During yesterday's broadcast, Lewis Johnson referred to the women's "1500 meter dash." Observations like that, or the Brannen/Lukezic gaffe got me thinking, once again, why can't track in this country have solid articulate announcers like other sports? Living near Detroit, I've been watching the Red Wings in Stanley Cup playoff action. While watching those games, I am continually in awe of how the announcers call contests that are absolute whirlwinds of players, numbers, and all kinds of variables. And the guys call the action--in real time--while seldom stumbling verbally, seemingly making the right call most of the time. The same goes for NBA coverage, where the pace is nearly as frenetic, and variability is still the watchword and the challenge. Ditto for the NFL, NASCAR, and even pool and poker for heaven's sake.
In track events, the variability thing is nearly non-existent. The same group of athletes that toe the line at the start, are going to be (barring drop outs), the same group of athletes who cross it at the finish. For the most part, the action unfolds in a clear, linear way, at less than lighting speed. Is telling the audience what happens in between the start and the finish, in a clear, concise, and compelling fashion really that hard for our professional track and field announcers? Even when all the people in the race are running in the same direction for the entire race? Especially, when the people doing the broadcast are doing it for the fifth or tenth or fifteenth season in a row?
Wouldn't you think they'd have polished their performance techniques by now? Wouldn't you think they'd learned to do their homework before a meet, knowing who was in each race they'd be calling--and maybe memorizing some choice statistical and historical bits, by now? Wouldn't you think they'd learn how to speak properly (as pointed out in other posts in this thread) by now? Well, the answer to all of these questions is 'apparently not.' The best I can say about yesterday's announcing job is, 'at least Carol Lewis wasn't there.'
Although I think the notion of Steve Cram or Steve Ovett or Dave Moorcroft or Don Wittman or Geoff Gowan...doing coverage for American networks sounds great, there ought to be no reason to bring in talent from Canada or the U.K. or anywhere else. We all know articulate, knowledgeable experts who would be great faces for our sports. I've met some of them here in Ann Arbor, people like Ron Warhurst, Bob Kennedy, and Kevin Sullivan. (I even met 'Nate Lukezic' here once. :-) ) Whether or not these folks could, or would want to translate their talents to on-air meet coverage, who knows. But we have tons of people like them in our sport. Dan O'Brien is someone I've seen on television who I thought shows real potential.
Until professional track meets in this country start filling those empty seats we all saw yesterday, perhaps there won't be pressure to hire or develop announcers who are on par with those in other sports. But, we can hope. Maybe Ernie Harwell has a grandchild who's into track? I'll check into it...