes beside the track who asks the most inane questions to every athlete. I am surprised 99% are so polite and generous. One tonight was very rude and came a cross as having a personality disorder he was so odd

In the studio- Beth Tweddle is dire- unbearably dire in every way. I like Rebecca Adlington and Mark Foster in the swimming . Haven't minded Matt Baker or Fred and their bits.
I don't mind the commentators on the actual events- quirky but know what they are talking about.
I am not a Clare Balding fan in anything she does.
Mathew Pinsent and Helen Gardener (?) not for me.

The gymnastics commentary grates on me - Matt Baker I don't mind but every move on the uneven bars is a Katchev - it gets mentioned every 5s - WTF is it? Every 10s someone says "this has got to be perfect" and Craig Heap's voice - eugh!! There used to be a crabby old woman who frequented a local cafe who was always offering my young kids out of date fruit polos - I used to watch her trying to peel off the wrapping paper that was stuck to them using her obscenely flakey bright pink nails - (I'm miming to the kids - don't eat them!) then she'd try and cadge a free cuppa off me (the people serving in the cafe mime to me "don't fall for that old trick") - she had a raspy hoarse voice that belonged in an episode of The League of Gentlemen - every time Craig speaks that's all I can think of.

Another vote for Rebecca Adlington - she is great, so natural and warm with a great knowledge of her sport. Also love the diving commentators (very funny too)

I’ve enjoyed the swimming commentary, although I don’t quite understand why the BBC have spent quite so much time on it when we’ve done so terribly!
Also, Where are our female swimmers this year? Men have also done badly. But Balding, Adlington and that chap are very watchable.

Exactly this. So much endless chat and recaps, while there is minimal coverage of events that you can see actually going on in the background. It is really poor, and the athletics coverage is always so heavily focused on the track, with hardly any coverage of the field events.

The female rowing commentator was a bit nails-on-blackboard with HER. PEAK. EXCITEMENT. AT. LITERALLY. EVERY. STROKE!!!!! But I would happily have listened to Matt Pinsent and Katherine Grainger all day. They also looked as if they'd brought along a tremendous picnic hamper in the back of the Discovery.

Otherwise it'd be helpful to get a few explainers for any event involving complex and hard to see manoeuvres, like gymnastics, skateboarding, BMX gymnastics, etc, instead of the commentator just screaming, 'That was a double Kravchenko with an Oops on the outspin!!!'.

I'm pretty sure they have had similar open commentary boxes before. I remember seeing a clip of Denise Lewis going wild when a British person was winning a race, she was leaning over the glass barrier and jumping up and down. It may have been Jessica Ennis she was watching, I can't remember.

Two irritations for me: the female rowing commentator Whose. Every. Sentence. Was. Structured. Like. This. And the swimming chap who told us the Brits were wearing red caps at least a dozen times every race. It caused confusion in our house when the Chinese were in the pool at the same time...

Rebecca Adlington is great. Articulate and insightful. Lovely dresses too.
Mark Foster is OK. Gold medal for manspreading.
Clare Balding grates on my nerves. What has she ever won?

Clare Balding is excellent - natural and genuine (incidentally she was exactly the same when I met her in real life).

Becky Adlington is brilliant - I really enjoy her enthusiasm.

The sound, whilst nice to hear the crowd, could be better!

I don't know what the issue is, sound was fine tonight, also loving all the presenting teams. I swear people here just main about the bbc whatever, you do realise they can't make the crowd quiet for track side interviews and the area allocated for the team is well allocated, no choice!

I am absolutely loving the coverage and commentary this year and also LOVE Clare Balding. Michael Johnson is not only a champ but has long been one of the best track analysts/pundits. They all really know their stuff and are warm, exciting and engaging in the coverage. The swimming was particularly excellent commentary.

I did notice the repeat sound issues tonight but the BBC have some of the best technical teams in the world - I expect they're doing their best in the difficult circs of a temporary open stadium. I'm so grateful for the coverage tbh and it's a very welcome antidote to the news/everything else!

I think the French have failed to provide soundproofed booths which is normal in most big sports events. Don't think it's anything to do with BBC.

lol. There’s a thread on Mumsnet tonight about a woman calling her friend’s kid “dead behind the eyes” and she is beyond distraught about it

I think Clare Balding is a good presenter. I found the Adam Peaty ‘fastest boy’ comment equally cute and annoying, although it was his son who said - who’s only about 3 or 4 - so I think we can excuse it 😂😂

I'm not that keen on Claire either but she seems to be regarded as some kind of national treasure for some reason

Agreed. She’s out of her depth.

No it wasn't obvious. Maybe you could have quoted the bit you were referring to so non mindreaders like me didn't pick you up wrongly.

Agree re the sound for the athletics OP, they need to sort it out.

I'm quite enjoying the three pundits with Gaby, they all know their stuff. Same with the swimming pundits. Steve cram's commentary is bloody awful though.

Also don't need to hear from the competitors and the inane questions asked of them!

So apparently, it was not obvious that I was responding to this comment with major sarcasm in my tone.

Wow that’s rude. They’re all good athletes and I find what they say insightful. Why do you think they’re hopeless?

I must have missed the fan fair for the womens 100m final

Sound level behind the commentators is better this evening around the men's 100m, but the background noise is still high enough to be distracting and interrupting when I want to hear the presenters clearly.