Canadian Rowing on the BBC
This morning I woke up early (7 am!) and watched rowing finals on the BBC. The big event this morning was the Men’s Coxless Four final, which pitted Olympic champion Great Britain against Canada. Long story short, Canada got the silver, losing to Great Britain by 0.08 seconds. Ouch. But that’s okay, I don’t mind: Britain had a solid boat, and both teams had a good race. If it had been a 2,001 metre race, Canada would have won; but the hypothetical is irrelevant: it was a 2,000 metre race. Good on ya, GB!
Rather, the part that annoyed me was having to put up with the British propaganda. Okay, I know I’m watching it on the BBC, in England, so there’s bound to be a bit of cheering for the home team. However, I had to watch 30 minutes of commentators musing about the greatness of the team, interviews with the families of the athletes, and a high school graduation-style “dedication” video to one of the rowers from his former teammate. The interviews with the athletes themselves were fine; one of them, who won a silver in 2000 by a close margin, said that no one “deserves” anything in an Olympics – the winner is the winner, and that’s all: an enlightened perspective. Of course, 15 seconds later a BBC commentator babbles on about how this guy “deserves” a gold medal this time around. Grrr. And to top it off, after the race is done, a BBC commentator goes on to talk about how Great Britain “dominated” the last 300 metres. Apparently he was watching a different race than I was, because I saw Canada come back from about 2 metres behind to within 0.08 seconds of gold. Of course, if I was a Briton watching the Games on CBC and the situation was reversed, I’m sure I’d feel as if CBC was expounding with bias. But I’m a Canadian in England, darn it: go Canada!
As for me… mumble mumble… thesis almost done… printing it out Monday… folks arriving in a week… home stretch… nothing exciting happening… Oxford is quiet…
Comment by kirk
Sounds like the BBC is a bit like the Americans with their Olympic coverage.
To roughly quote a Calgarian newscaster/comedian who is originally from the US “I watched Olympics on the CBC for the first time. I didn’t know there were other teams besides the Americans in the Olympics!”
Comment by Andrew
Perhaps that race captures the spirit behind a graduate degree – no one deserves one, the degree holder is the degree holder and that’s all.
Or is that too cynical? I suppose it is a reaction to excessive Brian Williams exposure. That guy encapsulates the essence of being 0.08 seconds behind. Maybe if CBC didn’t hide him away until an Olympiad rolled around he wouldn’t come off as so… off.
Cheerio.
Comment by Carlo
The English do have a massively inflated opinion about themselves and anything English in general. Just look at the hysteria around Euro2004…
Comment by Patrick
Well bekham at least. Bloody poofter!
Cheers,
P
