I desperately wish to know the commentating styles of Russian broadcasters. From youtube videos they often appear to be talking a lot and I wonder what they are saying.
The Russian commentators are really horrible. When I read complains about Scott & Sara, I always think - oh, you should watch Russian broadcasts!
I'll try to be brief.
1. Soooooo biased, soooo pro-Russian - just no matter what a Russian skater skates!
Also, they love Johnny Weir.
2. The only figure skating elements that manage to win Russian commentators' attention are quad and sometimes trixel in mens competitions, and triple-triple combination - in ladies. The rest seems to be a blur for the commentators. Quad talks after each male skater performance are actually quite annoying. The best example of this is a commentary of Weir's FS at 2006 Olys. During his performance the commentators were dead silent, and after Weir finished, the first thing they talked about was quad as if the absence of it was OBVIOUSLY the biggest and only problem of that skate.
And of course they NEVER talk about choreography, transitions, edges or artistry. It seems to me that they don't even understand what they are and WHY they are in figure skating at all.
3. They comment not as judges, but as fans, as audience. Again - Olys 2006, Irina's FS. "Go Ira go!!! Oh, oh, triple lutz - yes!!!! Everything is going just fine, go Ira go!!!!! Oh, oh, triple flip - YES!! Ira we are here with you" and so on. When the marks came - "Oh, behind Sacha, that's RIDICULOUS!!!" and other crap like that.
4. A lot of chip-chat that has no connection whatsoever with what's going on on the ice.
5. They are lazy to check information about skaters, competitions, titles and so on.
6. They still think 6.0 even when they show their knowledge of the most recent rules. Again - they just do not pay attention to spins, transitions, choreography... They just don't understand IJS.
7. Tatiana Tarasova is a mess as a commentator. She's looking at skaters from the inside, so to speak, as a coach, not from the outside as a judge or commentator. Also she is slow-talking and highly uninformative.
I like Irina Rodnina. She gives the less biased and most knowledgeable comments.
(I myself am a native Russian speaker, but I'm from Ukraine actually. The Ukrainian commentators are slightly better btw. Usually we have a pair of commentators, a former skater and a judge. They give good comments, especially judges, and unbiased, since we hardly have any figure skating in Ukraine to be biased about. But usually we have only Russian broadcasts, especially during GP)