"So, Mo, have you ever run before?"
- Thread starter Andy BB
- Start date
You sound surprised. There are often exceptions though. Occassionally a particular Olympian will catch the eye of the public; Olga Korbut comes to mind. But normally the public's interest is on the US Olympians.
they covered it in the uk in one discipline but that was the one we won our first gold in shooting for a while in so I kind of understand that obscure sport getting through.
In the UK and most of the EU we tend to cover the event and then the winner rather than national competitors. I am not saying we don't show favouritism but we are more general in our approach to coverage.
I am not supprized by the lack of shooting coverage, it's not a sport that's acceptable in the UK even if we won ever match we would have had only 30 seconds of coverage. They sadly overlook one of the few sports we are good at.
Except Mo Farah is not a marathon runner ( yet ) and was'nt being interviewed about a marathon but a half marathon. He is the 5000 and 10,000 metre(something he attained by beating his American training partner into 2nd place! )Olympic champion.
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In every interview he comes across as an extremely nice bloke without an overblown ego.
Running is a hugely popular sport with massive events. I'm pretty sure there isn't another sport on the planet that has tens of thousands of entrants in a single event. Mo is a superstar at two disciplines and looks to be adding a couple more.
Marathon or just long distance running in general. Still rather like watching grass grow isn't it? Kind of like watching dressage.
The posted interview is the only one I've seen him in but that aspect was apparent just in that short bit.
Our coverage is based on what the viewing public wants; or at least what the advertisers paying for the coverage perceive they want to see. And from a spectator's perspective isn't the whole point of any sport to be able to root for your favorite athlete or team (or in the case of some sports, the danger. I.e. auto racing's danger of a crash)
Well we tend to give all nationality's the same screen time prior to the event, as I said nothing wrong showing favouritism but the USA tends to only show there teams before during and after unless it's a near mirrical some one won (i.e. Saudi women's swimming team winning the 100 meters), but some of my American friends where ****** that they couldn't see the full event and my Aunts agreed that the coverage was heavily biased.
Agreed it's biased. And unashamedly so. The 1980 hockey caverage (the "miracle team) was spectacular! But I've never heard anyone complain about that. Rather they complain about when their particular favorite sport is omitted.
TBH, I think it's more of a shock to not say "Well done you" the whole point of the Olympics is to have a non aggressive competition and reward the athletes on merit rather than nationality. This get's missed some times but America seems to do it as a mater of course not as a accident.
I think you're confusing what happens at the Olympics with the tv coverage. At the actual venue I believe the intended purpose of friendly competition generally goes as planned (the 1972 massacre aside) The tv coverage by individual compeing nations probably isn't even or cared about know by the Olympians.
As I said Santamn I am going off what I have been told, not from personal experience. and I could be very wrong but the USA has a cult of country going on that is only bested by North Korea.
To some extent that's probably true. And as I said, unashamedly so.
But with regard to sports it goes much, much deeper than "country." Even within the country sports fans are extremely biased towards their own teams. And the competition usually is more for the rivalry than for gentlemanly competition. It begins at the Middle School level sports and gets more intense as it progresses to High School, then College/University level sports and finally to the Pros.
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Of course the UK never says things about Scottish athletes like "Oh the Scottish lad has lost again." But when he wins "Victory for Britain." (Seems to be an old bug bear that folk bring up)
Just winding you up, I actually think a lot of countries are pretty jingoistic, America, Korea (n&s), France, Israel, Argentina & the UK. It's nice to be proud of your nation but we should be careful that it doesn't become overtly Nationialistic.
If it was my job to interview folk I would have done my homework, but personaly I wouldn't know Mo if I fell over him, not a fan of reading about sport and don't have a telly. Even when I did I never watched sport, even the ones I compeated in.
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To the both of you, while I know Americans are not all like this a larger number I know are like this guy:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/theoatmeal-img/comics/minor_differences4/accents2.png
150 years and not much history, but unwarranted sense of self importance, and lack of focus on what they have achieved.
Kinda freaks me out.
The good thing abt Olympics is that you do see Scottish sportsmen doing well. They didn't make much of Chris hoy and his last Olympic gold. They also made a deal of his future, last appearance at the upcoming Commonwealth games for Scotland. Made a bit of him and others too like the Manx cyclists and welsh too.
I must admit the BBC as the host nations did a gd job of the games. They showed main sports events and personalities but also minor sports even ones without national interest. I remember watching archers and shooters even after British interest had been knocked out. Not all countries have excessive nationalism. It is not in British culture to be like that I suspect.
Another thing, BBC prides themselves itself on knowing its stuff. It even has a department just to give presenters the correct pronunciation of foreign names, places, etc. There's even a guy who's known for his memory of statistics in sport, names and nationalities. If that had happened at the BBC I think ppl would complain and someone wld get into trouble. There'd even be an apology. I think that's the way it should be. I do think the presenter and the program me didn't have common decency to know even the basics abt mo Farah. If BBC had done something like that to say Carl Lewis at LA when he did well I'm sure there'd be complaints from USA. Both are/were legends in their sports and have earnt respect. Just my view. There is no excuse for that interview I think. It was of sufficient interest to put it on so there should be sufficient preparation too. Sloppy to say the least.
BTW I always thought Americans are into sports stats. Would average us sports fans know who he was? Just curious as to know how parochial american sports fans and sports broadcasts really are.
I must admit the BBC as the host nations did a gd job of the games. They showed main sports events and personalities but also minor sports even ones without national interest. I remember watching archers and shooters even after British interest had been knocked out. Not all countries have excessive nationalism. It is not in British culture to be like that I suspect.
Another thing, BBC prides themselves itself on knowing its stuff. It even has a department just to give presenters the correct pronunciation of foreign names, places, etc. There's even a guy who's known for his memory of statistics in sport, names and nationalities. If that had happened at the BBC I think ppl would complain and someone wld get into trouble. There'd even be an apology. I think that's the way it should be. I do think the presenter and the program me didn't have common decency to know even the basics abt mo Farah. If BBC had done something like that to say Carl Lewis at LA when he did well I'm sure there'd be complaints from USA. Both are/were legends in their sports and have earnt respect. Just my view. There is no excuse for that interview I think. It was of sufficient interest to put it on so there should be sufficient preparation too. Sloppy to say the least.
BTW I always thought Americans are into sports stats. Would average us sports fans know who he was? Just curious as to know how parochial american sports fans and sports broadcasts really are.
