Sports Books Blog

Up until today I was resisting the urge to have a go at the BBC’s Olympic coverage; it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, not that I’ve ever done that. It’s such a big event to cover and it needs so many people who have to become instant experts on sports as diverse as shooting and canoeing. I covered a few Olympic Games, so I know what I’m talking about.

But after today I can no longer hold back and I’ve come to the conclusion that the best thing about the BBC’s coverage is that wonderful monkey intro to every bulletin (sorry Gabby Logan I meant “show”!)

That monkey and his friends rival Nessun Dorma and Pavarotti as the best sports credits ever. Shame about the presenters who come after. Maybe it’s not the fault of Logan, Sue Barker and Adrian Chiles; maybe some despot of an editor is telling them to say that Michael Phelps is the “greatest Olympian ever” but whatever, they should look at their bulletin boards.

What you could argue is that Phelps is the greatest Olympic swimmer ever. I wouldn’t disagree with that. But greatest Olympian ever? Nonsense.

In swimming it is possible to excel in several events; in athletics, for instance, it’s sometimes not. On the BBC’s montage are pictures of Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis. Nurmi, the Flying Finn, you could say was the best athlete in Olympic history, but Lewis? He was a sprinter/long jumper and they are a bit like swimmers; their disciplines inter-link. In Los Angeles, for instance, he won the 100m, the 200m, the long jump and the 4×400m relay. See what I mean?

Is Phelps better that Steve Redgrave who won golds in five successive Olympics? No, he isn’t. Is he better than Al Oerter, who won discus golds in four successive Olympics and is the only man to set world records each time? No, he isn’t. Is he better than Sebastian Coe, the only man to have successfully defended an Olympic 1500 metres title? No, he isn’t. Then there’s Abebe Bikila, who won the marathon in Rome and Tokyo and no doubt there are others in other sports. 

It’s lazy reporting; TV people looking for the sensational while a lot of their audience cringes – whereas if they reported it properly it would still be remarkable.

Then there’s Adrian Chiles. I feel like I discovered him. He was a favourite when he was presenting ‘Working Lunch’. Here was a man with a midlands accent getting time on television when it seems you needed to be from Scotland, Northern Ireland or the north east of England  to get on. But he’s so ubiquitous these days that he’ll soon disappear up his own ……… , you know what I mean.

I’m afraid he’s lost on the Olympics. The disingenuous schtick goes down quite well on the less important Sunday ‘Match of the Day’ but he should have known he couldn’t cut it in Beijing. This is serious sport, involving people who have sacrificed an enormous amount just to get there.

Chiles’s failings are best summed up by his reaction to a weightlifting piece by Eddie Butler. It concerned a Welsh woman, Michaela Breeze, (no wonder they sent Eddie, no one that does soulful valleys bit better than Eddie, at least since Max Boyce hung up his guitar anyway). She had hurt her back but she carried on. Olympic people do that. But Chiles said afterwards “Why do they put themselves through it?”

If you don’t know that Adrian what are you doing out there? It’s the Olympics. She’s trained seven days a week for years. She’s doing her best. If he’d said: “HOW do they put themselves through it” I’d have understood.

Now Adrian, I’ll tell you whe she does it. I’m sure there’s a little bit of you that still thinks you might play for West Brom. Just imagine it came true. What would you do to achieve that? Well, that’s what drives Michaela Breeze and countless others in Beijing.

Now BBC presenters please pay attention and all of you repeat after me “Michael Phelps has won more Olympic gold medals than anyone else, but of course we realise that doesn’t make him the greatest Olympian of all time.”

Thank you.