TUNING IN

BY: ARDITH STEPHANSON
FOR RODPEDERSEN.COM

The perfect time to begin a column focused on broadcast sports media is during the Olympics. However, a full time job and some activities on weekends prevented me from watching a lot of coverage. And to be honest, it gets to be a bit much when it is on for hours and hours, day after day.

The beauty of the Olympics is that it gets me out of my “spectator comfort zone.” I am a traditional sports enthusiast, with football, hockey and baseball topping my list of viewing pleasures, in person and on television. I can even handle baseball on the radio occasionally. And we watch curling in our household as well. But when the Olympics are on, I am introduced to a bunch of
sports I don’t even think about in the four years between the Games.

Like luge, where they approach speeds of 135 KM/H, and then skeleton, where they do the same thing head-first. I have no idea what it takes to be better than someone else hurtling down an icy track, so the announcers’ explanations of such sports is a big deal. All those different skiing and snowboarding events were entertaining, and I have an appreciation for figure skating that allows me to watch, even though the judging component and apparent bias drives me crazy.

So from the fraction of coverage I was able to catch, here are my thoughts on the Sochi Olympics:

• Figure skating judges don’t get ALL the glory:

It seems hockey’s on-ice officials were a little jealous of figure skating officials getting all the limelight by being attributed with determining the outcome of the competitions. So they took matters in their own hands.

One of the funniest moments of the men’s hockey event was in the Canada vs. Norway game, when Norway’s Mats Trygg was injured. As he was trying to get to the bench to get off the ice, a ref ran into him and apparently injured him further. As he crouched on his knees, a teammate pushed him along the ice (not sure if it was an in-turn or an out-turn) to help him get to the bench.

And then there was the women’s gold-medal game, with the U.S. leading Canada by a goal late in the game. An official ran into the Canadian player at the American blue line, and the American player who got control of the puck took a shot at the empty net. The shot hit the post, and the Canadians came back to tie and eventually win the game. Imagine if the game had been decided by a play in which an official ran into a player and caused her to cough up the puck. Instead the goal post got a Twitter account.

• Thumbs up fer ya even if I don’t know yer name:

Thumbs up to Don Cherry for his positive comments on how far women’s hockey has come since its early days…but thumbs down for mispronouncing (butchering, actually) the name of goalie Shannon Szabados, one of the stars of the team and certainly of that final game. He got it right the second time, so I guess I should cut Grapes some slack instead of stomping on him.

• Viewership is the opposite of productivity

In the same way that metrics track how many people watch a televised sporting event, wouldn’t it be nice if we could track how unproductive the country was during the Olympics, particularly on the last few workdays when the women’s hockey team played for gold and the men played a semifinal?

Could we measure, for instance, the number of work computers that streamed Olympic events, the number of lunchroom televisions turned on for longer than the lunch hour, or the number of sick days that coincided with a popular event?

• Happy with our team

In my mind, CBC did a great job, with good performances from some veterans and some newcomers. It was odd not to see Brian Williams, but Scott Russell did a solid job, and I do like Ron MacLean. He is a natural storyteller. Anyone who needs a chuckle should check out Steve Armitage’s guest appearance on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. What would the Olympics be without Steve calling a race?

Jennifer Botterill’s commentary in the women’s gold medal hockey final was a pleasant surprise. She was poised, well-spoken and asked good questions, and provided some good insight in the box down at ice-level. I could see Pierre Maguire next to her, providing insight for the American coverage, which provided another pleasant surprise for me – not having to listen to Pierre Maguire.

I know a lot of people like Pierre and he has done well for himself, but I rank others above him for hockey coverage.

• It’s all over

Now that it’s all over, we are all returning to normal, with the NHL resuming, baseball in spring training, football just around the corner. All those reality show fans can go back to hours and hours of The Voice, The Bachelor, Idol, Masterchef…reality shows ad nauseum. Don’t they know that sports coverage is the original reality show?

Send me your thoughts on Twitter @Ardith_S