Those Who Can't Do... Get TV Gigs

Last night, in addition to the men's 4 x 100, NBC also covered the women's gymnastic qualifiers. It wasn't a great night for the ladies. There were some falls, a dq for stepping out of bounds and one gymnast managed to hurt her ankle between the locker room and the first event. But all-in-all, the women's team still qualified in second place behind the Chinese favorites. Not too shabby. Of course, if you were listening to the three banshees calling the event, you would have thought Marta Karolyi was going to march the whole team out the back of the gym and beat them in an alley. I distinctly remember that the commentators for gymnastics at the past few Olympics have been very uptight, very judgmental and sort of cruel. But this year, they're taking it to a new level. They hammer on the competitors (American and international alike) and make each misstep sound like a grievous sin. Before I go on, let's meet the offenders:
Al Trautwig: I'm not going to go too hard on Trautwig here. He's a career sports reporter, and has no personal experience in gymnastics. His general knowledge of the sport is really sufficient to call a quadrennial event and he makes a nice counterpoint to his buddies in the booth. Which brings us to...

Elfi Schegel: A Canadian gymnast whose career peaked at the 1980 Pan Am Games. Schegel never medaled in an Olympics, and is now almost 30 years removed from her prime, but still feels comfortable tearing apart contemporary gymnasts for minor mistakes.

Tim Daggett: If you've ever done a double take at the unnaturally high voice when a male gymnast is being interviewed, then you probably also grit your teeth while this male pixie damages egos one vicious comment at a time. Daggett is the obnoxious, talkative John Madden to Al Trautwig's fairly competent Pat Summerall.

Aside from the fact that these goons have a vendetta against self esteem, what makes them truly obnoxious is how they never stop to acknowledge the fact that gymnastics have progressed a long way since they last competed. I still think they spend too much time being unnecessarily cruel, but it wouldn't be so bad if they exhibited some class and acknowledged that in their primes they could never do what gymnasts do today.

Not all commentators exhibit this kind of poor behavior. During last night's historic swimming events, Dan Hicks asked Rowdy Gaines what it felt like to hold a world record. Gaines responded by immediately pointing out that the last record he held was now the property of Michael Phelps and was 5 seconds better than his WR time 28 years ago. He copped to the fact that it's a totally different playing field out there now. And I think that gives Gaines some additional credibility, and makes him far less irritating.

There's a whole platoon of gymnasts from recent Olympics who would probably be great in the booth. It's time NBC made an effort to develop some new talent that isn't as dissonant, harsh and out of touch.