Javman wrote:
Marty Liquori was far worse than Craig Masback. I rate Masback as a 5. Liquori as an obnoxious 2. Carol Lewis as a -5
Liquori was susceptible to run on sentences, but Masback IMO was worse. He's like the guy you invite to your Super Bowl party that won't stop talking about irrelevant stuff during the game. The worst was the 2016 Olympic 1500 Men's Final, when he spent at least 200 meters of the race talking about one of the runners serving tea. He's always talking about stuff that you don't really care to hear about during the race, and he actually ends up missing important things like runners falling mid-race.
The truth is, the announcing got worse as track got less popular. Google races in the 70's and 80's, and you'll hear the likes of Jim McKay, Al Michaels, Jim Lampley and Charlie Jones. Michaels was especially good during the 1984 Olympics (with OJ Simpson doing color for the sprints!). As for women, Donna De Varona and even Katherine Switzer were very good sideline reporters, and Missy Kane was very good in the booth. They just don't send the best announcers to these events these days.
Side note about Liquori - I think it was in the early 90's during the NYC Mini Marathon (I could have that all wrong), and some kook from the sidelines jumped on the course and started running right on the heals of the leader (can't remember who) to get on TV, and it was really starting to frighten the athlete. Liquori, who was doing the broadcast while riding on the lead vehicle, jumped off the truck and actually semi-tackled the guy on live TV.