During my Aug. 23 browsing of the Daily Bruin, I came across a column in the sports section, “Olympic voices should focus on positive to keep viewers,” by Sonya Palathumpat. The author did acknowledge that she is not a true Olympics fan, yet she apparently believes she has the ability to criticize expert commentary on the Olympics.
Unlike Palathumpat, I must admit that I am a die-hard Olympics fan. Palathumpat took strong exception to phrases such as “clobbered” and “dream-killing 9.137,” which were used by the NBC commentators to describe the disastrous start by Paul Hamm in the all-around gymnastics final. Any gymnastics follower or Olympics fan would know that given the intensity of competition, stress and demand for perfection that constitutes an Olympics final, the result of the first routine executed by Hamm on the pommel horse was nothing short of a disaster. Hamm himself has said in post-competition comments that after that first routine, he expected at the most to win a bronze if he performed to the best of his abilities in subsequent routines.
Palathumpat claims that what irked her was that the commentators’ candid analysis of Hamm’s initial performance amounted to a negative portrayal of American Olympians. It prompted her to switch channels and inadvertently venture into the Telemundo broadcast, which she found to be a relief. She said that she had little incentive to watch the rest of the all-round gymnastics competition because the commentators had written off Hamm as a probable medalist. While someone not opting to watch the proceedings after a setback to one’s favorite sports person is perfectly normal, it is annoying when that someone wrongly attributes her lack of interest to the quality of the commentary.
The purpose of good commentary is not to provide fans with false hopes of victory, but to be able to convey accurately the tension and emotions being felt by the participants and spectators at that moment. Could you imagine the viewer disgust and disappointment that would be evoked if an expert commentator paints a picture of buoyant optimism when the darling of the crowd is actually doomed to lose? While successes are to be lauded in due measure, failures must be strongly pointed out. If the purpose of watching the Olympics is just to get one’s daily dose of feel good-ness, then watching “Friends” reruns might be a better choice.
Das is an urban planning graduate student.