Swimming, track and field, and gymnastics are the Olympic events that NBC has been showing the most during prime time. This is not surprising since these are the events that draw the largest audience. While the announcers have been excellent, the sideline reporters have been nothing short of atrocious. While Andrea Kremer (swimming) and Bob Neumeier (track and field) have seemed disconnected from their respective events and the job they went to Beijing to do, the worst thing I have witnessed has been the hostility shown by Kremer, Neumeier, and Andrea Joyce (gymnastics) towards athletes who have just seen their hopes and dreams crumble.
Highlights include:
- Kremer repeatedly asking Natalie Coughlin why she can't seem to stop hugging the lane lines after Coughlin WON her semifinal heat. Coughlin was clearly not down with the questioning and instead of reading into that and moving on to another subject, Kremer asked her why she thinks she does it.
- Kremer's inability to engage the athlete in any way. There is no progression in her interviews. She asks a question, the person answers and hints at an insight into something crucial, Kremer asks the next question on her list. I haven't seen somebody mail it in this bad since Vince Carter.
- After the U.S. women were bested by the Aussies in the Women's 4x100 relay medley, Kremer asked them something along the lines of, "what went wrong" and promptly jammed the microphone directly in the face of Christine Magnuson, the woman who lost the most ground on her Australian opponent. To say she looked like a deer in the headlights would be an understatement.
- Joyce's verbal assault on distraught U.S. gymnast Alicia Sacramone after she almost singlehandedly lost the Women's Team Gold. All she needed was a hint of a tear and she was off. It was almost playful, like a cat batting around a mouse, just to see the terror in its eyes.
- Neumeier's interview with Wallace Spearmon following his disqualification in the 200m final. Spearmon found out midway through his "victory lap" (he originally took the bronze) that he was DQ'd for stepping on the inside lane. Spearmon hadn't had time to process what happened and Neumeier looked confused as to why Spearmon wasn't giving him long, drawn out answers. At one point, Spearmon said he would protest and Neumeier basically told him that he stepped out and asked him something like, "Really? You want to protest THAT?" Spearmon stood there, looking up at the big screen while Neumeier stumbled to find a pertinent question. Spearmon eventually walked away. It was awkward for everyone.
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2 comments:
pictures are great. The Spearmon interview was the culmination. It was heart wrenching enough when we found out he'd lost the bronze before he found out, and we had to sit watching his joyful victory lap, draped in the flag, in the moments before he himself found out.
Some of the best moments in these olympics has been seeing the joy of some of the silver and bronze winners. You can see what those have meant to some competitors. There have been several events where the silver medalist was more exuberant than the gold medalist. The 100M comes to mind.
I totally agree with this post. If I wasn't so pleased with my TV's picture quality, I would quite possibly have thrown a brick through it on several occasions after listening to Bob Neumeier's idiotic questions while he sits there on some little cart. Someone should make him run 400m just to see whether or not it kills him.
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