Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Yeah, I know I haven't blogged in a while. But a lot of things happened that I just don't want to talk about. Michael Owen left -- don't want to talk about it. Greece wins the Euro -- don't want to talk about it. Liverpool's stuttering start to the season (sensing a pattern here?) -- don't want to talk about it. But the Olympics ended, and I DO want to talk about that.
I have to say, even though I really don't look forward to the Olympics as much as any footballing event, I really do enjoy it. I mean, come on: I'm a sports fan, insomniac and lover of inane trivia. How can I NOT like the Olympics? How can I NOT like seeing 12 hours plus of sports of virtually every sort on TV every day? How can I NOT like that it provides great TV from midnight to 6am every night (believe me, this is a problem out here)? How can I NOT like knowing all the minutae (favourites, ones to watch, sentimental picks) for all the events and odd facts like British long jumper Jade Johnson's allergy to sand? It's perfect, really.
But the problem for me was that I watched it in Hong Kong. Now, don't get me wrong, everyone knows how much I love Hong Kong. And the late-night timing was perfect for me. But local TV out here just sucks. It's embarassing. With all due respect to TVB, I know they try, but they really don't have the budget or enough people who care to make it work. The team on TVB Pearl (that's the English channel) was decent and tried hard but were simply overmatched by the event. The English commentary on TVB Jade (the Chinese channel) however was abysmal. You had one old commentator (and not old-but-lovable in the Barry Davies/Murray Walker way, but old-but-stupid) who really had no clue. In the swimming events he got the name of the favourite in to his mind and never stopped talking about them, even if they weren't leading. He also had a co-commentator, which surprised us because she rarely spoke but in fairness to her he rarely acknowledged her. She'd go without saying anything for minutes at a time, then butt in and say something, and he'd either repeat it without acknowledgement or ignore it and move on. It's a pity, because she actually seemed to have a clue. During one race (women's 100 metre butterfly I THINK), Inge de Bruijn led for most of the race but was fading fast in the last 20-30 metres while Petria Thomas raced up behind her. The commentator went on and on and on about how Inge de Bruijn was just easing her way to victory, and finally when Thomas pulled level the co-commentator just shouted out "LOOK IT'S PETRIA THOMAS TAKING THE LEAD!". Just ridiculous, and it totally pales in comparison to the BBC's coverage in Sydney.
Aside from piss-poor coverage and a lack of any knowledge whatsoever about what was going on (both on the field and on the TV, since the pictures were coming direct from a broadcaster in Athens and it sounded like they had no control over where they were going next), one other element that I miss is some form of local spirit. HK has our own Olympic team, yeah, but it's tiny and never in contention for anything (barring the silver we won, but let's save that for later). In the UK it was kind of cool to have a local to root for every so often. Not in every single race or event (like Russia or the US), but in enough to really make their participation matter. The nice thing was that the BBC really strikes a nice balance between being fair and showing us what people want to see (rather than focusing on events just because a Brit was in them) and rooting for the home team. It makes for a good story and... I don't know, it gives the Olympics some SOUL to have a grounding with a nation and watch them flourish. And since I'm British by nationality, that works for me.
Unfortunately, I missed most of their triumphs. I caught the second half of Kelly Holmes' gold double and that was a real highlight. Other highlights for me were most of the swimming events (I really prefer them to athletics), especially the 200m freestyle Race of the Century and the Dream Team's loss to Argentina; sadly, the incredible men's 100 metre dash and 4x100 metre relays were not highlights because the latter was never broadcast live and I missed the former by 15 seconds (literally -- I switched on to see Gatlin celebrate seconds after winning).
But the two real highlights for me were the HK's medal and the Greek sprinting scandal. With HK's medal... despite what I said about following the British team, despite my British nationality, I'm not REALLY British. But I am from Hong Kong, and watching us scoop a table tennis silver (holding our own against the mighty mainland Chinese!) for only HK's second ever medal was really, really special. That really meant something to me, and it was great to see. The Greek sprinting scandal though both was amazing and embarassing. The whole affair was just so surreal. I was at work and I saw all the events unfold via the newswires; watching things progress with every updated write, every odd twist and bizarre turn. To summarise events for those not in the know (shame on you), Greece's men's 200m sprint gold medallist from Sydney (the host country's first track champion since 1896!) and women's 100m silver medallist first missed a drugs test the day before the Games. This in itself was huge, since it means an automatic ban for the two brightest stars the host country had to offer. Then it emerged that they were in a motorcycle accident. Then they were in hospital. Then they were summoned to a hearing, hospital or not. Then after days of to-ing and fro-ing they finally quit the Games before they were thrown out. It was just so damned surreal, especially when you're getting live snatches on the wires. Motorcycle accident? What? Hospital? What? Only minor injuries? Faked accident? History of missed tests? It just went on and on. Amazing.
Oh, one last thing: I have to take issue with the opening and closing ceremonies. I know Greece is full of history, I know it was well constructed and put together, but man, save me from the WE CREATED CIVILISATION nonsense. One thing I kind of liked about the Sydney ones was just how stupid they were (Greg Norman, Elle MacPhearson, etc). It was like the Aussies came out and outright admitted: We have no culture or history, so let's celebrate the little things we DO have. They sent themselves up for the sake of a good party, and I thought that was rather cool and very different.
Posted at 6:35 AM
