So far we’ve found the German, Danish and Italian coverage of the Olympics. The thing that they have in common is that they don’t comment during the events, only before and after each competitor goes. We’re watching the Italian channel because they sound sexier.
The other thing, and this is really cool, is that they show everyone competing in an event. In the US, we only see the top ten, the contenders. We’re watching the Women’s Figure Skating right now and seeing the foks who are coming in at the 18th and 22nd spot. It makes me really appreciate the top competitors in ways that all of the commentaries never do. I mean, this woman, who is the best figureskater in Uzbekhistan comes to the Olympics and sees what? 21 iceskaters who are better than she is. We’re talking about iceskaters so good that they win a medal even with fall. It’s not that the lesser competitors fall more, but the whole program is not as good. It’s very interesting. And you can see it in their faces when they finish. They know that they’ve got no chance of medaling; it’s just a matter of seeing how far down the ranks they are.
Tags: comment, Journal
You should also be able to get Scandinavian Eurosport (our version of ESPN) and they sometimes comment in English but most often Swedish… not that it helps, but you get to watch all the Swedish athletes and chuckle over their terrible performance in the hockey!
Maybe we were watching it in Swedish and not in Danish. We don’t know what either one sounds like.
I got to watch the 1984 Olympics like that in Poland. The contrast between #20 and #2 is really remarkable, and it’s worth watching just so you truly appreciate the top few!