Which is the silliest Winter Olympics sport?

[LMcD]

If only all the coverage were this calm, authoritative and measured....Navel inspection on an epic scale

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/43100655

[jayne lee wilson]

If only all the coverage were this calm, authoritative and measured....Navel inspection on an epic scale
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/43100655

Navel-gazing...? Eh?
No, they were just extremely excited at Lizzie Yarnold retaining the Skeleton Gold (across 4 years), the first athlete ever to do this... if you enjoyed the sport you'd have probably been excited too...

It seems you're unable to resist seeking out Winter Olympic moments to sneer at. Bad for the soul, you know!
Without emotion, Sport is nothing really. Why shouldn't commentators get involved? Never heard a football commentary, on a Cup Final, say?
If only you'd try some of the Skiing- that Men's Giant Slalom last night was spectacular dare-devilry indeed, including some hair-raising crashes...! (And it forced me to learn, very usefully, how to record off the Red Button...)...

[vinteuil]

Without emotion, Sport is nothing really...

... I have no emotional response at all to things sporty.

.

[cloughie]

Not on free to air it isn't.

Every other year for a couple of weeks during the Euros and world cup.

Otherwise it is one hour on Saturday night at 10.30 ( nasty clash with Hear and Now) an hour at the same time Sunday night, the occasional live FA cup game, and that's about it.

There is really very little football on free to air, especially given the games's enormous popularity. Football fans get a pretty poor deal from free to air TV IMO.

A bit like music lovers.

Your bias is showing there ts, there is a couple of hours on Channel 5 on the lower divisions and fallen giants which wasn't there when your lot ran out of money and luck! But overall I agree with you. Also the sport coverage on BBC news is biased and superficial...and they have the nerve to say and that is all the sport - no it isn't it's the tip of its iceberg all the lazy newsgatherers can be bothered to tell us about! How many people knew of Carlos Carvalhal until he became a Prem manager - now he's ubiquitous! As for the silliest I alwys think that the speedskaters look very amusing with their arms moving like those awful chinese cats!

[teamsaint]

Your bias is showing there ts, there is a couple of hours on Channel 5 on the lower divisions and fallen giants which wasn't there when your lot ran out of money and luck! But overall I agree with you. Also the sport coverage on BBC news is biased and superficial...and they have the nerve to say and that is all the sport - no it isn't it's the tip of its iceberg all the lazy newsgatherers can be bothered to tell us about! How many people knew of Carlos Carvalhal until he became a Prem manager - now he's ubiquitous!

We ran out of decent managers ,rather than luck and money !

Yes , there is a bit more football on free to air than I mentioned, and some live football on BBC in Scotland, but it isn't wall to wall, or anything close.

[LMcD]

Navel-gazing...? Eh?
No, they were just extremely excited at Lizzie Yarnold retaining the Skeleton Gold (across 4 years), the first athlete ever to do this... if you enjoyed the sport you'd have probably been excited too...

It seems you're unable to resist seeking out Winter Olympic moments to sneer at. Bad for the soul, you know!
Without emotion, Sport is nothing really. Why shouldn't commentators get involved? Never heard a football commentary, on a Cup Final, say?
If only you'd try some of the Skiing- that Men's Giant Slalom last night was spectacular dare-devilry indeed, including some hair-raising crashes...! (And it forced me to learn, very usefully, how to record off the Red Button...)...

I don't think I'm sneering at Olympic moments - just somewhat bemused that the news summary at the start of today's Andrew Marr Show included a sequence shot by one or more broadcasters showing another group of broadcasters getting excited. The commentary itself, and the commentators' reaction to the outcome of the event they're describing, had thus become the story, diverting attention from and to some extent overshadowing the actual event.
I think this sort of thing started back at the 1980 Olympics, when a camera team was assigned to film Alan Welles's mum as she watched, and reacted to, her son's participation in the 100 metres.
I've just inadvertently watched a replay of Rochdale's goal against Spurs at least 4 times - and I only tuned in on to catch up with the news on the red button!
Let's be grateful that we don't have to watch 'post-match' highlights and analysis of performances at the BBC Proms!

[vinteuil]

Let's be grateful that we don't have to watch 'post-match' highlights and analysis of performances at the BBC Proms!

... no - we have this Forum for that



.

[teamsaint]

Let's be grateful that we don't have to watch 'post-match' highlights and analysis of performances at the BBC Proms!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08zhzr8

Although of course you don't , as you rightly point out, have to watch it.

[Historian]

I don't disagree that netball players require great skill, finesse and fitness - but for me, a sport which does not allow you to move when you have the ball, and where only a couple of players are allowed to score seems silly to me.

I don't know enough about netball to be able to explain these rules, but I imagine that there is some point to them (to stop it becoming a sort of semi-basketball?). However, as you are happy to acknowledge that netball players can exhibit skill, fitness and finesse I will agree with you that it has certain idiosyncrasies which seem rather limiting.

[cloughie]

We ran out of decent managers ,rather than luck and money !

Yes , there is a bit more football on free to air than I mentioned, and some live football on BBC in Scotland, but it isn't wall to wall, or anything close.

I think that going into administration suggests that money was a factor! Management off the field probably a big factor in many a big club's demise.

[teamsaint]

I think that going into administration suggests that money was a factor! Management off the field probably a big factor in many a big club's demise.

I thought you were talking about falling out of the PL.

[Alison]

I haven’t seen the BBC Sport piece that LMcD refers to but it strikes a chord with me. Broadcasters seeking the glory, that is just so BBC sadly!

I loathe that on the hour self important sequence on the BBC news channel with the emphasis on the reporters themselves.

[jayne lee wilson]

But they weren't seeking the glory themselves, just filmed as they reacted to a pretty hearstopping moment... during last night's Giant Slalom, the current leaders were shown reacting to the performance of each successive competitor, wincing at their crashes, reacting to their finishing a few tenths of a second ahead of them, or behind; it gets very tense. Gold can become Bronze, then a mere 5th, in just a few seconds. So emotional reaction is of course part of the drama, in competitors, spectators and commentators. Who would enjoy some deadpan objective description of a downhill racer as she crashes, arms and legs flying, into the shock absorbers? It is an inescapably dramatic spectacle, like many sports.

Those news 24 reporters aren't really self-important either; they are in fact part of the story in their descriptive, editorial and presentational choices. But I'm addicted to News and Media, so I watch a good deal of it and have keen a interest in how it's done, how it is selected and shaped. I'm fascinated by how people express themselves, that confirmation bias that threads through all our attempts to see, and tell, the truth - or avoid it.
Those brilliant late-night Press Previews are often done by, say, an editor from the Mail and one from the Mirror, or a Brexiter and a Remainer, and it gets pretty vigorous, as the presenter sits back and lets them have at it....the personal angle on the news is a part of the news, always has been.

[Alison]

We are different then Jayne. I know plenty who love the press previews but don’t they just give a platform for self aggrandising journalists to talk claptrap half the time? I don’t see that as part of a news function.

Can’t folks just buy the papers if they want that stuff?

[cloughie]

I thought you were talking about falling out of the PL.

No I meant dropping down and nearly out.