One of the things that has given me the $hit$ watching Channel 7s coverage of the Olympics is the adjusted medal count; this thrown up when the “real” medal count doesn’t appear to meet early morning breakfast expectations. In Mel and Kochy’s world we’re always number one if you massage the figures the right way.
Truth be told I don’t like any medal count by nation; aren’t the Olympics supposed to be about singular human athletic achievement? By that measurement Michael Phelps is absolute number one and at this point he matches Australia in gold medal achievement. Maybe that should make 7’s adjusted list, an asterix or footnote would help their simplistic exercise.
Just to prick the early morning in studio Green and Gold flag waving jingoistic bubble for a moment, are we ever number one on any adjusted list?
In a recent post More Intelligent Life asked the medal count question and showed us at number two in Athens, second to the Bahamas. And then there is this site whose approach to the tally currently throws up Jamaica as the top dog. Pass the dutchy!
What about medals based on the money spent on sport science, or GDP, or the number of beaches added to grains of sand multiplied by days of sunlight? Or the number of former gold medal winners who failed to take gold this time around? On the latter metric I think we really are number one.
If I could have one wish for Olympics coverage, it would be for medal tallies to be abolished from the coverage entirely – obviously, you can’t stop them from being compiled, but there’s no reason for them to be reported.
Slightly OT, but what were Channel 7 thinking when they didn’t bother to show the first half of the hockey match between the Dutch and the Aussies last night? Sure, finish showing the bloody gymnastics (others might like it, not my thing), but surely there wasn’t too much else that was a higher priority near midnight on a Sunday to show?
Wasn’t the more ‘accurate’ medal tally originaly part of Roy and HG’s “The Dream?’(They may have copied it from somehwere else.) In that context it was obviously a piss take of jingoism and medal tallies in general, and actually questions the whole idea of medal tallies. Even in another show it still has that capacity to some extent, and I don’t think it should be condemned in such a one dimensional way, even if Mel and Koshie should be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Aw heck lets make this post the obligatory Channel Seven coverage dissection post then shall we? The athletes are great on their own (wonderfully focused young men and women) but the overall coverage from the host broadcaster is dumbed down in the extreme.
I want my Roy and HG back!
I despise the coverage of the olympics. The blatant jongoism and braying Australian fanatacism with winning sport is just rank. While I might miss seeing some of the events themselves, the commentary is always enough to remind me why I still don’t own a television.
The olympics particularly in places like Australia seems to have completely lost any sort of relevant connection to the original intent of the games. I was listening to some head swimming coach for Australia on the radio the other day, and he explained how we use a *17 million dollar* pool to analyse the stroke etc. of our swimmers to improve it, and how if Australia wishes to ‘remain competitive’ we’ll need to rely on technology. Technology? WTF has that got to do with sporting human endeavour and a meeting of nations in peace?
We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on an obsessive hunt for sporting supremacy in this country. Pity we don’t have the basic common sense to spend that amount of cash on being a world leader in something meaningful, like adequate public housing and poverty reduction measures, increasing our refugee intake, leading the way in GHG emissions cuts, a vastly better supported artistic community etc etc.
When you get to watch the athletes without all the bullsh*t you get a vague echo of what this all used to be about, but Australia’s approach in particular I find egregious, and it’s echoed in the appalling commentary and coverage. Case in point – can you even imagine any of the mainstream Australian media outlets countenancing a ‘debate’ on whethre Phelps is the greatest olympian in history to date based on the fact that he’s a swimmer, if he was Australian?
Yes, whoever made the decision to replace The Dream with that abomination, Yum Cha, should be shot.
I’m going to have to be the heretic here. They’re good comedians but frankly I don’t think they know a great deal about sport. They’re terrible commentators even compared to Ch9’s rugby league boof squad who at least don’t make egregious errors of fact, and This Sporting Life on JJJ is amusing only to the extent that it isn’t a show about sport at all.
Give me Bruce McAvaney and Sandy Roberts MCing the Olympics any day over R&HG, supported by Chrissie Malthouse and Mike Tomalaris doing interviews.
I’m ready for my pyre now, Inquisitors.
Wait, I’m confused. I thought that was the point. Don’t tell me I’ve done it again…
“the bloody gymnastics (others might like it, not my thing)”
Me neither. But I just loved the look on the face of that Brazilian, a medal favourite, who messed up his floor routine. He looked like he was ready to top himself.
No, you’re right b.lyle – that was the point. They were sending up the whole national obsession with sporting glory.
Besides, I’m sure that they know more about sport than people like Andrew Daddo.
Yes Lyle. Hence they shouldn’t be let near a sporting event by any broadcaster ever.
I don’t think Roy and HG’s sporting commentary was ever supposed to reflect the progress of the actual game they’re calling. They use sport to make jokes; they’re not interested in the result, or the nuances of the competition.
All the gymnasts look like they’re ready to top themselves. I’m starting to think that’s one of the things they get points for.
The 7 coverage has been nauseating – twee jingoist nonsense. eg the rowing 8s. The commentator just couldn’t bring himself to point out the AUS crew was coming LAST.
No no – they came “6th”.
Plus you can get a look at any interesting stuff that doesn’t have Australians in it.
PLus that execrable Yum Cha is a personality free zone.
My favourite moment of the olympics so far was when I stumbled on the welter weight boxing, and at the end of the match the Irish winner held up one finger at the camera and said in his awesome accent ‘Power! Number One!’
I’m crushed that his next bout won’t be televised, but hopefully he’ll make it through to the finals. He has Power on his side, after all.
Oh, and on that – has anyone pointed out that Great Britain is flogging Straya in the medal count? Hmmmm?
Nope – they’ve let that go through to the keeper big time. hehehe.
How could anyone say that Roy and HG don’t have a knowledge of sporting terminology, based on this <a href= http://www.royandhg.com/gymnastics [LINK] ?
My favourite sport is the weightlifting, especially … never mind.
It would be nice if they added a few medals that were awarded according to Borgesian sorts of hyper-categories, a la “The Lottery in Babylon” — for instance, a gold medal for finishing *exactly* in the middle, a silver medal for coming in second to last, a bronze for sneezing simultaneously with another athlete in a separate, unseen event, etc.
And of course the Beckett medal for not showing up.
I think they’d need a qualifying round for that one.
Excuse my non-watching of Mel and Kochie, but what does their adjusted medal count consist of?
JPZ, what you want is the Lanterne Rouge.
“a stubborn refusal to fail mixed with an inability to rise to victory…”
Aren’t those the opening lyrics to the national anthem of Brazil?
Liam — on a minor point (since you’ve carried this moniker over from the other thread, which I don’t want to derail as it’s sort of weighty), combining the subjects of “working the crowd” and “what do parents teach their children”, I’m reminded of this micro-anecdote from my surly and irritating adolescence…
While my surly teen self was intently listening to Paul Stanley jerk the crowd’s chain during the “100,000 Years” drum solo (I think?) on “KISS Alive!”, one of my wise and saintly parents, both blessed with a Sahara-dry deadpan delivery, wandered past, listened for a moment, and calmly inquired, “So… what’s with the Hitler music?”
@Liam, yes the Lantern Rouge and good old Wim Vansevenant did the threepeat this year, what a trooper! No wonder Cadel didn’t win.
How about an award for being shit but having fun with it?
The Golden Eddie?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_%22the_Eagle%22_Edwards
I thought that was the coolest bit of inappropriateness I’ve seen for ages. It really brings to life the ‘unwelcome guest at the cocktail party’ metaphor.
moderated
I’m surprised a Murdoch hasn’t come in a purchased an international rights agreement with the IOC, and then shown an international coverage on his many networks. He could then on-sell it to a free-to-air network in Australia because of our anti-siphoning laws.
Channel Seven have made a meal of the coverage. My (least) favourite moment was on Saturday, when they interrupted a crucial women’s hockey match to show a trampolining routine of an Australian who didn’t even qualify for the final! At least the 100m final made up for that.
A common problem for Seven is getting enough commentators for all the events. In some events you get someone who knows a thing or two, like John Harker doing the Water Polo, but the guy they had doing the soccer was terrible, knew very little about the sport, and had no special comments assistance. After listening to SBS do soccer for so many years, the difference was a yawning chasm. Also getting Tom Williams to do special comments at the white water kayaking was a massive mistake.
Hopefully the (coverage) technology will have advanced to a stage in 2012 that Nine will be able to offer a number of HD channels so people can pick and choose to watch events, because no one really needs the fluff between events that Seven currently provides. And the Olympics needs to take an intervention order against Johanna Griggs – she needs to be kept as far away from the Olympics as possible.
Each to their own myriad… “Pity we don’t have the basic common sense to spend that amount of cash on [..] a vastly better supported artistic community”
Frankly I’d rather we stop wasting so much money on the artistic community
http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/beware-an-art-attack-in-citys-dark-dingy-lanes/2008/08/15/1218307228362.html
I think I might apply for a grant to walk Melbourne streets having a conversation with my mates.
I’m always intrigued by the way the left reacts negatively to sporting success, gold medal tallies and all. I think when you cut away all the noise – the heart of the issue is that the left is uncomfortable with competition in general. Those on the left seem generally uncomfortable with any system that ‘ranks’ people – sport, exams, schools, work performance, income.
Interesting.
The quality of arts investment is a different conversation than the quantum Andrew. That’s a lovely broad brush you’ve got there, assuming I’m from “the left” whatever that means, and “not comfortable with competition” on the basis that I think we waste a collossal amount of money on maintaining a ridiculously over the top level of representation in sport per capita.
I’d personally like to have a brutal economics-only stoush about how much our investment in elite sports brings into our economy or contributes to our society vs a commensurate investment in the arts. But I do also notice that you looked at my list – where I actually suggested we compete, no less, on other issues – and zeroed in on the arts, presumably as the natural enemy of teh sports.
“Those on the left seem generally uncomfortable with any system that ‘ranks’ people – sport, exams, schools, work performance, income.”
Piffle. My ‘left’ supports merit-based competition (eg well-funded state schools would achieve this) rather than buying your way out of a genuine contest (eg elite private schools).
Entrenching privilege is anti-competitive. For these reasons, I tend to see the Right as uncomfortable with competition in general.
Interesting.
On wider Olympics phenomena, the Telstra herogram thing sucks. I sent one to one of the guys in the men’s rowing 8 on Saturday and it never showed up on the site, and can’t be found with a search. If I’d sent it by text message rather than email i’d be especially annoyed.
The Dream was at its best in Sydney 2000 (it had novelty value as well), was ok in Salt Lake City, but during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, it never recovered from a dismal interview with the Hilton sisters. The Athens 2004 Dream was weak.
Roy & HG did the right thing to quit while they were, if not ahead, then certainly well before they tried to extract milk from a stone.
Hmmm. @Andrew
My objection is not a medal count per se, record and celebrate the triumphs of the individuals yes but stop trying to manufacture a false success out of silly comparisons and leave the mindless nationalism out of the equation, that is the Olympic spirit….or at least what it professes to be and the ideal the athletes aspire to.
My first suggestion? All athletes march and compete under the Olympic flag, not wear national uniforms but compete in a generic outfit suitable to their sport and yes, keep score on the sporting field not off of it.
All hail the By Jingo Uh-lympics.By the way, is it true that China narrowly defeated the US for the gold medal in waterboarding?
Not sure about the waterboarding, but there was an unfortunate incident after the marathon when the the competitiors ganged up on the Taiwanese team and chased them off the mainland.
Yes! And that is why we who sit from time to time on the various committees that distribute the arts dollar choose whom the recipients of these much-sought-after few cents will be strictly by lottery and chance. First we make sure we know absolutely nothing about any of the applicants or their artforms, much less their actual work. Then we take it in turns (going around the circle anticlockwise) to don a blindfold, spin round on the spot three times, mutter an incantation in Aramaic, and pin the tail on the Wheel of Fortune.
I’m glad somebody understands!
Correction: The Hiltons were on the 2003 Spring Carnival Dream, which was on at the same time as the 2003 RWC.
What’s strange is that Channel 7 and the other commercial networks have multi-channeling just about ready to launch.
If there was ever an opportunity to launch it, the Olympics would have been it.
On the other hand, if I were the IOC I’d seriously consider cutting out the networks entirely and offering a pay-per-view internet service. I’d pay $20 for the right to watch the Olympic hockey in its entirety and commercial free, and I doubt I’d be the only one…
Obviously a simple case of confusing whores and horses Tony….
How bout this interpretation…if the tally was based on the Men’s medal count, we’d be back in 8th place right now, on Women’s we’d still be in 3rd. It’s our pissweak men that are holding us back.
My first suggestion? All athletes march and compete under the Olympic flag, not wear national uniforms but compete in a generic outfit suitable to their sport and yes, keep score on the sporting field not off of it.
It’d be a fab start! And ban all the bloody technological advance crap; no more shark suits etc. Hell, get em all back in loincloths.
Actually it was nude and oiled, myriad. NTTAWWT.
A very Delphic solution, Pavlov’s Cat. I for one welcome Adriana Xenides to the Agora of arts funding.
Go get ‘em Lefty E.
Andrew, there are many reaasons to criticise how arts funding is distributed in Oz. Dislike of competition isn’t one of them.
What! How would we sports lobbyist-salespeople requisite millions of dollars of funding for loincloths/oil?
You just put us out of of a job (though I’ve heard snake oil can cost a bit)
Actually it was nude and oiled, myriad. NTTAWWT.
I know, I know but I thought I might open another can of worms if I said that, ’specially as the girlies didn’t get to compete back then. Some innovation is good! – including loincloths for the boys!
I actually think total nudity would lead to a less sexual view of the athletes than the current revealing clothing. Not sure it would encourage female participation in the short term though. And male track times would probably go up.
“stop trying to manufacture a false success out of silly comparisons and leave the mindless nationalism out of the equation, that is the Olympic spirit…”
There’s nothing categorically ‘mindless’ about nationalism, it’s what you do with it. Some of the national sentiment on display at the Olympics is certainly dopey, but some of it is also commendable. I heard that at one of the track meets, the presumptive victor, who was about to win by a sizeable margin, was actually taunting his nearest competitor, who was his countryman and teammate, right there on the field. Was this shabby but individualist behavior somehow categorically superior to nationalism?
I agree that Seven’s coverage has been pretty poor. I wouldn’t expect all the over the top “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!” crap to stop with Channel Nein in 2012 though. Is it just me or did all this “I’m Australian so f__k you” stuff get so much worse under John Howard? That Lawrie Lawrence needs to be drop kicked into oblivion.
The Boomers basketball games haven’t been getting the greatest coverage from Channel Seven but I’ll be beside myself if they don’t show our Quarter Final game tomorrow night against the USA.
“Channel Nein”
ehehehehehee. Simple but effective.
I had to laugh at the Channel 9 Today team this morning…carried on forever about how the total medals is what should count (”what kind of a message to our children is it, telling them that Silver and Bronze aren’t just as worthy efforts as Gold”…I kid you not) and how Australia should rightly be in 3rd place on the table…
What the doofuses failed to notice was, by their logic, it’d actually put Russia up in 3rd place, not Australia…
Oooh, that was apart from having a big serve at the Chinese who apparently don’t rightly deserve to be in 1st place…and that, like, don’t you think the Chinese are taking this sport thing waay too seriously?
“I heard that at one of the track meets, the presumptive victor, who was about to win by a sizeable margin, was actually taunting his nearest competitor, who was his countryman and teammate, right there on the field.”
Which American was that j_p_z ?
joe2 — guess again.
Leftist terrorist ?
Oh boy Joe2, did you get snookered there. Try Jamaicans.
My fave moment has been the 466th ranked bloodnut from Melbourne Australia playing the #1 ranked feller, Chinese now that you ask, in table tennis. # 1 looked utterly staggered as # 466 gave him serious top spin action.
I saw a few moments of the Ch 7 wrap this morning. Sheesh. So that goes for hours each day? No, it couldn’t….
Thanks, via collins, my expectation was that it would have been someone connected, with that damnable Obama, that had caused all the probs via j_p_z .
joe2: “my expectation was that it would have been someone [--Jamaicans?--] connected, with that damnable Obama”
um, I think you may be confusing Obama with Colin Powell, as people so often do. IIRC, Powell has West Indian family background; Obama, to the best of my knowledge, does not. Beyond that guess, I’m at a loss as to what you mean here. Perhaps the Obama team is thinking of using “Draw Your Brakes” as its campaign theme song?
I have had a big screen TV for around a year now, and with the countdown to the Olympics approaching I was glad I had invested in this TV.
I was thinking that with channel 7 having so many digital channels, that I would have access to 5 separate channel 7 stations with varied coverage, however all I seem to have access to is 5 channels all with the same coverage on it, every night.
What an extremely bad coverage this has been.
What has made it even worse is the amount of commentary which is from what seems to be people who know very little about sport in general, or if they know something about sport they do not seem to know much about the particular sport they are commenting on.
I do not watch NRL or AFL but I do know that when I hear it on TV most weekends the commentary is much better than what I have experienced from 7s coverage of this Olympics. Where is the passion in this Olympics commentary?
I find myself not really into this Olympics at all, and I would say that it comes down to a very poor coverage on behalf of the 7 network.
I wonder how ABC2 is going to cover the Paralympics.