New Subject...Discuss.

Doggygirl · Jan 26, 2005

We seem to be wearing out some of our other topics du jour as we anxiously await World's, so I'd like to bring up something new.

I was listening to Eurosport coverage of Europeans yesterday (don't worry - no spoilers). I know the commentators on Eurosport get bashed over there just like we in the states tend to criticize our own line up of commentators. I just find listening to something DIFFERENT to be a refreshing change LOL!!

They were explaining stuff about the COP - most of which has already been discussed at length around here. But they raised a couple of points I thought were interesting. Don't know if I agree or not with these points, but thought they would make for interesting discussion.

They contended that COP:

* Raises interesting possibilities for a more effective World Ranking system of the skaters.

* Raises possibilities for a meaningful World Record notation based on scores - not just number of medals won, etc.

Ideas on how these might actually come into being?

DG

diver chick · Jan 26, 2005

DoggyGirl I am not sure who you get giving the commentary on the audio feed but British Eurosport we have Chris Howarth and Nicky Slater, neither of whom are complained about very much.

I prefer the Chris and Simon partnership myself because they bounce off each other and give some very amusing commentary, helped by the fact that Simon new next to nothing about skating and tended to ask the kind of questions fans would ask and also tended to wear his heart on his sleeve and call it like he saw it with regards to dodgy results/marks or how attractive a skater was.

Nicky is a former ice-dancer and tends to watch things with a dancers eye, a lot of the time his comments revolve around whether a skater was really feeling the music or skating too the music and interpreting it well. He pays attention to the finer details of a program like costumes, and acting things that should be important but to a certain degree seem to be less important outside of ice-dance.

I am not sure about your two particular points but I could see how some sort of ranking system, based on maybe an average of accumulated scores for skaters could be put place with the COP to give a more reflective ranking system.

Chris and Nicky were actually talking today about how this system was supposed to help cut out abuse by judges etc but then went on to state that they felt that Fredric Dambier was grossly over marked in his SP today (I didn't see his skate because the tennis over ran and so they didn't join the skating until the end of the second group). However they did say that with the marks being published and people being allowed to see them, that people could question these things if they felt that something questionable had occured.

Tonichelle · Jan 26, 2005

I hear nothing but good things about the commentators on Eurosport -- at least when people talk about the Brittish(?) commentators... makes me jealous to hear that somewhere there are good ones LOL

Then again I like Canada's commentators too, even Rod, so I guess I just like anyone but ours :laugh:

Doggygirl · Jan 26, 2005

I hope I did not offend you...

diver chick said:
DoggyGirl I am not sure who you get giving the commentary on the audio feed but British Eurosport we have Chris Howarth and Nicky Slater, neither of whom are complained about very much.

I prefer the Chris and Simon partnership myself because they bounce off each other and give some very amusing commentary, helped by the fact that Simon new next to nothing about skating and tended to ask the kind of questions fans would ask and also tended to wear his heart on his sleeve and call it like he saw it with regards to dodgy results/marks or how attractive a skater was.

Nicky is a former ice-dancer and tends to watch things with a dancers eye, a lot of the time his comments revolve around whether a skater was really feeling the music or skating too the music and interpreting it well. He pays attention to the finer details of a program like costumes, and acting things that should be important but to a certain degree seem to be less important outside of ice-dance.

I am not sure about your two particular points but I could see how some sort of ranking system, based on maybe an average of accumulated scores for skaters could be put place with the COP to give a more reflective ranking system.

Chris and Nicky were actually talking today about how this system was supposed to help cut out abuse by judges etc but then went on to state that they felt that Fredric Dambier was grossly over marked in his SP today (I didn't see his skate because the tennis over ran and so they didn't join the skating until the end of the second group). However they did say that with the marks being published and people being allowed to see them, that people could question these things if they felt that something questionable had occured.

We get minimal live audio coverage through Eurosport here in the states, so I'm not familiar with all the various commentators nor their backgrounds. I personally find the commentary for the Europeans VERY enjoyable. I simply noticed a few snarky remarks about the commentary on another board. I have no way of knowing if that's just a few people compaining or what - it's irrelevant to the intent of my post anyway. (shame on me for making this remark - I was just being silly anyway) Negative comments on the commentators are very common with US TV coverage...that doesn't matter either.

I too noticed the comments about perceived under / over scoring, and will be interested to look at the judges detailed scores, especially once we get our small pittance of European's TV coverage here in the states - Feb 7 I believe.

I WISH we could get the kind of live coverage for big US events that Eurosport is giving to European's, and hopefully World's in March. It's exciting to follow the play by play!

DG

New Subject...Discuss.

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