Team GB obsession spoiling it for me.

[throckenholt]

Am i the only one ? The constant obsession with British competitors to the almost total exclusion of everyone else is driving me mad ! I taped last nights athletics. So far there has been a lot of talk in the studio with the pundits, pole vault just showing the British girl knocking the bar off, and two heats on the track with no line up to show who was running, cameras zoomed in on the brits, and interviews immediately afterwards saying you went out in the first round how does that feel ? In between that we have had a life history of the brit pole vault girl, a hark back to great british hurdlers. And just once of twice they mention other people who are taking part.

It is driving me mad - the Olympics is supposed to be a celebration of the best in the world. I want to see the best, and if they happen to be British, then great - I will cheer with the best of them, but for gods sake please show us the best. If there is time left over then, ok a bit of British focus is fine, but only after they have told us about the best !

Thank god for the fast forward. I have just given up watching what I recorded because it is annoying mt so much. Will try again later, finger poised over the fast forward button.

Women's handball went to Norway

YADNBU!

Could have written your OP myself. "the Olympics is supposed to be a celebration of the best in the world. I want to see the best, and if they happen to be British, then great - I will cheer with the best of them, but for gods sake please show us the best." - couldn't agree more.

I am glad Team GB are doing well but so are other nations and I would rather celebrate someone else excelling than a British person being mediocre.

Glad it's not just me.

PS Also find the medal obsession very unsavoury - poor Rebecca Adlington - the reaction to her achievements was utterly offensive

last nights bbc1 coverage of the athletics was annoying again. Whilst not obsessed with team GB, it was totally stuck on the relay - they gave us a lot of watching people (team GB mostly) walking around in their tracksuits pre-race - when they could have been showing us the field events - you could even see the odd javelin fly by in the background. Instead there was announcement early on to say those wanting to watch javelin (or high jump or discus, or whatever else was on) can go to the red button - well not on MY bloody red button. And even if I had that option - I don't want to watch just the javelin - I want to watch track and field, edited so that the field events are slotted into the gaps in the track events. Just they have managed to do for the last 30 odd years I have been watching (since the 1980 olympics).

At least it gave me a chance to flick over to the diving because the athletics was still focused on people in track suits doing nothing !

I also feel sorry for those who didn't do well in team GB - must be awful when the media hype is how fantastically they all did, when for whatever reason you didn't do so well. I suspect the hype probably didn't help those at all.

I enjoyed the olympics enormously, but the coverage at times, and the celebrity focus of it annoyed me a lot. This is not the x-factor, it is the olympics - the sport speaks for itself and doesn't need all the gimics to get in the way of it.

interesting interview on BBC TV this morning (7.50am) with the Chief Executive of UK Sport.

She said that the explanations of rules/tactics, as well as background films on the athletes were crucial to public engagement.

I'm in Germany & you can be reassured that they do the same thing - but obviously with the German team!! Quite often once the German competitor was out an event they just cut back to the studio & didnt show the rest. And there's no red button here. Thankfully Eurosport showed events in their entirety but I was still lamenting how much I missed the BBC and a red button.

Just because other countries do it doesn't mean we need to too ! We used to be better, it is a shame to reduce our coverage.

I think the information about how sports work is great - but it should be slotted as well as showing the actual competition, not instead of it.

And the personality stuff - background to people etc - again insteresting - but maybe put on another time, or on red button, or on the web. NOT instead of watching what is actually happening in the event.

Check out the BBC Breakfast interview - about 7.50am today for 5 minutes or so.

Inspire a generation.

do you have a link for that ?

You should be able to navigate to it on the BBC website.

You should be able to navigate to it on the BBC website.

Yeah - I should be able to - but today I don't seem capable of finding it ! Was it worth the effort of me forcing my brain into working out how to find it ? What was said ?