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Olympic Commentary

By jeni | August 14, 2008

Can I just tell you all how much I love the Olympics? I love them so much. Enough to spend my days sitting on the couch watching TV instead of getting outside and actually doing some activity. I’m sure you can see lots and lots of articles about how sad it is that so many people will sit on their butts and watch amazing athletic feats instead of getting outside and trying some of them. But I’m also sure you can find an equal number of articles on how many people are inspired by the Olympics to get out there and finally take that handball lesson (okay maybe not handball) and grab life by the horns. Wait isn’t that the Dodge tagline? 

Moving on. The Olympics are teh awesome. And if you dispute that then you are lame. 

So in Singapore, I don’t get to see the fun NBC commentary that all of you Americans are enjoying, with lots of back stories and interesting facts about all of the Olympians. But luckily I have this thing called the Internet so it’s okay, if I want to see those stories I can find them. 

The Olympic coverage here in Singapore is pulled from an Australian feed from what I can surmise, as all of the commentators I’ve heard up to this point have been Australian or Kiwis (New Zealanders for those who haven’t heard that term). I love the Australian commentators. They are so ridiculously entertaining, partly just because they use lots of fun terms that I don’t know, and partly because they are just so candid and excited about their respective sports. As in the US, it’s usually veterans of the sports that are commenting. So, just to give you an idea of the fun I’ve enjoyed watching these Olympics so far, here are some of the things I’ve the commentators say. 

During women’s synchronized diving: 

“The Americans are suffering from a disease called tanorexia.”

(In the commentators defense, this was completely true. It was just funny to hear this formal Australian announcer use the word tanorexia.)

During men’s swimming: 

“Well as we’ve mentioned, Michael Phelps is truly from another plant.” 

Ummm, I think you meant planet right? Yeah, I think everyone pretty much thinks this. That man is a machine. 

While the camera zooms in on the US gymnast’s picking glitter off of each other’s faces:

“They’re so keen on fashion aren’t they in the USA?”

I pretty much died laughing when I heard that. Why yes we are. I know glitter was big when I was 17. 

 “She’s got a lot of power doesn’t she, for a wo……. (stammers to a stop) for having such a slight body.”

This guy realized he was about to make a negative comment about a French female swimmer and probably get his arse kicked by his fellow female commentator, so he switched it right away. Good on ya buddy! 

 “Yang Wei looks as if he’s about to take a nap before his last apparatus.” 

Well, I would too if I knew I had the gold in the bag for the men’s all around competition. Nice work Yang Wei. 

“Lift! Lift! Come on you can do it! 

I just love how much they want anyone to win, regardless of where they’re from. This was said about Korean gymnast. 

Now maybe I’ve pulled out some of the bad things they’ve said, but truly I love the Australian commentators. I think they are great and I’m just glad I get to see the Olympics from a different, non US-centric perspective. Of course I’m bummed that I don’t always get to see all of the US athletes perform, especially in gymnastics, which I just love, but I do get to see some of it so that’s okay. 

P.S. Regarding men’s gymnastics, how can you not love a man in stirrup pants? 

Topics: australia, olympics, tv | 1 Comment »

One Response to “Olympic Commentary”

  1. merlin Says:
    August 15th, 2008 at 1:09 am

    John, we are sending you some stirrup pants! Good luck!

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