Allie O speaks out against ESPN's commentating

utbcw wrote:

Back in the day, sportswriters like Curry Kirkpatrick would have would have won awards for coming up with the “looks like she just finished playing with barbies” joke. Nowadays, however, political correctness on campus has deemed such jokes creepy and offensive. As a result, comedians like Chris Rock do not perform on college campuses.

At a professional sporting event, fans freely comment on athletes appearance, about their mothers, etc., but at a college or high school sporting event they would be thrown out for doing so. Ostrander is correct that announcers at the NCAA should be held to campus political correctness standards, both because announcers should be held to higher standards than fans, and also because politically incorrect “fan speak” is not allowed on college campuses.

I would love to hear Chris Rock riff on Allie Ostrander.

You would like to hear a comedian joke about her- I would rather watch her race, hear about her training and overcoming injuries, and hear about her experience and views of the sporting culture. I don’t care about political correctness- but if you respect young women and their accomplishments- and have an open mind to learn from their experience (which are different than mine)- then the appearance fascination is irrelevant. So we are interested in different things. It’s about what sports mean, what you can learn, and the value of competition and athletes (inspiring people is part of it). Appearance is far down the list, I hope.

Your statement is so full of contradictions I’m not sure where to start.

Let’s start with appreciating accomplishments and getting inspiration from watching successful athletes.

I get inspired by watching Allie Ostrander run and win, especially because she looks young and small compared to the other runners. Her appearance is neither irrelevant nor far down the list, its a major factor in why she is so inspiring.

I like that, in addition to her athletic prowess, she is intelligent and witty, as shown by her joking about her own appearance and sexual attractiveness after her race. (Not quite up to Chris Rock’s standards, but she’s a runner, not a professional comedian.)

Enjoying humor about or by an athlete does not mean disrespecting her accomplishments. If you ever read any award winning sports reporting you would have seen plenty of colorful, probably politically incorrect, sometimes humorous remarks like “playing with Barbies” which were all written with the attempt of trying to better communicate the writer’s opinion of just how outstanding and noteworthy the athlete in question’s accomplishments actually were.

We can expect announcers of high school and college track meets to adhere to political correctness and not indulge in “fan speak” or humor. But fans who aren’t politically correct can get a great deal of inspiration, as well as enjoyment, by watching the performance of, noticing the appearance of, and relating humor both from and about, those athletes, (as long as they don’t have to sit with people like you while they watch.)

Hobby Yogging wrote:

Allie O posted on Instagram a mini "rant" about ESPN's commentators making statements about her appearance for the past two years. She makes a good point on unnecessary commentary on appearance, something some posters here love to do.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByrTibPg17k/?igshid=11ni45111w1xw

I'm sorry. Isn't this the same woman who made a comment about her own looks after winning the SC recebtly? Granted she might have been suffering from heatstroke at the time but if I remember she said "I consider myself pretty low in that [i.e. the looks] department," totally unprompted.

I stood up for her at the time, but woman sounds like she cares way too much about what other people think and say. Sure, I'm down for everyone stopping talking about her looks but everyone means she has to not talk about it, too.

1) So do we even know what Mike Jay said?

2) Who was the other in-stadium announcer? He was awful. Mike Jay is very good but everyone can make a mistake but I"d like to read what he actually said.

She was just clarifying her comment about being 'so hot right now'.

Just making sure (probably for the benefit of letsrun dorks, to be fair) that nobody thought she was being conceited about her appearance - because it's the kinda thing some of you people would jump on in a second. As it happened, you did anyway, so congrats.

She'll appreciate looking young 20 years from now.

"It's talked about more in those sports because each position has "standards" for height and weight"

Y'all runners might not realize it, but there are clear body types for mid long distance.

Sounds like she's on the smaller size, and sounds like ESPN is being sexist, but they're trying to make running interesting to watch for the non running crowd.

I think her response is good content for her Instagram. People follow people whose opinions they agree with and when posts proceed to preach to the choir, the followers eat it up.

But it is not an effective way to change coverage of the sport. ESPN is not going to evolve. If hardcore fans want good coverage and the athletes themselves want to be covered well, then it will come from a grassroots movement. A small production team who knows the sport and knows the craft needs to use free streaming platforms like Twitch or YouTube and they need to convince events to let them do the coverage. Work their way up from smaller events to bigger events.

When Ostrander is 60 and could still pass for 30 with that face and those legs, she'll get the last laugh.

Hobby Yogging wrote:

no mo baby face wrote:

She has a point, but the commentators are just saying what everyone is thinking at home. Anyone tuning in who doesn't follow the sport is going to notice and wonder why this middle school looking athlete is running in the NCAAs (and crushing everyone).

Maybe not a fair comparison, but height and weight are regularly talked about when commenting NBA and NFL games.

It's talked about more in those sports because each position has "standards" for height and weight.

Yes, and, in football knowing that the guy smashing the QB into the ground weighs 325 and is 6'3 puts it in perspective.

The only time it "helps" in running is when someone towers over the other runners and they want to point out that so and so is 5'9, the rest of the field is 5' to 5'4.

He is pretty fast for 300+ LBS.

That's what they said about William the refrigerator Perry.

Did he whine about them pointing out his weight?

Too sensitive these days.

ck3237 wrote:

She'll appreciate looking young 20 years from now.

not relevant to the current discussion

Ineffective response wrote:

I think her response is good content for her Instagram. People follow people whose opinions they agree with and when posts proceed to preach to the choir, the followers eat it up.

But it is not an effective way to change coverage of the sport. ESPN is not going to evolve. If hardcore fans want good coverage and the athletes themselves want to be covered well, then it will come from a grassroots movement. A small production team who knows the sport and knows the craft needs to use free streaming platforms like Twitch or YouTube and they need to convince events to let them do the coverage. Work their way up from smaller events to bigger events.

ESPN is owned by Disney and they are absolutely HATING the bad press this has given them. So I guarantee it will change how they cover. But, no they will not suddenly become good at announcing track, you're right about that.

Don't you think it's reasonable to hold paid, professional commentators to higher standards than anonymous message-board posters? If they're just "saying what everyone is thinking," as someone else put it, I'd argue they're not doing their job very well.

Twig Mzungu wrote:

Don't you think it's reasonable to hold paid, professional commentators to higher standards than anonymous message-board posters? If they're just "saying what everyone is thinking," as someone else put it, I'd argue they're not doing their job very well.

truth ^

Hobby jogging wrote:

Hobby Yogging wrote:

It's talked about more in those sports because each position has "standards" for height and weight.

It's talked about because your height and weight affects how you play.

i

I recall, some years back, that Carol Lewis observed that a white guy on the track didn't "look like your prototypical sprinter".. did she get fired for that? is that racist?

carol lewis' ghost wrote:

Hobby jogging wrote:

It's talked about because your height and weight affects how you play.

i

I recall, some years back, that Carol Lewis observed that a white guy on the track didn't "look like your prototypical sprinter".. did she get fired for that? is that racist?

A) Nobody is getting fired over this, so you can calm down with your wanna be reverse racism claim. Pathetic.

B) Carol Lewis was a very not a good announcer, and she stuck her foot in her mouth many times per session. Although she did announce NCAA outdoors for several years, she is no longer doing that. So there you have it.

C) Do not recall that statement, but would have to see the context. But really, see A and B.

0/10 and back to mom's basement for you

rojo wrote:

1) So do we even know what Mike Jay said?

2) Who was the other in-stadium announcer? He was awful. Mike Jay is very good but everyone can make a mistake but I"d like to read what he actually said.

mr journalist. maybe you should look into this.

Anyone else immediately mute the coverage as soon as you see Jill Montgomery or Dwight Stones are the commentators? Seriously. Terrible.