Silly Little Country

I Really Hate to Admit This

... but the CBC coverage of the Olympics has seemed to me to be very good this year.

I find Scott Russell a bit dorky, but in the end he and Diana Swain seemed to work quite well together, and during the nights I could not sleep, Ian Hanomansing manned the main desk really well.

The sport I know the most about is track and field, and I must say I have been surprised at how good the coverage has been. Michael Smith has come a long way since his earliest broadcasting days (as an ex-decathlete he had little appreciation of middle-distance and longer running events, but he knows a lot more now), and Dave Moorcroft is an utter delight. (And my memory is that Michael Smith is also a really nice guy - I have never met Dave Moorcroft.)

In events I know little about I am often amazed by the experts the CBC has recruited. Anne Montmigny helped me see things I would never have known how to see in the diving events. I hope she is used forever by any Canadian broadcaster covering diving events.

And it is interesting watching events one would never watch but for sleeplessness and availability. Why is volleyball not a professional spectator sport in North America? It is just thrilling to watch and the athleticism is stunning. Two weeks every four years is not enough to train me to parse what is going on on-court, but I would really like to.

(I had one major criticism during the opening ceremonies when I thought Ron MacLean uttered some confusing nonsense about "Great Britain" but I suspect now, having done some research, that he was in fact explaining the curiosity about nonsensical team naming at the Olympics and I was simply not listening carefully enough.)

posted by Alan Adamson @ 10:28 AM