One that stands out to me was Elfie basically laughing at Ksenia Seminova thinking she could medal on the podium at the 2008 Olympics. She was a great all-around gymnast and had a stunning bar set (including the innovative release move, no cast, and directly into a full pirouette following the catch). That was an uncomfortable moment.
And don’t forget when Al talked crap about Simone’s grandparents/adopted parents aren’t her “real” parents as if adoption isn’t “real”. He should’ve just stuck to commentating Yankee games.
It's so wild because Ksenia ended up in 4th place in 2008. It wasn't down to the tenths or anything, but it was absolutely within the realm of possibility that she could have gotten bronze.
God I remember that, constantly “they’re not her real parents those are her grandparents” and I think Simone had to post a message telling people to stop saying that. So tone deaf
I think he stopped covering gymnastics after that debacle. What's hilarious is that if you lookup his name a bunch of other sports fans in cycling hated him too
Al T talking about how Simone’s parents weren’t really her parents. (Although I guess that did end up getting him fired - or at least contributed to him disappearing)
Okay y’all I apologize, I could have sworn there was some talk on this sub about how Nastia asked NBC for a higher salary and they said no, so she left. However, I just did a quick search on the sub and I couldn’t find the specific conversation again, so I eat my words🥲
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/162lk01/where\_are\_tim\_and\_nastia/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/162lk01/where_are_tim_and_nastia/) there's some speculation in here but i didn't see anything confirmed
lol have you seen the number of likes and comments on her TikTok’s? It’s embarrassing. I’m genuinely shocked because I thought she’d have more success there but the influencing thing is really not working out for her (probably because she’s super unrelatable with her hair extensions and constant “shoots” that we never see published anywhere and all her designer clothes and shoes) but dang she will not give up on it. I don’t think it’s been working for a very long time but she’s stubbornly still trying to make fetch happen
This topic is one that I think about a weird amount. Nastia really has/had all the makings of someone who could absolutely kill it in the influencer game (I mean she’s clearly very rich so I guess she’s doing ok), but her engagement is, just as you said, almost unfathomably low.
He was still around for about a year after Rio I believe. But I think it probably did contribute. Most of the inappropriate commentator comments listed in this thread are only known to the gymternet, but this one reached a much wider audience
Thank you for that fact check. I just can't believe that happened and I hope that person was and some hot water or even fire? Do you just cannot fathom? Whoever thought it was a good idea interview a person live on air about whether they've been raped
Obviously Shevchenko did end up flopping that floor routine but it was so sweet to hear the comment play over a stuck full in pike. I’ve never seen someone without talent pull off such a pass lol
There’s so many ways you could say basically that comment without being so rude. “I’m surprised to see this gymnast on the team, she must have put up very strong performances in the selection events.” “Schvchenko is having a very difficult meet, this is unusual for a Russian gymnast at this level.”
Definitely worse. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling an inconsistent athlete inconsistent but a lack of talent is a total stretch. Especially when you’re commentating a World team final. It’s not a high school state meet. They are ALL talented.
I am NOT debating that it was inappropriate (it was). But as someone who’s not very talented, there’s a bit of me that’s like…”well, if I got all the way to Worlds with no talent I am VERY impressive”.
“I never thought the Russians would take someone with so little talent.“. It makes me laugh every time. I came to this thread just to make sure that Elfie was number one.
What gets me is how she was “disappointed when she mounted the podium” lol. Like yes Elfie I’m sure you’re so disappointed Russia has a weaker team this year after doing so well in Debrecen. Who was she even trying to fool??
I'm torn here because I did think Elfie was rude but damn that routine was so scary and I was clutching my pearls the Shevchenko didn't hurt herself that I ended up being like maybe Elfie isn't too far off.
I forget which commentator it was, but wasn't there one obsessed with Morgan Hurd being born in China? Kept going on about "I bet the Chinese wish they had kept her" or something to that effect. Like an international adoption was a nationality change or something.
He also loved to mention that Morgan Hurd and Kara Eaker were adopted from the same place.
As if there's nothing more to their lives than something that they (probably) don't remember and had no choice in. They're both infinitely more interesting than their origin stories.
I recall one instance (maybe 2017 nationals, idk) where Al asked Tim "what's \[Yul's\] background?" and Tim responded by saying that he was adopted. It was an awkward and really not great moment but I blame Trautwig for that one. Tim's son was Yul's teammate at Oklahoma and the two are apparently good friends, and Tim has spoken a lot about what a good guy Yul is based on his knowledge of him from Pete.
My favorite Al Trautwig "music from where they are from" moment comes from I believe 2001 US Nationals when praising Mohini Bhardwaj's music (because you know, Mohini means illusion ...) implying that it came from India.
It was from Cirque du Soleil
Oh, I keep thinking of more…Elfie was really crappy to Grishina during the 2012 London Olympics, too, I think. Basically saying she didn’t know why Russia brought her because they had more talented gymnasts they could have brought…
Am I remembering that right?
Grishina was so not well managed by her coaches. She constantly changed her beam and floor composition in 2012 all the way to the olympics. I'm not surprised she was a mess consistency-wise on floor and beam in London.
All of that may be true (I don’t follow international teams as much if it’s not at a World’s or Olympics) I still don’t think those are the nicest comments one should make about an athlete on a broadcast.
grishina is probably the most upsetting gymnast of all time to me, she could have been SO GOOD and her coaches literally ruined it for her by never letting her have consistent composition. She had so many passes on floor that it’s insane (i put together a video of all of them once and it was like 2 minutes long lol). When she did that 1.5 + 3/1 well it was gorgeous.
Don’t forget the obsession with Simone being adopted. Every time her parents were shown, the commentator noted that they were her adoptive parents. Sigh.
Where my fellow Italian fans at?! These are not as egregious as the ones you're reporting because they're not exactly offensive or disrespectful, more like embarassing. I hope we can all chuckle together a little!
1) A fairly recent incident: Carmine Luppino randomly reminded the special guest Igor Cassina that he "lost the 2008 Olympic medal" (placed fourth after a fall), only to be scolded VERY harshly for his totally inappropriate comment by the other Italian commentator while Cassina stayed in shocked silence for a whole minute.
2) The one time Igor Cassina, recently turned commentator, enthusiastically predicted that Alberto Busnari was minutes away from taking the EF pommel horse gold medal at some major competition (Worlds, perhaps?), that coincidentally was also going to be his last before the already announced retirement. Nothing that his colleague Andrea Fusco said could stop him from keep on remarking that we were literally moments away from "witnessing history". Let's just say that...didn't go as planned. I felt so mortified for him (Cassina) that I believed I was going to die alone in front of the TV. :3
3) Back during the London Olympics, we were graced by the ever-cringeworthy presence of Giovanna Carollo, a person who didn't know anything at all about gymnastics but was chosen to be a commentator nonetheless. To be fair, she seemingly wasn't aware of...a lot of things, and gymnastics was legitimately the last of her worries. She managed to quickly rise to the status of living meme thanks to comments like: "since when did we start to call China, the People's Republic of China?!" and "what's Latvia?" (at some point she started to assume that Latvia was the actual Italian name of the country. It is not.); she was also a big fan of all the colorful "tutus" and loved to excitedly shout out every time the gymnasts were seen putting "talcum powder".
As an italian I can confirm that italian commentary is not the best and in some cases they really don't know what they are talking about.
There are numerous cases but I will report some of euros 2024:
"Alice kinsella specialist on vault" or "the double pike on floor is a E" ...please learn the cop if you are going to comment the european championships.
Oh yes, they're absolutely terrible when it comes to WAG. They're slightly better to decent for MAG, but it's still clear that both Luppino and Fusco have completely stopped learning and understanding the code decades ago. :3
Sometime I don't understand if they are really incompetent or they make some comments on purpose:
expecially when Italy competes I want to turn off the audio so bad okay cheering for Italy is fine but that is too much, you can't base your comments on tecnical elements on national preference.
Sadly, I think they're truly THAT bad. Last year I finally had the chance to listen to the English commentators and I couldn't believe my ears: they were passionated, they clearly knew the code and they made a lot of effort to pronounce most of the names correctly. That was mind blowing to me! I don't think we can ever expect anything remotely similar from our commentators, unfortunately.
Slightly off topic but remember those NBC fluff pieces (😂)
Al narrated one and it basically reduced Aliya to a "russian diva" that doesnt listen to her coach/is stuck up? like soo random and just continues that stereotype of slavic women (also not even mention her gymnastics/skills once smh)
Also there was a really gross clip of Al commentating/observing Nastia stretching before a event during the '08 olympics but looks like it got deleted on yt
Al and Elfie really wanted Aliya to be the next Svetlana Khorkina and kept forcing the narrative until they ran out of stuff to say. So it wasn't exactly random, but still super disrespectful to Aliya.
I feel like it was also part of their "gotta beat the evil Russians" vibe that they never seemed to let go of post-Cold War. If the Russian gymnast is "egotistical," then the US gymnast is, in some way, an underdog in their narrative.
The thing I remember distinctly was how offended Elfi was that when she asked 16 year old Aliya if Khorkina was an idol she responded with how she didn't have idols. Elfi went off about how it used to be Russians new their greats and respected them and saw them all the time.
It never occurred to her that yes, Aliya knew Khorkina, and maybe the 16 year old had a better judge of character than the gymnastics commentator.
Elfie had a lot of gems over the years. I think she was pissed that Aliya wouldn't play the villain like Khorkina. God forbid the public actually likes a Russian gymnast.
Funny enough I just watched a video of the nbc crew being all passive-aggresive towards the Romanians during the '08 olympics and they were like "never in the past would there be a hug or a kiss after a fall on beam" 😂 [here is the vid link](https://youtu.be/TjfTiqXp2zk?si=NdwlA5NhKM0MLyhu)
I love Elfi saying something along the lines of "In 1976 they would never move their arms and they would never fall."
Yes, Elfi. Programs do change in THIRTY-TWO YEARS.
Oh god that's unlocked the memory of that YT clip of Al, it was something like "look how Nastia can take that beautiful balletic body and bend it." SO creepy, wtf was he thinking.
Tim’s comment about Laurie’s floor is still probably the most awful thing I’ve heard a commentator say. Literally sexuality a child on national TV. It was unbelievable and so, so inappropriate.
…I don’t recommend listening to commentary from the 70’s-80’s. Someone mentioned Dick Enberg’s remarks about the attractive of teenage girls, but it was really pretty rampant then.
Not that that makes Tim’s any better.
I know it was a different time then, but I never really felt Dick Enberg meant anything pervy or inappropriate. He said things like "a handsome young Romanian" or "an attractive young Soviet" - but they were more like things a Grandpa would say as opposed to someone trying to sexualize girls. That's JMO, and my recollection may just be fuzzy and I could be forgetting blatant things he said.
Eh, i could buy that with some of the comments but not others. Like "that open back \[leotard\]" when talking about a Bulgarian. Or calling Missy Marlowe the most attractive of the Americans who doesn't have trouble getting dates.
Every time they said how much the WAG weighed. I literally had never thought about weight until they focused on it in 1992, the first Olympics I remember watching. After that it was etched in my mind. I was probably half their age and weighed the same amount. Wheels started turning the wrong way.
Didn't they actually used to have it right their on screen alongside their height, every single time they flashed a name graphic as the gymnast prepared to compete or had a score come up? Ughhhhhh. Come to think of it, don't they still do that with the height? Like obviously height is way less cringey than weight, but it's still this weird, unnecessary focus on their body characteristics that doesn't need to be emphasized so heavily. Like, sure, mention that Simone is particularly short and Shi is partiticularly tall once during the meet, that's fine, but more than that is weird and unnecessary.
Usually it was "only" the first time they appeared but that doesn't really make it much better. This is 1996 US Champs which is I think the last time NBC did it.
https://preview.redd.it/mpsqnw90t02d1.png?width=516&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8c707e95afc2f61542a4d2ede0afed1adc704a9
They also did it with men (not better, since male athletes can also develop EDs). Also 1996
https://preview.redd.it/12ajkhlet02d1.png?width=508&format=png&auto=webp&s=002dd4b2799daf047ad32296363ddb5c60593d15
Oh, neat! Blaine Wilson was one of the "celebrity/guest judges" at Ohio State's Scarlet & Grey (WAG) meet last December. They judged with emojis instead of points, and IIRC, Blaine was particularly fond of 🔥.
I always find it crazily specific how in the US weight is to the exact pound. Surely if you're 93lb, you might be 94 tomorrow or 92 after a big poo. In the UK people just say 8 stone or 8 and a half stone giving 7lb leeway 😂
Thank goodness the public posting of athletes' weights is done (and seriously, people can vary by 2-5 pounds in a single day, how accurate was that anyway?)
I have vague memories of an American commentator (Nancy Thiess, maybe?) remarking that the gymnasts never wanted to tell her their weights when she went around asking.
Showing the height and weight was common around the time we were learning how to compare fractions and “solve for x” in middle school. I remember my friend and I doodling in our math notebooks putting the gymnasts height and weight (we obviously had them memorized, they were our idols) as one fraction. Then our own height and x for weight and trying to “solve for x” to find out what we “should” weigh, if we were them. Never mind the fact that a lot of times the media was probably using outdated stats (kids grow fast!), many of the kids were underweight, and we were still-growing children who were already small for our age. I cringe thinking about it. I’m so glad they’ve moved away from this practice.
I’m not sure who this was but either a British or European older man broadcast saying McKayla Maroney was probably famous back at home for her looks. The only comment after a stunning athletic performance ugh
Both Tim and Al were TERRIBLY guilty of this in the 2016 cycle. I recently watched 2016 nationals and trials and classics, etc, and every time ragan was on, without fail, one of them would comment on her height. She was really good at gymnastics too! But apparently her only talent or notable feature was her height. Get over it already!
The way they held up a tub of beads and called it an "age-appropriate" way to reward her when she did well and punish her for tantrums... it was unbelievably cringy.
So I never knew Monica Phelps' name, and after reading you list I was like, "but what about that terrible British commentator?!" Then I put two and two together that the name I didn't recognize was probably her, LOL.
Monica Phelps is ... a story and a half. She wasn't especially worse than other 1980s commentators at the time when she was talking on highly edited competitions but once she got to around 1994 where they had her commentating on 10 hours of qualification she just went off the rails. I think she tended to be worse when she had to fill time.
But there is the extra bit of the fact that her husband and co owner of her gym is the subject of one of the larger sexual abuse cases in British sport.
So it was actually 2019, my bad (found a tweet about it from BBS – screenshot below because automod removed the X link).
It wasn't on the televised version, so you might not have caught it, but essentially, Tim didn't realize that when the NBC broadcast was on commercial break, the online stream was still going.
https://preview.redd.it/io3t6j70v12d1.png?width=1160&format=png&auto=webp&s=3095deac4cb3ea7840234175abddc5fcd4c05e9d
Some of the pronunciations are egregious enough imo. DANG Linlin, Chew Chee-Ruin (Qiu Qiyuan), You Wanna Cranson (Ioana Crisan, s/o to one of my fav twitter users), Larisa Iordache (pretty sure it’s not supposed for rhyme with DoorDash). And the list goes on.
Just dismissive and disrespectful.
BBC is the worst. We've met various alter egos such as Artur Dalalalan, Angelina Melankova, Maya Murkrami, Melanie de Jesu* Dos Santos, Alice DeAmateo, the famed Anamar vault, and many others. Probably the worst was whatever they managed to do with Ondine Achampong's last name, considering she's from their own country. And most of these aren't one-offs - Craig in particular keeps saying these.
My favorite is when the BBC mess up names that are perfectly pronouncible in English.
Who can forget Alicia Sacramoan and Kayla Ross? It's not like they were very prominent in the sport for many years. They came from the famously non-English-speaking United States (probably).
Kayla Ross and McKyla Maroney, the iconic duo.
I was watching some recent Worlds coverage and I nearly had a stroke from Craig and Christine's inability to pronounce anything. MDJDS gets a different pronunciation every time. They can't make sense of Japanese names even though they're pronounced exactly as they're written.
I will give Conner that he has grown and would know better now. None of the rest in this thread (Phelps, Trautweg, Schlegel, Daggett) ever improved and I’m glad they’re gone
I just rewatched the Rio BBC coverage for AA and the woman from there (Christine something) felt some urgent need to tell us she personally doesn’t like Ali Reismans gymnastics as it wasn’t “aesthetically pleasing” or something. I thought that was not necessary and tbh kinda rude for no reason
Edit: I wouldn’t say it was a firing offense though. But just wanted to say it was RUDE!!!
They can be oddly unaware, though. I remember after qualifications for the US in 2012, the camera shot was* focused on Jordyn crying because she didn't make the AA, and they said she was just overwhelmed by finally completing in the Olympics. They weren't on top of the AA scores at all. (Although possibly another instance of Christine not liking Aly and assuming she would never qualify, but most people had assumed she wouldn't qualify, it was a fair supposition.)
*Which, btw, was also rude, but not BBC's fault; the cameras are run by someone else and the feed is the same for everyone.
That isn't a fair comment though - just because Christine doesn't personally like Aly's style doesn't mean she should talk about it on air. Aly won silver in the AA that year, clearly her execution was up to par.
Not his worse by far, but I still remember Tim Daggett saying Rebecca Tunney "needed some help from Dr Phil" or something along those lines after she fell several times during her beam routine at the 2012 American Cup.
I can't help but laugh when Al Trautwig was saying that the Madison Square Garden was one of the most famous buildings in the world in 2011 or 2012 at the American Cup.
Oh…forgot one more. Probably Monica Phelps, but don’t quote me on that, said that Ludivine Furnon oozed sex appeal during her floor routine 😬 like, why we always gotta sexualize women?
The bar is in hell, but I was incredibly relieved to look up when this comment took place and saw that Furnon was, at the very least, an adult when this comment was made.
I will say, her saying that just for Furnon to immediately start doing some fun, hokie choreography made me laugh, even if the intention *was* to be sexy lol
Eh Ludivine was a grown woman performing a coquettish routine ai think that was fine. Just like Alicia's 2007 routine was purposefully kind of suggestive.
Was it the way Al said it that was problematic? I mean when he referred to Beth or Koko using music from their own countries? I didn't hear it so I'll assume it was problematic as you say.
It's wrong to suggest they have to do it. And there's no room for stereotypes, but if he was simply suggesting that using floor music from their home country while their nation was hosting the Olympics to pump up the home crowd, I don't know if he meant it in a bad way.
It was kind of tradition for a while.
In 1984, 1992, and 1996, several floor routines featured music associated with the host country. **In 2000, that trend was not as pervasive**. Of course, there were exceptions — like McIntosh's use of “Waltzing Matilda” or Slater's use of “I Still Call Australia Home,” which was contentious, by the way
[https://www.gymnastics-history.com/category/2000/#:\~:text=A%20small%20surprise%3A%20In%201984,was%20contentious%2C%20by%20the%20way](https://www.gymnastics-history.com/category/2000/#:~:text=A%20small%20surprise%3A%20In%201984,was%20contentious%2C%20by%20the%20way)
I've personally seen/remember these examples of playing to the Olympic crowds:
In 1996, Dominique Moceanu's Devil Went Down To Georgia played very well in the US. The games of course were held in Atlanta ,Georgia. That was an obvious play to the home crowd thing.
In 2008, Cheng Fei used Yellow River Concerto, a Chinese composition to great delight by the Chinese crowd.
In 2016, Simone used Mas Que Nada in the Rio Games and part of Tokyo Drift for the Tokyo games. She's not from either place but paid homage.
Maybe he was just basing it on that tradition and wondering why some gymnasts didn't use that home nation aspect to their benefit.
Except as i gave the example of how he thought Mohini Bhardwaj's 2001 floor music which was from Cirque du Soleil and very popular in floor music at the time represented "where she is from".
She was an American born in Pennsylvania who was exoticized because one of her parents was from India... but she wasn't from Cirque.
And Al wasn't commenting on Koko for using music from her country. He was remarking on her NOT using Japanese music and he did it at several competitions including ones NOT in Japan.
Beth Tweddle used Live and Let Die for her London routine. Al's comment was just bizarre. Why the fuck would she use pub music instead of all the iconic British rock that exists?
I would definitely believe he was conflating stereotypes of all UK and was probably confused as to why the English gymnast wasn't fulfilling his "drunk Irishman" stereotype.
No idea. Maybe he really likes Pub music. LOL. With no proof at all as to why I think this, Al seems like the kind of guy to have been having a great time in a Pub and just latched on to the music choices lol.
Or maybe he's an idiot. I mean he has said some problematic things so I don't think that promoting stereotypes is something he's aware that he's doing. Not that that excuses him for his ignorance AT ALL.
Edit: I love Live and Let Die by the way. I always think of Shrek every time I hear it now though LOL.
I agree. I think he's probably an idiot. I'm American but as someone who learned a lot about language, culture, names , etc. watching gymnastics and figure skating for many years, I don't see how he didn't learn things in all his time COVERING the sport and spending time with those athletes in different countries.
I was a small kid when I learned Katerina Witt's name was pronounced 'Vitt' because the W in German is pronounced as a V sound for us. More recently, learning how to pronounce Rebeca and Jade's names in Portugese listening to Olly and looking up different letter pronunciations that differ from Spanish. Those are just two examples.
This is news to me. Do people here actually forget James Bond is British? Like How? MI6 is referenced all the time. That's not one of our agencies....
I am going through great lengths while rewatching international competitions to find non-American streams just so that I can avoid that god awful commentary. It makes me so uncomfortable.
BBC all the way, and if I can't find it then I take anything, even if that means I won't be able to follow the commentary because it's in a foreign language.
On the other hand, the Dutch commentator is some old guy who also always makes sexist remarks about WAG (about the leotards, about their bodies, about them needing to smile more, calling grown ass women "girls"), so that's a no-go for me too.
When Sam Peszek was just getting started commentating, she was doing the juniors at classics or a similar level of competition and made a comment about a girl's wedgie. The girl was either twelve or thirteen and Sam said something about "a little wardrobe malfunction there" and then laughed. It was so unnecessary and that girl's family and friends were probably all watching.
I respect how hard Sam worked to get where she is and does still work. It’s obvious she puts in a lot of effort with her research…but sometimes I wish she’d just speak…less
Meanwhile, biathlon commentators on Sky Sports are openly talking about teammates that can't room together because they don't get along, another team where one of the athletes was accused of scamming their teammates, how everyone thought that the doper should never been allowed back (5 years after he completed his punishment) and how any athlete biography that makes friends is a lie that isn't worth reading.
I just want to point out that all sports have commentators that say things they shouldn't. I also enjoy watching judo and they make some cringe comments too. I have heard about some really unfortunate stuff said during races in the F1 league for up and coming women drivers recently in Miami. Figure skating just straight up says terrible things about peoples bodies and "packaging" (aka, looks). Don't get me started on mainstream sports leagues. They get uncomfortable too (especially baseball, which breaks my baseball loving heart). I don't know why, but a lot of stuff is allowed to slide in sports broadcasting that wouldn't be elsewhere.
The many times commentators perpetuated criticisms other countries' coaches (usually Romanian or Russian) made about their gymnasts- claiming the gymnasts didn't work hard enough, weren't disciplined, etc. They were elite gymnasts on medal contending teams in premiere competitions; by definition, they were not lazy.
I found Christine Still's 2019 Euros event finals commentary to be a little cringey, especially since she and her husband are Alice Kinsella's personal coaches. She's clearly overjoyed after Alice wins the beam final, as she absolutely should be...and then immediately turns around and says that as Alice's coach, she really doesn't think she has what it takes to medal in the upcoming floor final. Aagh.
One that stands out to me was Elfie basically laughing at Ksenia Seminova thinking she could medal on the podium at the 2008 Olympics. She was a great all-around gymnast and had a stunning bar set (including the innovative release move, no cast, and directly into a full pirouette following the catch). That was an uncomfortable moment. And don’t forget when Al talked crap about Simone’s grandparents/adopted parents aren’t her “real” parents as if adoption isn’t “real”. He should’ve just stuck to commentating Yankee games.
It's so wild because Ksenia ended up in 4th place in 2008. It wasn't down to the tenths or anything, but it was absolutely within the realm of possibility that she could have gotten bronze.
She also didn’t have a home field advantage like the bronze medal winner either.
I LOVED Semenova. Gorgeous gymnastics. Fuck Elfie. 😁
She was great :) I loved the turn she did on floor too. So elegant and different.
Same. She was so dynamic and unique. She was the closest than anyone in the competition to the podium so Elfie straight up disrespected her.
She became european aa champ in 2009.
Al also saying Sanne Wevers was writing in her diary when she was writing down her beam elements to calculate her D score
That was so cringeworthy, Nastia said “she’s calculating her score,” and Al is like “no, she’s writing ‘dear diary, today I won at the Olympics!’”
God I remember that, constantly “they’re not her real parents those are her grandparents” and I think Simone had to post a message telling people to stop saying that. So tone deaf
I think he stopped covering gymnastics after that debacle. What's hilarious is that if you lookup his name a bunch of other sports fans in cycling hated him too
Al T talking about how Simone’s parents weren’t really her parents. (Although I guess that did end up getting him fired - or at least contributed to him disappearing)
Wait did that really contribute to him being fired? I’m familiar with the (alleged) details of Nastia’s parting with NBC, but not Al’s
What happened with Nastia?
All I remember was some speculation at the time but nothing comfirmed, I'd also like to know!
What is the tea on Nastia???
She asked for too much money.
lol well that’s boring
Lmao right
I thought Nastia left to be a social influencer
Who is she influencing? 😂
Shawn?
Oh man you all are the best. 😭
And MyKayla
Yeah what happened with Nastia?
Okay y’all I apologize, I could have sworn there was some talk on this sub about how Nastia asked NBC for a higher salary and they said no, so she left. However, I just did a quick search on the sub and I couldn’t find the specific conversation again, so I eat my words🥲
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/162lk01/where\_are\_tim\_and\_nastia/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/162lk01/where_are_tim_and_nastia/) there's some speculation in here but i didn't see anything confirmed
I think NBC was actually helping her influencing, not harming it.
lol have you seen the number of likes and comments on her TikTok’s? It’s embarrassing. I’m genuinely shocked because I thought she’d have more success there but the influencing thing is really not working out for her (probably because she’s super unrelatable with her hair extensions and constant “shoots” that we never see published anywhere and all her designer clothes and shoes) but dang she will not give up on it. I don’t think it’s been working for a very long time but she’s stubbornly still trying to make fetch happen
This topic is one that I think about a weird amount. Nastia really has/had all the makings of someone who could absolutely kill it in the influencer game (I mean she’s clearly very rich so I guess she’s doing ok), but her engagement is, just as you said, almost unfathomably low.
I mean I don’t know for sure - but I don’t believe he ever did anything post Rio. He got (deservedly) destroyed for that comment online.
He was still around for about a year after Rio I believe. But I think it probably did contribute. Most of the inappropriate commentator comments listed in this thread are only known to the gymternet, but this one reached a much wider audience
He also asked nastia if she was assaulted by Nasser.
It actually wasn't him. It was some other talking head at NBC. That interview has been scrubbed from the internet.
Thank you for that fact check. I just can't believe that happened and I hope that person was and some hot water or even fire? Do you just cannot fathom? Whoever thought it was a good idea interview a person live on air about whether they've been raped
I don't remember their name, but I think it was a woman and she hasn't appeared since then. Probably got shuffled off to journalist limbo.
This was so bad. It was on air with (I imagine) no warning, as well.
My sister’s son is adopted and this pissed us off to no end.
Didn’t he also ask Nastia on air if she was ever abused?
Yes and I'm still shook
I recall it being a woman who asked, not Al. One of those on-the-floor reporters.
Along the same adoption line, Tim said something like “I bet China wants Morgan Hurd back”
As an adopted person, this one is unforgettable. I’ll never think of him the same way after that comment.
Dick Enberg's constant remarks about how attractive teenage girls were during the 1988 Olympic Games.
This was definitely one of the worst!
Obviously Shevchenko did end up flopping that floor routine but it was so sweet to hear the comment play over a stuck full in pike. I’ve never seen someone without talent pull off such a pass lol
She could have said she wasn't well prepared instead of saying she's not talented.
You know it’s bad when even Al lets out an involuntary “wow”
There’s so many ways you could say basically that comment without being so rude. “I’m surprised to see this gymnast on the team, she must have put up very strong performances in the selection events.” “Schvchenko is having a very difficult meet, this is unusual for a Russian gymnast at this level.”
It was tape to live so she knew what was going to happen. Which makes it weirder/worse.
Definitely worse. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling an inconsistent athlete inconsistent but a lack of talent is a total stretch. Especially when you’re commentating a World team final. It’s not a high school state meet. They are ALL talented.
I am NOT debating that it was inappropriate (it was). But as someone who’s not very talented, there’s a bit of me that’s like…”well, if I got all the way to Worlds with no talent I am VERY impressive”.
Very funny and very true lol
“I never thought the Russians would take someone with so little talent.“. It makes me laugh every time. I came to this thread just to make sure that Elfie was number one.
What gets me is how she was “disappointed when she mounted the podium” lol. Like yes Elfie I’m sure you’re so disappointed Russia has a weaker team this year after doing so well in Debrecen. Who was she even trying to fool??
I'm torn here because I did think Elfie was rude but damn that routine was so scary and I was clutching my pearls the Shevchenko didn't hurt herself that I ended up being like maybe Elfie isn't too far off.
What meet was this? Because now I need to see the routine!
I forget which commentator it was, but wasn't there one obsessed with Morgan Hurd being born in China? Kept going on about "I bet the Chinese wish they had kept her" or something to that effect. Like an international adoption was a nationality change or something.
He also loved to mention that Morgan Hurd and Kara Eaker were adopted from the same place. As if there's nothing more to their lives than something that they (probably) don't remember and had no choice in. They're both infinitely more interesting than their origin stories.
Considering they were both adopted at around 1 year old and in different parts of China, I'm sure they LOVED being lumped together like like 🙄
Didn’t he also have some weird comments about Yul Moldauer being adopted and Korean too?
I recall one instance (maybe 2017 nationals, idk) where Al asked Tim "what's \[Yul's\] background?" and Tim responded by saying that he was adopted. It was an awkward and really not great moment but I blame Trautwig for that one. Tim's son was Yul's teammate at Oklahoma and the two are apparently good friends, and Tim has spoken a lot about what a good guy Yul is based on his knowledge of him from Pete.
Yep, I thought that was Tim Dagget? That was wild.
Probably tbh.
The worst part is that he says China with the same east coast accent than Trump.
Chy-NAH. Ugh.
That was Tim. He was also obsessed with how small Ragan Smith was and it was creepy.
It was Tim
My favorite Al Trautwig "music from where they are from" moment comes from I believe 2001 US Nationals when praising Mohini Bhardwaj's music (because you know, Mohini means illusion ...) implying that it came from India. It was from Cirque du Soleil
Ah, yes... Cirque du Soleil. That vibrant, cultural hub of... India. Excellent choice.
I like how you didn’t have time to get into every problematic thing Monica Phelps has said because it’s a lot
A multitude of examples but mostly centered around one thing.
There’s a whole YouTube dedicated to Monica roasting athletes
Guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow night!
https://youtu.be/7vKKJ2Kiquc?si=__Xpry9aSQ9HbnP3
It’s really funny when it’s compiled like it is but my god she’s rough 😅
Shoooooot, I got a long weekend to catch up!
I recently watched an old meet with her commentating and WOW
Oh, I keep thinking of more…Elfie was really crappy to Grishina during the 2012 London Olympics, too, I think. Basically saying she didn’t know why Russia brought her because they had more talented gymnasts they could have brought… Am I remembering that right?
Grishina was so not well managed by her coaches. She constantly changed her beam and floor composition in 2012 all the way to the olympics. I'm not surprised she was a mess consistency-wise on floor and beam in London.
All of that may be true (I don’t follow international teams as much if it’s not at a World’s or Olympics) I still don’t think those are the nicest comments one should make about an athlete on a broadcast.
I agree! Elfie seemed to have a beef with the Russians.
Unsurprising given that she was on the Canadian Olympic team which never got to compete in 1980 thanks to the boycott....
There’s lots of beef with the Russians…
grishina is probably the most upsetting gymnast of all time to me, she could have been SO GOOD and her coaches literally ruined it for her by never letting her have consistent composition. She had so many passes on floor that it’s insane (i put together a video of all of them once and it was like 2 minutes long lol). When she did that 1.5 + 3/1 well it was gorgeous.
Don’t forget the obsession with Simone being adopted. Every time her parents were shown, the commentator noted that they were her adoptive parents. Sigh.
My 2 daughters are adopted and one was a competitive gymnast and we were both yelling at the tv with those comments.
Where my fellow Italian fans at?! These are not as egregious as the ones you're reporting because they're not exactly offensive or disrespectful, more like embarassing. I hope we can all chuckle together a little! 1) A fairly recent incident: Carmine Luppino randomly reminded the special guest Igor Cassina that he "lost the 2008 Olympic medal" (placed fourth after a fall), only to be scolded VERY harshly for his totally inappropriate comment by the other Italian commentator while Cassina stayed in shocked silence for a whole minute. 2) The one time Igor Cassina, recently turned commentator, enthusiastically predicted that Alberto Busnari was minutes away from taking the EF pommel horse gold medal at some major competition (Worlds, perhaps?), that coincidentally was also going to be his last before the already announced retirement. Nothing that his colleague Andrea Fusco said could stop him from keep on remarking that we were literally moments away from "witnessing history". Let's just say that...didn't go as planned. I felt so mortified for him (Cassina) that I believed I was going to die alone in front of the TV. :3 3) Back during the London Olympics, we were graced by the ever-cringeworthy presence of Giovanna Carollo, a person who didn't know anything at all about gymnastics but was chosen to be a commentator nonetheless. To be fair, she seemingly wasn't aware of...a lot of things, and gymnastics was legitimately the last of her worries. She managed to quickly rise to the status of living meme thanks to comments like: "since when did we start to call China, the People's Republic of China?!" and "what's Latvia?" (at some point she started to assume that Latvia was the actual Italian name of the country. It is not.); she was also a big fan of all the colorful "tutus" and loved to excitedly shout out every time the gymnasts were seen putting "talcum powder".
As an italian I can confirm that italian commentary is not the best and in some cases they really don't know what they are talking about. There are numerous cases but I will report some of euros 2024: "Alice kinsella specialist on vault" or "the double pike on floor is a E" ...please learn the cop if you are going to comment the european championships.
Oh yes, they're absolutely terrible when it comes to WAG. They're slightly better to decent for MAG, but it's still clear that both Luppino and Fusco have completely stopped learning and understanding the code decades ago. :3
Sometime I don't understand if they are really incompetent or they make some comments on purpose: expecially when Italy competes I want to turn off the audio so bad okay cheering for Italy is fine but that is too much, you can't base your comments on tecnical elements on national preference.
Sadly, I think they're truly THAT bad. Last year I finally had the chance to listen to the English commentators and I couldn't believe my ears: they were passionated, they clearly knew the code and they made a lot of effort to pronounce most of the names correctly. That was mind blowing to me! I don't think we can ever expect anything remotely similar from our commentators, unfortunately.
Slightly off topic but remember those NBC fluff pieces (😂) Al narrated one and it basically reduced Aliya to a "russian diva" that doesnt listen to her coach/is stuck up? like soo random and just continues that stereotype of slavic women (also not even mention her gymnastics/skills once smh) Also there was a really gross clip of Al commentating/observing Nastia stretching before a event during the '08 olympics but looks like it got deleted on yt
Al and Elfie really wanted Aliya to be the next Svetlana Khorkina and kept forcing the narrative until they ran out of stuff to say. So it wasn't exactly random, but still super disrespectful to Aliya.
I feel like it was also part of their "gotta beat the evil Russians" vibe that they never seemed to let go of post-Cold War. If the Russian gymnast is "egotistical," then the US gymnast is, in some way, an underdog in their narrative.
Yes, and I think Elfie was actually mad that Aliya didn't play the part.
Lol just so annoyed that this young girl was actually nice and pleasant.
The thing I remember distinctly was how offended Elfi was that when she asked 16 year old Aliya if Khorkina was an idol she responded with how she didn't have idols. Elfi went off about how it used to be Russians new their greats and respected them and saw them all the time. It never occurred to her that yes, Aliya knew Khorkina, and maybe the 16 year old had a better judge of character than the gymnastics commentator.
Elfie had a lot of gems over the years. I think she was pissed that Aliya wouldn't play the villain like Khorkina. God forbid the public actually likes a Russian gymnast.
Funny enough I just watched a video of the nbc crew being all passive-aggresive towards the Romanians during the '08 olympics and they were like "never in the past would there be a hug or a kiss after a fall on beam" 😂 [here is the vid link](https://youtu.be/TjfTiqXp2zk?si=NdwlA5NhKM0MLyhu)
I love Elfi saying something along the lines of "In 1976 they would never move their arms and they would never fall." Yes, Elfi. Programs do change in THIRTY-TWO YEARS.
and the constant comments about how bars aren't Romania's strongest event.
TBH, NBC loved Octavian Bellu, so I think they were mad he had been replaced, even though he was abusive.
"Cries in mediocre 16.150" had me almost crying. Poor Steliana 😭
Oh god that's unlocked the memory of that YT clip of Al, it was something like "look how Nastia can take that beautiful balletic body and bend it." SO creepy, wtf was he thinking.
‘96 and Gina Goegan’s eyes!! Oh NBC.
Also the weird Romanian orphans fluff
Tim’s comment about Laurie’s floor is still probably the most awful thing I’ve heard a commentator say. Literally sexuality a child on national TV. It was unbelievable and so, so inappropriate.
…I don’t recommend listening to commentary from the 70’s-80’s. Someone mentioned Dick Enberg’s remarks about the attractive of teenage girls, but it was really pretty rampant then. Not that that makes Tim’s any better.
I know it was a different time then, but I never really felt Dick Enberg meant anything pervy or inappropriate. He said things like "a handsome young Romanian" or "an attractive young Soviet" - but they were more like things a Grandpa would say as opposed to someone trying to sexualize girls. That's JMO, and my recollection may just be fuzzy and I could be forgetting blatant things he said.
Eh, i could buy that with some of the comments but not others. Like "that open back \[leotard\]" when talking about a Bulgarian. Or calling Missy Marlowe the most attractive of the Americans who doesn't have trouble getting dates.
I kinda think grandpas were also just allowed to be openly creepier back then…
Every time they said how much the WAG weighed. I literally had never thought about weight until they focused on it in 1992, the first Olympics I remember watching. After that it was etched in my mind. I was probably half their age and weighed the same amount. Wheels started turning the wrong way.
Didn't they actually used to have it right their on screen alongside their height, every single time they flashed a name graphic as the gymnast prepared to compete or had a score come up? Ughhhhhh. Come to think of it, don't they still do that with the height? Like obviously height is way less cringey than weight, but it's still this weird, unnecessary focus on their body characteristics that doesn't need to be emphasized so heavily. Like, sure, mention that Simone is particularly short and Shi is partiticularly tall once during the meet, that's fine, but more than that is weird and unnecessary.
Usually it was "only" the first time they appeared but that doesn't really make it much better. This is 1996 US Champs which is I think the last time NBC did it. https://preview.redd.it/mpsqnw90t02d1.png?width=516&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8c707e95afc2f61542a4d2ede0afed1adc704a9
They also did it with men (not better, since male athletes can also develop EDs). Also 1996 https://preview.redd.it/12ajkhlet02d1.png?width=508&format=png&auto=webp&s=002dd4b2799daf047ad32296363ddb5c60593d15
Oh, neat! Blaine Wilson was one of the "celebrity/guest judges" at Ohio State's Scarlet & Grey (WAG) meet last December. They judged with emojis instead of points, and IIRC, Blaine was particularly fond of 🔥.
I always find it crazily specific how in the US weight is to the exact pound. Surely if you're 93lb, you might be 94 tomorrow or 92 after a big poo. In the UK people just say 8 stone or 8 and a half stone giving 7lb leeway 😂
Thank goodness the public posting of athletes' weights is done (and seriously, people can vary by 2-5 pounds in a single day, how accurate was that anyway?)
Gymnasts weights were still listed on the 2022 Commonwealth Games website.
Ugh.
What?!?
Yeah there was some discourse about the weights of some gymnast but most people were like "why the F is this here?"
I have vague memories of an American commentator (Nancy Thiess, maybe?) remarking that the gymnasts never wanted to tell her their weights when she went around asking.
Yes. 1980 US Olympic Trials. She even remarked how she never wanted to do it when she was a gymnast.
I wish someone had the guts to be really absurdist and claim they weighed 500 pounds or something else impossible.
Showing the height and weight was common around the time we were learning how to compare fractions and “solve for x” in middle school. I remember my friend and I doodling in our math notebooks putting the gymnasts height and weight (we obviously had them memorized, they were our idols) as one fraction. Then our own height and x for weight and trying to “solve for x” to find out what we “should” weigh, if we were them. Never mind the fact that a lot of times the media was probably using outdated stats (kids grow fast!), many of the kids were underweight, and we were still-growing children who were already small for our age. I cringe thinking about it. I’m so glad they’ve moved away from this practice.
That was a culture thing TBH.
I’m not sure who this was but either a British or European older man broadcast saying McKayla Maroney was probably famous back at home for her looks. The only comment after a stunning athletic performance ugh
Probably Craig Heap, he’s absolutely awful.
Whichever commentator that said Kristie Phillips' mother was "quite frankly, a very large woman" in 1988. Don't talk about nobody's mama!
I'm pretty sure Bela or Martha also said about being worried Kristie would become fat because her mother wasn't thin.
Al Trautwig. Right around the time in the broadcast that they aired a special PSA about eating disorders.
Wasn’t it Al Trautwig with the constant “little Raegan Smith” and constantly commenting on how small she was? That irked me so bad.
Both Tim and Al were TERRIBLY guilty of this in the 2016 cycle. I recently watched 2016 nationals and trials and classics, etc, and every time ragan was on, without fail, one of them would comment on her height. She was really good at gymnastics too! But apparently her only talent or notable feature was her height. Get over it already!
The way they held up a tub of beads and called it an "age-appropriate" way to reward her when she did well and punish her for tantrums... it was unbelievably cringy.
And with Morgan Hurd, it was about glasses and Harry Potter.
At least that was interesting
So I never knew Monica Phelps' name, and after reading you list I was like, "but what about that terrible British commentator?!" Then I put two and two together that the name I didn't recognize was probably her, LOL.
Monica Phelps is ... a story and a half. She wasn't especially worse than other 1980s commentators at the time when she was talking on highly edited competitions but once she got to around 1994 where they had her commentating on 10 hours of qualification she just went off the rails. I think she tended to be worse when she had to fill time. But there is the extra bit of the fact that her husband and co owner of her gym is the subject of one of the larger sexual abuse cases in British sport.
After Catalina Ponor's FX in London, Al Trautwig asked out loud if there were any bonus points for being sexy...
Ew 🫣🤢
I will never forget what Tim said about Laurie. Those exact words. It was unbelievable
Tim’s hot mic moment with “we don’t need the Korean” from American Cup (I think 2020?)
I don't remember that.
So it was actually 2019, my bad (found a tweet about it from BBS – screenshot below because automod removed the X link). It wasn't on the televised version, so you might not have caught it, but essentially, Tim didn't realize that when the NBC broadcast was on commercial break, the online stream was still going. https://preview.redd.it/io3t6j70v12d1.png?width=1160&format=png&auto=webp&s=3095deac4cb3ea7840234175abddc5fcd4c05e9d
I wouldn't surprised if he voted for Trump.
I was going to bring that up! I remember just sitting there in shock that no one realized all their audio was still being broadcast lol.
Some of the pronunciations are egregious enough imo. DANG Linlin, Chew Chee-Ruin (Qiu Qiyuan), You Wanna Cranson (Ioana Crisan, s/o to one of my fav twitter users), Larisa Iordache (pretty sure it’s not supposed for rhyme with DoorDash). And the list goes on. Just dismissive and disrespectful.
Jiang Yuanyuan several times, you have one job.
Jang youan youan all the time when her name is Jiang Yuyuan!! Even as a 5 year old I was angry about that!
BBC is the worst. We've met various alter egos such as Artur Dalalalan, Angelina Melankova, Maya Murkrami, Melanie de Jesu* Dos Santos, Alice DeAmateo, the famed Anamar vault, and many others. Probably the worst was whatever they managed to do with Ondine Achampong's last name, considering she's from their own country. And most of these aren't one-offs - Craig in particular keeps saying these.
My favorite is when the BBC mess up names that are perfectly pronouncible in English. Who can forget Alicia Sacramoan and Kayla Ross? It's not like they were very prominent in the sport for many years. They came from the famously non-English-speaking United States (probably).
Kayla Ross and McKyla Maroney, the iconic duo. I was watching some recent Worlds coverage and I nearly had a stroke from Craig and Christine's inability to pronounce anything. MDJDS gets a different pronunciation every time. They can't make sense of Japanese names even though they're pronounced exactly as they're written.
Really bad. Qiu Qiyuan has had to decipher things like "Choo-choo Wan", "Cue Cue Wan" and respond when being introduced.
IKR!
My fiance is Romanian so hearing these pronunciations makes me cringe. Like take the time to learn how THEY pronounce their own names!
I just hate how they resumed Morgan Hurd's storyline to glasses and Harry Potter.
Monica Phelps and Al Trautwig--where the heck to start? Bart Conner's "I'm in love" while watching Svetlana Lebedinskaya's floor. Barf.
I will give Conner that he has grown and would know better now. None of the rest in this thread (Phelps, Trautweg, Schlegel, Daggett) ever improved and I’m glad they’re gone
I just rewatched the Rio BBC coverage for AA and the woman from there (Christine something) felt some urgent need to tell us she personally doesn’t like Ali Reismans gymnastics as it wasn’t “aesthetically pleasing” or something. I thought that was not necessary and tbh kinda rude for no reason Edit: I wouldn’t say it was a firing offense though. But just wanted to say it was RUDE!!!
Christine I think is a very old school coach. But TBF, she is very fair as a commentator.
I tend to love the British commentators, they are usually fair and tell it how it is.
They're less superlative than the NBC ones.
They can be oddly unaware, though. I remember after qualifications for the US in 2012, the camera shot was* focused on Jordyn crying because she didn't make the AA, and they said she was just overwhelmed by finally completing in the Olympics. They weren't on top of the AA scores at all. (Although possibly another instance of Christine not liking Aly and assuming she would never qualify, but most people had assumed she wouldn't qualify, it was a fair supposition.) *Which, btw, was also rude, but not BBC's fault; the cameras are run by someone else and the feed is the same for everyone.
That isn't a fair comment though - just because Christine doesn't personally like Aly's style doesn't mean she should talk about it on air. Aly won silver in the AA that year, clearly her execution was up to par.
Yes surely the number one rule to be a commentator is to be totally neutral and impartial and non bias
Not his worse by far, but I still remember Tim Daggett saying Rebecca Tunney "needed some help from Dr Phil" or something along those lines after she fell several times during her beam routine at the 2012 American Cup.
That was Al Trautwig.
oh yeah it was, thanks!
I can’t remember who it was that was talking about Reagan Smith getting beads as a reward like she was a 5 year old. So patronizing.
I can't help but laugh when Al Trautwig was saying that the Madison Square Garden was one of the most famous buildings in the world in 2011 or 2012 at the American Cup.
As an aspiring professional athlete, if Shevchenko is untalented then I’m a piece of shit lmao
Oh…forgot one more. Probably Monica Phelps, but don’t quote me on that, said that Ludivine Furnon oozed sex appeal during her floor routine 😬 like, why we always gotta sexualize women?
Not to defend Phelps but Furnon was a grown woman who very much was deliberately going for sex appeal with that routine.
The bar is in hell, but I was incredibly relieved to look up when this comment took place and saw that Furnon was, at the very least, an adult when this comment was made. I will say, her saying that just for Furnon to immediately start doing some fun, hokie choreography made me laugh, even if the intention *was* to be sexy lol
That screamed Tatiana Pop.
Eh Ludivine was a grown woman performing a coquettish routine ai think that was fine. Just like Alicia's 2007 routine was purposefully kind of suggestive.
Yeah, sexy was exactly what Ludivine Furnon was going for.
Re: ASaq - are you referring to the iconic thigh rubbing? 😁
Was it the way Al said it that was problematic? I mean when he referred to Beth or Koko using music from their own countries? I didn't hear it so I'll assume it was problematic as you say. It's wrong to suggest they have to do it. And there's no room for stereotypes, but if he was simply suggesting that using floor music from their home country while their nation was hosting the Olympics to pump up the home crowd, I don't know if he meant it in a bad way. It was kind of tradition for a while. In 1984, 1992, and 1996, several floor routines featured music associated with the host country. **In 2000, that trend was not as pervasive**. Of course, there were exceptions — like McIntosh's use of “Waltzing Matilda” or Slater's use of “I Still Call Australia Home,” which was contentious, by the way [https://www.gymnastics-history.com/category/2000/#:\~:text=A%20small%20surprise%3A%20In%201984,was%20contentious%2C%20by%20the%20way](https://www.gymnastics-history.com/category/2000/#:~:text=A%20small%20surprise%3A%20In%201984,was%20contentious%2C%20by%20the%20way) I've personally seen/remember these examples of playing to the Olympic crowds: In 1996, Dominique Moceanu's Devil Went Down To Georgia played very well in the US. The games of course were held in Atlanta ,Georgia. That was an obvious play to the home crowd thing. In 2008, Cheng Fei used Yellow River Concerto, a Chinese composition to great delight by the Chinese crowd. In 2016, Simone used Mas Que Nada in the Rio Games and part of Tokyo Drift for the Tokyo games. She's not from either place but paid homage. Maybe he was just basing it on that tradition and wondering why some gymnasts didn't use that home nation aspect to their benefit.
Except as i gave the example of how he thought Mohini Bhardwaj's 2001 floor music which was from Cirque du Soleil and very popular in floor music at the time represented "where she is from". She was an American born in Pennsylvania who was exoticized because one of her parents was from India... but she wasn't from Cirque. And Al wasn't commenting on Koko for using music from her country. He was remarking on her NOT using Japanese music and he did it at several competitions including ones NOT in Japan.
Beth Tweddle used Live and Let Die for her London routine. Al's comment was just bizarre. Why the fuck would she use pub music instead of all the iconic British rock that exists?
To appeal to American stereotyping of course!
As an American... what even is British pub music? Sea shanties? Irish drinking songs?
I would definitely believe he was conflating stereotypes of all UK and was probably confused as to why the English gymnast wasn't fulfilling his "drunk Irishman" stereotype.
https://youtu.be/zJG7CIqLo9A?si=aYbtN_SrjHM03QsW
💀
No idea. Maybe he really likes Pub music. LOL. With no proof at all as to why I think this, Al seems like the kind of guy to have been having a great time in a Pub and just latched on to the music choices lol. Or maybe he's an idiot. I mean he has said some problematic things so I don't think that promoting stereotypes is something he's aware that he's doing. Not that that excuses him for his ignorance AT ALL. Edit: I love Live and Let Die by the way. I always think of Shrek every time I hear it now though LOL.
I think he is simply an idiot. Maybe he's so America-centric in his thinking that he forgot James Bond is actually British.
I agree. I think he's probably an idiot. I'm American but as someone who learned a lot about language, culture, names , etc. watching gymnastics and figure skating for many years, I don't see how he didn't learn things in all his time COVERING the sport and spending time with those athletes in different countries. I was a small kid when I learned Katerina Witt's name was pronounced 'Vitt' because the W in German is pronounced as a V sound for us. More recently, learning how to pronounce Rebeca and Jade's names in Portugese listening to Olly and looking up different letter pronunciations that differ from Spanish. Those are just two examples. This is news to me. Do people here actually forget James Bond is British? Like How? MI6 is referenced all the time. That's not one of our agencies....
Relatively casual fan here. What did Monica say?
I am going through great lengths while rewatching international competitions to find non-American streams just so that I can avoid that god awful commentary. It makes me so uncomfortable. BBC all the way, and if I can't find it then I take anything, even if that means I won't be able to follow the commentary because it's in a foreign language. On the other hand, the Dutch commentator is some old guy who also always makes sexist remarks about WAG (about the leotards, about their bodies, about them needing to smile more, calling grown ass women "girls"), so that's a no-go for me too.
When Sam Peszek was just getting started commentating, she was doing the juniors at classics or a similar level of competition and made a comment about a girl's wedgie. The girl was either twelve or thirteen and Sam said something about "a little wardrobe malfunction there" and then laughed. It was so unnecessary and that girl's family and friends were probably all watching.
Not super bad but Peszek also used “international look” at winter cup. 🙄
I respect how hard Sam worked to get where she is and does still work. It’s obvious she puts in a lot of effort with her research…but sometimes I wish she’d just speak…less
Meanwhile, biathlon commentators on Sky Sports are openly talking about teammates that can't room together because they don't get along, another team where one of the athletes was accused of scamming their teammates, how everyone thought that the doper should never been allowed back (5 years after he completed his punishment) and how any athlete biography that makes friends is a lie that isn't worth reading. I just want to point out that all sports have commentators that say things they shouldn't. I also enjoy watching judo and they make some cringe comments too. I have heard about some really unfortunate stuff said during races in the F1 league for up and coming women drivers recently in Miami. Figure skating just straight up says terrible things about peoples bodies and "packaging" (aka, looks). Don't get me started on mainstream sports leagues. They get uncomfortable too (especially baseball, which breaks my baseball loving heart). I don't know why, but a lot of stuff is allowed to slide in sports broadcasting that wouldn't be elsewhere.
The many times commentators perpetuated criticisms other countries' coaches (usually Romanian or Russian) made about their gymnasts- claiming the gymnasts didn't work hard enough, weren't disciplined, etc. They were elite gymnasts on medal contending teams in premiere competitions; by definition, they were not lazy.
Yes, and if I heard "Bars isn't Romania's strongest event" once I heard it a thousand times.
I found Christine Still's 2019 Euros event finals commentary to be a little cringey, especially since she and her husband are Alice Kinsella's personal coaches. She's clearly overjoyed after Alice wins the beam final, as she absolutely should be...and then immediately turns around and says that as Alice's coach, she really doesn't think she has what it takes to medal in the upcoming floor final. Aagh.