Team GB Debrief

[Nickyc707 382]

  On 8/16/2024 at 12:11 PM, Timezone said:

Lived in Australia for 20 plus years baseball is minor sport. Rugby league is a cult in Queensland. There is b as basketball and 3x3 basketball, judo and taekwondo, volleyball and beach volleyball so don't think that be issue. Flag football and lacrosse baseball softball will be going in all likelihood. 

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We'll see but I'll be genuinely surprised if you're right. Personally I won't miss them and I'd be happy to see T20 embed itself as the bat and ball sport at the OG.

[Nickyc707 382]

  On 8/16/2024 at 10:52 AM, Rafa Maciel said:

As I understand it, all of the world rowing events will continue to be the full 2,000m distance throughout the Olympic cycle so there will be limited competitive opportunities to hone a new race strategy. That being said, I don't think GB will change their approach too much - they typically try to go hard from 500-1500 but I do think we'll probably see a lot of close races and some surprise podiums come LA'28. 

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It does seem a little crazy that they're asking crews to qualify for the Olympics over 2000m only to reduce it to 1500m when they get to LA. 

 

The other interesting thing in the next cycle will be the mixed double sculls event if approved by the IOC. I guess it's designed to pander to them and would potentially give rowing a 15th medal event together with the twelve traditional open weight and two new beach rowing events.

[Timezone 27]

  On 8/16/2024 at 12:26 PM, Nickyc707 said:

We'll see but I'll be genuinely surprised if you're right. Personally I won't miss them and I'd be happy to see T20 embed itself as the bat and ball sport at the OG.

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Can't see lacrosse or flag football in Brisbane. 

Think soccer needs to be removed on men's side only sport where best athletes don't compete. 

[Mkbw50 438]

I felt like writing a thing or two about the non-sports side:

 

The kits felt like a downgrade on Tokyo by a big stretch. The Tokyo ones had plenty of red, white, and blue and I liked the flag theme. I also liked the big GB on Rio 2016 though. These were just one solid colour and in equal parts classy and boring.

 

The television coverage was... pretty okay. On the BBC side, it started with JJ Chalmers and Jeanette Kwakye who was added since Tokyo 2020. I thought Chalmers was better on his own for the early shift and the two didn't have chemistry. When they were together, I liked Kwakye more, although I'm not sure they had the same enthusiasm as the others. Hazel Irvine remains an absolute star and she took the afternoon slot, her sports knowledge is ridiculous. Clare Balding took the evening slot. Athletics had its own designated team presented by Gabby Logan, with Jessica Ennis-Hill, Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis. Johnson and Logan could have been there on their own without anyone missing the other two to be honest. I also think they really dropped the ball with the field events. A lot more should have been shown live. Balding I think captured the excitement average people would have for the Olympics pretty well, and I really liked Mark Foster and Becky Adlington on swimming. Other important analysts included Chris Hoy and Laura Kenny for cycling, as well as Matthew Pinsent for Rowing, and I liked Hoy especially. There was also a red button stream which I think got things pretty correct, it was rare that a GB medal chance or big event wasn't being shown on at least one of them. The commentary was generally quite good whenever they had a BBC one and not a world feed one, with Steve Cram, Andrew Cotter, Adrian Moorhouse, Simon Brotherton and others. A big loss from Tokyo 2020 was Lutalo Muhammad who I thought was very good. Isa Guha and Mark Chapman did the highlights show and from what I recall they were quite good although I hardly watched it. The ceremonies were presented by Balding with Irvine and Cotter doing a good job on commentary.

 

Eurosport also was pretty good although I watched far less of their studio stuff, which they barely did, a big loss in my book because it ties the Olympics together instead of just being a collection of sports. They did have a show, Bonsoir Paris, presented by Laura Woods which I saw a bit of but I was mostly Olympicsed out by then. However, their unfussy way of picking whatever sport you wanted was still good, especially with the BBC's defiencies on certain sports, especially athletics field events.

 

 

[Olympicsnell 300]

  On 8/16/2024 at 4:15 PM, Mkbw50 said:

I felt like writing a thing or two about the non-sports side:

 

The kits felt like a downgrade on Tokyo by a big stretch. The Tokyo ones had plenty of red, white, and blue and I liked the flag theme. I also liked the big GB on Rio 2016 though. These were just one solid colour and in equal parts classy and boring.

 

The television coverage was... pretty okay. On the BBC side, it started with JJ Chalmers and Jeanette Kwakye who was added since Tokyo 2020. I thought Chalmers was better on his own for the early shift and the two didn't have chemistry. When they were together, I liked Kwakye more, although I'm not sure they had the same enthusiasm as the others. Hazel Irvine remains an absolute star and she took the afternoon slot, her sports knowledge is ridiculous. Clare Balding took the evening slot. Athletics had its own designated team presented by Gabby Logan, with Jessica Ennis-Hill, Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis. Johnson and Logan could have been there on their own without anyone missing the other two to be honest. I also think they really dropped the ball with the field events. A lot more should have been shown live. Balding I think captured the excitement average people would have for the Olympics pretty well, and I really liked Mark Foster and Becky Adlington on swimming. Other important analysts included Chris Hoy and Laura Kenny for cycling, as well as Matthew Pinsent for Rowing, and I liked Hoy especially. There was also a red button stream which I think got things pretty correct, it was rare that a GB medal chance or big event wasn't being shown on at least one of them. The commentary was generally quite good whenever they had a BBC one and not a world feed one, with Steve Cram, Andrew Cotter, Adrian Moorhouse, Simon Brotherton and others. A big loss from Tokyo 2020 was Lutalo Muhammad who I thought was very good. Isa Guha and Mark Chapman did the highlights show and from what I recall they were quite good although I hardly watched it. The ceremonies were presented by Balding with Irvine and Cotter doing a good job on commentary.

 

Eurosport also was pretty good although I watched far less of their studio stuff, which they barely did, a big loss in my book because it ties the Olympics together instead of just being a collection of sports. They did have a show, Bonsoir Paris, presented by Laura Woods which I saw a bit of but I was mostly Olympicsed out by then. However, their unfussy way of picking whatever sport you wanted was still good, especially with the BBC's defiencies on certain sports, especially athletics field events.

 

 

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Things i will add, 

Discovery also has bonjour paris in the morning, presented by Orla which was great for setting the day up. 

The few times i watched bbc the swapping channels was dreadful, mens triathlon for example swapping from red button to BBC1 on THE LAST LAP. 

I bearly watched BBC, the only occasions i did is when i KNEW they would be showing a live event (keely, triathlon) or because they had a commentary team i enjoyed. I would have watched a lot more athletics and swimming on BBC but there were occasions i knew there was an event on and we had to sit through an interview with adam peatys pet cat. 

The one thing i feel i missed out on with discovery is, as you said, a studio feel that gelled the show together, i do occasionally like skit's about the athletes village for example.
 

The other bad thing with discovery was the distinct lack of charlton kirby covering the cycling 

[G-ann 113]

  On 8/16/2024 at 5:59 PM, Olympicsnell said:

Things i will add, 

Discovery also has bonjour paris in the morning, presented by Orla which was great for setting the day up. 

The few times i watched bbc the swapping channels was dreadful, mens triathlon for example swapping from red button to BBC1 on THE LAST LAP. 

I bearly watched BBC, the only occasions i did is when i KNEW they would be showing a live event (keely, triathlon) or because they had a commentary team i enjoyed. I would have watched a lot more athletics and swimming on BBC but there were occasions i knew there was an event on and we had to sit through an interview with adam peatys pet cat. 

The one thing i feel i missed out on with discovery is, as you said, a studio feel that gelled the show together, i do occasionally like skit's about the athletes village for example.
 

The other bad thing with discovery was the distinct lack of charlton kirby covering the cycling 

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Please share the interview with the pet cat. I need this. 
 

I was mostly frustrated by BBCs delayed showing of the hockey, and became reliant on Eurosport. The first GB women’s match was 15 minutes behind on the BBC and it was infuriating. It just doesn’t work for a live match! 

[G-ann 113]

Kit wise. Ban Ben Sherman from ever having input on anything. Conceptually I got it. But my gosh did the closing ceremony shirts look so painfully tacky and dated. 
 

Would have been better with an off white background instead of navy to show the design. 

[TeamGB 187]

  On 8/16/2024 at 4:15 PM, Mkbw50 said:

I felt like writing a thing or two about the non-sports side:

 

The kits felt like a downgrade on Tokyo by a big stretch. The Tokyo ones had plenty of red, white, and blue and I liked the flag theme. I also liked the big GB on Rio 2016 though. These were just one solid colour and in equal parts classy and boring.

 

The television coverage was... pretty okay. On the BBC side, it started with JJ Chalmers and Jeanette Kwakye who was added since Tokyo 2020. I thought Chalmers was better on his own for the early shift and the two didn't have chemistry. When they were together, I liked Kwakye more, although I'm not sure they had the same enthusiasm as the others. Hazel Irvine remains an absolute star and she took the afternoon slot, her sports knowledge is ridiculous. Clare Balding took the evening slot. Athletics had its own designated team presented by Gabby Logan, with Jessica Ennis-Hill, Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis. Johnson and Logan could have been there on their own without anyone missing the other two to be honest. I also think they really dropped the ball with the field events. A lot more should have been shown live. Balding I think captured the excitement average people would have for the Olympics pretty well, and I really liked Mark Foster and Becky Adlington on swimming. Other important analysts included Chris Hoy and Laura Kenny for cycling, as well as Matthew Pinsent for Rowing, and I liked Hoy especially. There was also a red button stream which I think got things pretty correct, it was rare that a GB medal chance or big event wasn't being shown on at least one of them. The commentary was generally quite good whenever they had a BBC one and not a world feed one, with Steve Cram, Andrew Cotter, Adrian Moorhouse, Simon Brotherton and others. A big loss from Tokyo 2020 was Lutalo Muhammad who I thought was very good. Isa Guha and Mark Chapman did the highlights show and from what I recall they were quite good although I hardly watched it. The ceremonies were presented by Balding with Irvine and Cotter doing a good job on commentary.

 

Eurosport also was pretty good although I watched far less of their studio stuff, which they barely did, a big loss in my book because it ties the Olympics together instead of just being a collection of sports. They did have a show, Bonsoir Paris, presented by Laura Woods which I saw a bit of but I was mostly Olympicsed out by then. However, their unfussy way of picking whatever sport you wanted was still good, especially with the BBC's defiencies on certain sports, especially athletics field events.

 

 

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I actually quite liked the competition kit, to me it felt similar to Rio’s and quite classy. The podium kits however, enough said. They were pretty poor.

 

In terms of coverage I tried to watch on BBC where possible so as to avoid adverts. When both athletics and swimming were on concurrently I enjoyed watching the BBC coverage and just letting them take me through all the events whilst I was having dinner, which was much more relaxing than flicking around channels.

 

My favourite athlete commentator was definately Jasmine Sawyers, whilst my least favourite has to be James Cracknell, who singlehandledly, and quite ironically, summed up a lot of the problems UK rowing faces.

[Mkbw50 438]

  On 8/16/2024 at 8:51 PM, G-ann said:

Please share the interview with the pet cat. I need this. 
 

I was mostly frustrated by BBCs delayed showing of the hockey, and became reliant on Eurosport. The first GB women’s match was 15 minutes behind on the BBC and it was infuriating. It just doesn’t work for a live match! 

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I guess they are thinking most people will not be like us, nerds to one sport in particular or turbo nerds with spreadsheets and results systems

 

In that way, I preferred them as a 'general audience' viewing but even my friend who is more normal than me (!) but is an athletics fan was getting very annoyed

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 8/16/2024 at 8:51 PM, G-ann said:

Please share the interview with the pet cat. I need this. 
 

I was mostly frustrated by BBCs delayed showing of the hockey, and became reliant on Eurosport. The first GB women’s match was 15 minutes behind on the BBC and it was infuriating. It just doesn’t work for a live match! 

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Some events were much easier to listen to on BBC, for all their faults. Some were better on RTÉ! And some were better on Eurosport. While ina  few, the Radio nearly was better than the telly.

 

In athletics, I like Cotter, Crammy and Jasmin, and Backley is pretty good too - I think Sawyers understanding of the Jumps is a real help to him, and I'd be disappointed if this doesn't end up her career after track is done - she has the knack. Merry on the radio is absolutely excellent.

 

In swimming, I preferred the two Andy's just. Triathlon, despite the screw ups is BBCall day long.

 

Diving is about 50/50 - Leon really brings great emotion and he clearly knows the sport, but the overall info is better on ES

 

Equestrian, much preferred ES, as I did with Canoe and rowing, Climbing and, oddly, Golf. BBC better for tennis.

 

Both BBC and ES are excellent on cycling, either was great.

 

All in all, Discovery+/Eurosport was a bargain, all things considered - obviously 2012 style BBC saturation fo free is better, but there are much worse propositions than D+