Jean-Luc has a close personal relationship with one of the contestants. It's hard (impossible?) to find a commentator who doesn't have ties to some of the participating skaters. But seeming bias towards some skaters is better than a strong bias against.
Thank you for saying this in a respectful way and for acknowledging from the start that correcting the record was not intended to divert.
I think someone said the Jean-Luc was going to be doing the Eurosport commentary, as Gabby had been given the NBC contract? If so, it might be tricky for him to get out of the Eurosport contract to switch to NBC, and doing so could affect future contracts.
Tiffany Zahorski is doing commentary for Eurosport, possibly for France. It would be so incredibly good if Jean-Luc did their English language commentary. He is an asset any network should fight for!
Jean Luc Baker would be excellent.
This is a very good point that I wish those getting outraged on the internet would consider. I find the fact that she wanted to push ahead with it despite those issues slightly worrying. And realistically it sounds like she's not capable of doing the job properly right now.
I think it’s a crummy thing to do.NBC quietly did this stating when asked that it was done due to her dispute with Cizeron, as well as her new book.
Thoughts?
Ice dance champ Papadakis says she lost Olympic commentary role for NBC over dispute with ex-partner
Olympic ice dance champion Gabriella Papadakis says she lost her commentary role with NBC at the upcoming Winter Olympics because of her former skating partner’s response to revelations in her new book.apnews.com
OMG.Just in time for the Olympics. I figured there would be something scandalous that broke out during or in the lead-up to the Olympics. There usually is. Side-eyeing timing of this book's release.
I'm also concerned about the feeling I have of certain powers-that-be in the sport pulling hard for Chock/ Bates to win Olympic gold [e.g., having Papadakis in the booth effusively praising C/B, who are direct rivals to her former partner, Cizeron, now partnered with Fournier-Beaudry]. C/B are not better than everybody else in the ice dance field. Winning medals at the Olympics should be about the athletes' performances and abilities, not about who is heavily favored and backed; not about the airing of past bitter personal conflicts. What a sad state of affairs.
Plus, if Gabby has such serious, biased feelings about her former partner, I do not think she should be in the NBC/ USA commentating booth covering his and his competitors' performances. It's a conflict of interest. IMO, Gabby is not a good ice dance commentator anyway. Jean-Luc Baker, Mark Hanretty, and even Ben Agosto, are far better, as were Tanith Belbin and Charlie White years ago.
OT, but Ben is one of the most charming of skaters in terms of interacting with fans, don't you think?
I did note that when Niina Petrokina trotted out her Chicago exhibition for the gala—wherein the incarcerated women of the story explain just why their deceased partners “had it comin’…if you had been there, you would have done the same”—the first victim was none other than M. Cizeron
Someone mentioned that an English version is in the works.
This is not meant to be catty but it seems clear though hard to figure out all the tragedies this woman has gone through. I hope this book helps her to find her voice and heal Regardless of the truth it is apparent Gabby is convinced she is he vicitm That is her right. I hope this book like what Gracie Gold claimd will help bring her peace. It sounds like a lot of people have created in her mind trauma. As a victim of various crimes I can appreciate it is hard to present that and deal with it. You can tell from her voice she has been hurt.
