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BBC Olympic reporting

107 replies

Dodie66 · 20/02/2018 13:09

Does anybody else get annoyed with the amount of repeating items from the Olympics on the bbc? Christie was disqualified and they have showed the interview with her several times when there are other interesting sports they can be showing. They have been discussing it with a friend of hers and now another member of the fb team. They seem to just be focusing on GB I was waiting to watch the bobsleigh. AIBU?

OP posts:
ExFury · 21/02/2018 23:29

We need to stop focussing on one person as the poster boy/girl of events. It always jinxes them.

Scotland did the same to Michael Jamieson for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. He was IT, like Elise Christie was going to be it, and he ended up not being. Just leave them be!

Reallycantbebothered · 21/02/2018 23:55

Friend of dd was doing some commentary for the snowboarding cross in Salford....she was meant to be at Olympics but was injured in final qualifying race ...gutted for her
I'm amazed at how crazy and scary these races are

specialsubject · 22/02/2018 08:54

Boarder cross and ski cross are brilliant sports and need real guts and skill . pity we get to see so little of them and so much sweep, shriek and jabber.

ToffeeUp · 22/02/2018 09:11

Ladies' big air just now on repeat, wow!

Board and ski cross are great to watch.

Scabbersley · 22/02/2018 09:14

I love sport, love the BBC and love Claire balding. But even I've swapped to eurosport as the coverage is CRINGE and super annoying. I'd be happy never to see elise Christie again tbh. It looks like a horrible sport but she was NOT a role model and I am sick of hearing that she is!

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 22/02/2018 09:31

It looks like a horrible sport but she was NOT a role model and I am sick of hearing that she is!

She is current world champion in her sport. She is just as much a role model, if not more so, than other sports people.

ToffeeUp · 22/02/2018 09:41

Well said Piglet

Scabbersley · 22/02/2018 09:42

Obviously she's good at it or she wouldn't have been there! But I am fed up with the constant insistence that she is somehow to be a figure of admiration. She was negative from day one, head wasn't in it. Also she made some really stupid decisions while under pressure which will no doubt lead to funding being cut from the sport as a whole.

WalnutChiefWhip · 22/02/2018 09:43

I wish they’d take some of the pundit waffle time and use it to explain some of the terms, or moves, or tactics of sports that not many people know a lot about. Most of it happens so bloody fast - half pipe, skating, big air (?!?) - that by the time the commentator has shrieked, ‘amazing 500 backside crippler with a double neckcrack’ or whatever, it’s all over and I’m no clearer as to what I’ve just seen.

ToffeeUp · 22/02/2018 09:51

Grin yes, no idea what is going on with the jumps but it is fascinating to watch.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 22/02/2018 09:56

She was negative from day one, head wasn't in it.

Unless you know her you have absolutely no idea really do you?

Easy to criticise from your armchair at home.

Anotherdayanotherdollar · 22/02/2018 10:01

Eurosport all the way! Just wish they'd explain the rules etc!

ToffeeUp · 22/02/2018 10:04

I thought she came across as positive and highly motivated.

Scabbersley · 22/02/2018 10:05

Easy to criticise from your armchair at home

Yes, and I felt sorry for her. But I don't need the BBC telling me twice a day what an 'inspiration' she is.

UnimaginativeUsername · 22/02/2018 10:06

Eurosport sometimes do have an explainer thing. They did during the men’s freestyle skiing slopestyle final.

ToftheB · 22/02/2018 10:14

I don’t think the BBC did Elise Christie any favours. You don’t become world champion without being a dedicated and talented athlete and it’s a shame she’s not been able to give her best performance on the biggest stage. However, all of the melodrama, clips of her crying and in pain and presenters wanging on about what a tragedy it is have been unwatchable. It’s sport - some people win, some people lose (and a lot of people crash or are disqualified in speed skating!) and none of it is life or death.

ohnoitsmypig · 22/02/2018 10:47

If you think it's bad on the BBC, come to Korea. Unless there's a Korean athlete, they barely show anything. There are 4 channels showing the games, and 9 times out of 10, they'll show the same thing, all of them things in which Koreans have possibilities of getting a medal.

The alternative to the red button has replays, but they'll literally show eg the one Korean ski jumper's run (always pathetic, since they're pretty terrible outside of skating and suddenly curling) and that's it.

They also JUST show the sports. Very few interviews, background information about what's going on - I really miss that about the BBC coverage.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 22/02/2018 11:00

Chemy Alcott claiming to “love ice hockey” whilst mistaking the referee for a cameraman (and Yes Clare Balding oh all knowing guru I’m looking at you too) summed up how vacuous and crap the coverage has been

HesterShaw · 22/02/2018 11:03

I wish certain people would would do the most basic bit of research before coming on the internet and proclaiming their opinions. They might find out Christie is a multiple World Champion, for example.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 22/02/2018 11:12

I wish commentators that are paid a fortune would do some “basic research” before they spit their inane twaddle

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 22/02/2018 11:13

I wish certain people would would do the most basic bit of research before coming on the internet and proclaiming their opinions. They might find out Christie is a multiple World Champion, for example.

I agree.

Scabbersley · 22/02/2018 11:31

I know Christie is a world champion. She performed badly in the Olympics and the incessant coverage insisting that she was inspirational was unwarranted and irritating.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 22/02/2018 11:36

and the incessant coverage insisting that she was inspirational was unwarranted and irritating.

Yet she has many messages from children especially saying that she is.

So no it's not unwarranted.

Scabbersley · 22/02/2018 11:39

Is she a friend of yours? I don't want to get into criticising her over and over again but I think I'm allowed to say that although we felt sorry for her none of us found the coverage helpful and I don't think we are alone. I wish her well in the future. Its sport, she had a bad run, well done to the woman from the Netherlands who won today.

WalnutChiefWhip · 22/02/2018 11:55

I admired her a lot for getting back up after the last crash and restarting the heat. I'd have limped off, mortified, at that point.

But I agree that it's unhelpful to try to reframe sporting achievement as some kind of Hollywood narrative, particularly for women 'battling failure'. The pressure to pull it off in the final race, to fit in with made-for-TV-movie cliches, is unrealistic and unfair on the athlete. I expect the reasons Elise Christie got up and went for that last shot were less about fulfilling Clare Balding's dramatic race build-up, and more about knowing her funding would be pulled if she didn't give it absolutely everything. And pride, obvs.

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