[OFF TOPIC] Sports Commentators

[dcro 10,210]

A thread for everybody's favorite pastime - dishing commentators.

You can praise them too.

[heywoodu 16,279]

I like ex-biathlete Herbert Cool, working for Dutch Eurosport  He started as biathlon commentator, then became the 'face' of Eurosport during the Pyeongchang Olympics (hosting a talk show and stuff like that) which he also did very good and now sometimes he also takes over for stuff like cross-country when the main XC commentator is unavailable (for example because he's doing athletics commentary  ).

 

Internationally speaking I very much like the Martin Haven/John Morgan bobsleigh and skeleton duo, I find them a delightful and very friendly duo to listen to. I like oldie Tim Singer (FIL/luge) as well, also because he often seems to be doing his best to have some new athletes join him in the commentary booth (like Veronica Ravenna of Argentina/Canada this season). 

[heywoodu 16,279]

I don't know the current Universiade/FISU TV commentators but all of them seem to barely ever watch the sports they're commentating on. Stuff like shouting athlete X is 'going for gold!' when setting the fastest time in a biathlon sprint, even when there's someone else 20 seconds faster (and with a miss more) after two shootings or something like that.

[heywoodu 16,279]

@thiago_simoes @vinipereira @titicow Have you ever happened to watch biathlon on SporTV with a commentator named Aldo something? I have not, but I've heard it is excruciatingly bad and I'm curious how people look at it who are maybe a bit less familiar with biathlon  (my apologies if my assumption is wrong and you are in fact rather familiar with it as well  )

[dcro 10,210]

42 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

I don't know the current Universiade/FISU TV commentators but all of them seem to barely ever watch the sports they're commentating on. Stuff like shouting athlete X is 'going for gold!' when setting the fastest time in a biathlon sprint, even when there's someone else 20 seconds faster (and with a miss more) after two shootings or something like that.

 

Figure skating commentator is quite different. I randomly tuned in for a competition, but stayed watching longer than planned mostly because of her.

 

Extremely impersonal/indifferent, but also very knowledgeable. No sugar coating and cheering, just telling like it is. It was a nice change of pace from the usual knowledgeable hypers or indifferent scoreboard readers.

[heywoodu 16,279]

Just now, dcro said:

 

Figure skating commentator is quite different. I randomly tuned in for a competition, but stayed watching longer than planned mostly because of her.

 

Extremely impersonal/indifferent, but also very knowledgeable. No sugar coating and cheering, just telling like it is. It was a nice change of pace from the usual knowledgeable hypers or indifferent scoreboard readers.

"He's 2,73 seconds behind at the split so he'll have to give it his all to get into those podium positions!" in the alpine skiing. That kind of thing just tickles my nerves wrong.

[Gianlu33 5,547]

I really like Massimiliano Ambesi, from Eurosport, he is an expert of all winter sport, he is just amazing.

Maybe some Italians will kill me but I like Franco Bragagna too, an athletics and cross-country commentator. He doesn't focus only about sport but he reach to spoke of a lot of different topic, very useful in a 50km race walk 

[heywoodu 16,279]

Just now, Gianlu33 said:

I really like Massimiliano Ambesi, from Eurosport, he is an expert of all winter sport, he is just amazing.

Maybe some Italians will kill me but I like Franco Bragagna too, an athletics and cross-country commentator. He doesn't focus only about sport but he reach to spoke of a lot of different topic, very useful in a 50km race walk 

You have a commentator who mixes athletics and cross-country too?  We too! Ivo van Haaren is his name.

[Wumo 3,035]

Just now, heywoodu said:

What, Andreas Küttel speaks Danish?  

He studies a ph.d in sport science at a university in Denmark. His Polish wife is a doctor in Denmark so he moved here.

[Wumo 3,035]

I like Eurosport's Danish commentator in Ski Jumping and Nordic combined. He has a bachelor in Math, so you always get a whole math lesson about ski jumping, which oddly enough is quite satisfying. 

Though this season he has had some blackouts during the cross-country skiing in nordic combined. "And here comes Kupczak from behind!" First, Kupczak overtaking someone in xc-skiing is not possible. Secondly, it was was Hirvonen who was coming from behind.  On the positve side, he can actually pronounce Polish names and places correctly. 

 

I do miss having Andreas Küttel as co-commentator. He was it during the 2017 WCH, and it was nice to hear so many stories about Simon Ammann. His Danish was not that bad.

 

Edited March 8, 2019 by wumo26