Awful Announcing on PRE Broadcast

This is an underrated point. I recently went back and watched el G's mile and 1500 world records. With the huge limitations imposed by '99 and '00 technology, they managed to have the pace of each lap in huge letters in the bottom right of the screen, and the commentator both acknowledged the splits and informed the audience what they meant ("Still on world record pace through two laps, it's very important that they don't let it slip in this crucial 3rd lap" etc).

Meanwhile the NBC broadcast has a tiny little popup for about 2 seconds that you'll miss if you happen to be looking at the runners instead, and the announcers don't really mention it. Imagine if a dedicated graphics team actually put effort into the display! Imagine if they put some effort into the editing! You could have little popups above the lead runners' heads with their names and PRs. You could split-screen the race when the 5k inevitably cuts to the long jump or whatever. You could have a live pace display at every 200m (e.g. they're on pace for 3:25.9 through 600m!!) They always mumble something about what pace the wavelights are set at; you could have a graphic bubble for those as well and what it means (Are the blue lights the world lead? the world record? the Olympic A standard?).

In general in sports, I wish there was more creativity and fun in the broadcast (as well as simply being informative). SNY of the New York Mets is the gold standard in this regard, and it's strange to me that nobody else seems to be following in their footsteps.

So, I actually didn't think this was that bad? Just rewatched the race and I thought Goucher did a solid job with the color commentary.

1. In the first lap she sets up the dynamic between the racing styles of Nuguse and Hocker well.

2. Lap 2, quickly calls out that Hocker is giving Nuguse too much space already. Also gives us a good 8 seconds of context on Wightman.

3. Lap 3, solid context on the Frenchman Habz, who is probably an unknown for most viewers. Let's us know he's the real deal.

Yeah, they got tunnel visioned on Nuguse and missed the move by Laros. But like Gault's article said, that should have been called out by the spotter so Diffey could go to it as things got tight. I don't love this commentary team, but at least they get excited and are competent.

Diffey in particular is just not to my taste. I thought Paul Swangard did a really good job on the Millrose call this year, I wish he got the high profile outdoor stuff.

And of course as to your point 2, Kara was obviously incorrect about Hocker giving up too much ground to Nuguse as Laros had given up even more ground than Hocker and still won the race. I find your defense of them unconvincing, as each time I have watched it, it seems to get worse. Kara and her partner Diffey are unlistenable.

Something was NOT right with that broadcast. I've NEVER been a fan of Kara's TV commentary. When she started covering track with NBC and was horrible, everyone said "Oh, she just needs time, she'll get better". Here we are now a few years later, and she's WORSE! She gets WAY too excited and literally starts hyperventilating when the race gets exciting. She may be a great speaker in person, but NO BUENO on T.V. I'll take Carrie Tollefson any day of the week. Also, NBC never showed the final race results after some of the races. NBC has done better, why was this particular broadcast so bad?

Wow I criticize Dwight Stones and his continuous C- to D work on ESPN and my posts get taken down immediately all the time. But as soon as anyone else gets criticized they get to keep their post up. Can anyone say H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-I-C-A-L. I knew u could Weldon/Robert/Jonathan...

The answer is exceedingly easy. With NBC losing the DL and the two domestic Grand Prixs you went from some reps before Pre to zilch. Diffey was parachuted in, Goucher was lightly prepared (being nice), and the production team was doing a one-off. I don’t get why NBC couldn’t just add a host and roll with the World Feed.

Not a political statement, just reality: if you want to insist that I use “they/them” and you intentionally and obviously do it yourself on a nation/world wide broadcast, how about showing the same respect to actual contenders, and practice pronouncing their names at least halfway articulately… but no, let’s just cash our checks and not really put in the work (the work that the likes of Hutchings, et.al. seem willing to put in).

If that is truly the case then it's even worse. All this "research" and this is the best she can deliver? In that case I would unequivocally say that she's not cut out for being commentator. And that's fine, it's much harder than people think and you don't just qualify for being one simply because you "were a former elite athlete".

Do you really enjoy her commentary? You're not just saying that?

Carrie Tollefson is not a good broadcaster. Too vanilla, predictable and adds nothing to races.

I don't mind Stones or Goucher. Their communication skills aren't perfect or even that polished as announcers, but they both have knowledge of the sport and clearly emote authentic enthusiasm for the sport.

Leigh Diffy just always feels like he is mailing it in terms of knowledge (or more bluntly, often doesn't seem to have a clue about what is going on besides what storyline some producer has handed him)a and his excitement always feels entirely inauthentic and manufactured. He is bad for the sport and I think would bring in less fans. I felt the same about him with his other NBC projects.

“Here is Joe Kovacs, the most decorated shot putter in American history.”
Nevermind the 3-time defending Olympic Champion. 😂

I don't want to think of them together like that :(

burn a hole in my memory PLEASE

Completely agree and Carrie is so ELITIST too like God she is insufferable and I hate iT!

This is 100% false. Give us a link and a timestamp because she has never said any such thing.

I think Kara is fine. Not amazing but competent. Shocker: the misognynists of LRC don't like Kara. Who'd have guessed it?

More generally, as for the final 200, she has talked on her podcast about how she is supposed to be quiet and let the play-by-play guy make the call during that final bit. I guess early on she jumped in and was told not to. Yeah, he's not very good.

Yet many have even on this thread given credit to Hannah England for her work, which is very good. So it must just be anti-American misogyny at play here, dammit.

I don’t know which meet you watched, but none of this jibes with my viewing experience.

Right. Maybe we just don’t want to hear Kara Goucher and Diffey. It doesn’t mean we hate all men and women. I don’t hate them either. They are both probably fine people. Just don’t broadcast track and field.

Why do we always have to go to, "it's because she's a woman, or "it's because of the color of his skin?" If you read this thread, you know that many people think Goucher is not good and Hannah England is great. This has nothing to do with misongyny. It's about wanting to hear a quality broadcast. They get them in Britain, why can't get them here?

you're right, but you'll never win on this site. Needless to say, men who hate women rarely admit that they hate women. Trump is a great example. Cue all the idiots who are now going to say that Kara -- a multi-time Olympian and world championship medalist by the way -- lied about Alberto because she is an attention-seeker or...sh-t, I don't even know what ridiculous things they say were her supposed motivations