I'm not remotely interested in these Olympics

[Wobbler]

I think she was 7th at the turn, so quite the comeback.

Really?! Damn, I'll try to find a replay.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/sim...100m-freestyle

Wow.

[1argoholic]

WOW her race was something see. To be in 7th in such a fast race at the turn with only 50 left and she's only 16. The numbers add up to GOLD. What a great young star. I can't wait until four years from now. We could have the female version of Phelps. Speaking of Phelps did Friedman and McDonald BLOOOW the call on Phelps last gold medal. They got the two Americans mixed up and they thought Phelps didn't medal. I was floored but then they finally clued in as Phelps celebrated.

[shayman]

WOW her race was something see. To be in 7th in such a fast race at the turn with only 50 left and she's only 16. The numbers add up to GOLD. What a great young star. I can't wait until four years from now. We could have the female version of Phelps. Speaking of Phelps did Friedman and McDonald BLOOOW the call on Phelps last gold medal. They got the two Americans mixed up and they thought Phelps didn't medal. I was floored but then they finally clued in as Phelps celebrated.

To his credit, Friedman immediately owned up to it on twitter.

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/stat...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

[1argoholic]

Another great performance by a Canadian gal as Rosie MacClennan repeats as Gold Medal winner in Trampoline.

[paulwoods13]

To his credit, Friedman immediately owned up to it on twitter.

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/stat...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Pretty sure Friedman also called Penny Oleksiak by a different last name as she motored towards gold last night. To be fair, I understand he was a last-minute replacement for an ailing Steve Armitage at the pool, and he has not done much play-by-play of any sort before. And he's an outstanding broadcaster, miles better than the annoying motormouth he has been paired with in Rio.

[1argoholic]

If Byron McDonald put head under water and starting blabbering he'd be faster across that pool then Phelps. He'd be like a 150 horse Evinrude.haha

[Deerkeeper]

One thing I was really hoping for in these Olympics was for someone to ram a soccer ball down the arrogant throats of the US Womens soccer team. THANK-YOU SWEDEN!!!

[AngeloV]

Admittedly, I haven't paid too much attention to the Olympics this year. Having said that, I just found out that wrestling was taken out. That is ridiculous. Wrestling was probably the original Olympic sport. The IOC is really F'd up.

[Wobbler]

One thing I was really hoping for in these Olympics was for someone to ram a soccer ball down the arrogant throats of the US Womens soccer team. THANK-YOU SWEDEN!!!

That's... kinda disturbing. Do you have an issue with women, deerkeeper?

[ArgoRavi]

I haven't watched a whole lot although I have tried on a couple of days to get into it. The green water in the diving pool is disturbing though. I hope that it is safe.

[Double Dare]

Admittedly, I haven't paid too much attention to the Olympics this year. Having said that, I just found out that wrestling was taken out. That is ridiculous. Wrestling was probably the original Olympic sport. The IOC is really F'd up.

But they have skateboarding. : ) Going for a younger audience?

[Double Dare]

That's... kinda disturbing. Do you have an issue with women, deerkeeper?

I think he is referring to Solo's comments: https://www.thestar.com/sports/olymp...-comments.html

[Argo57]

Admittedly, I haven't paid too much attention to the Olympics this year. Having said that, I just found out that wrestling was taken out. That is ridiculous. Wrestling was probably the original Olympic sport. The IOC is really F'd up.

Oh I don't know about that, I was out of my chair cheering at the Olympic "Horse Dancing" the other day.
I also had to shut it down watching the golf, to much adrenaline I guess.

[PullTogether73]

One thing I was really hoping for in these Olympics was for someone to ram a soccer ball down the arrogant throats of the US Womens soccer team. THANK-YOU SWEDEN!!!

That's... kinda disturbing. Do you have an issue with women, deerkeeper?

Totally agree with Deerkeeper.
U.S. Women's soccer team is an arrogant bunch.
It was good to see them knocked out.
Hope Solo merely lived up to her arrogant, entitled persona with her comments.

Great irony that their former coach beat them (now coaches Sweden FYI).

[Argoknot]

Pretty sure Friedman also called Penny Oleksiak by a different last name as she motored towards gold last night. And he's an outstanding broadcaster, miles better than the annoying motormouth he has been paired with in Rio.

If you're seriously talking about Byron MacDonald then my respect for your judgment couldn't get much lower. Yeah, Byron pulled a fair sized boner regarding the Chinese swimmer but one of those every thirty years I can live with. And the fact that what he said was construed by some as racist to Chinese people shows even more how f'ed up our society is.

"Annoying motormouths" don't get invited back time after time after time. They are there because they are good at what they do, aside from a gaff every thirty years or so.

I should also say with the advent of streaming, I've heard all sorts of things: mic checks, prep work by commentators, before they went on the air.

It was a lesson I learned from Bob Burns (Winnipeg DJ and first Guess Who manager) that whenever you walk through the studio door (or location set) you should consider yourself "ON", I was going to say "HOT" but that would be misconstrued today.

[Argoknot]

Admittedly, I haven't paid too much attention to the Olympics this year. Having said that, I just found out that wrestling was taken out. That is ridiculous. Wrestling was probably the original Olympic sport. The IOC is really F'd up.

It is ridiculous, this coming from someone who dabbled a bit in the sport. There are things that can be done to jazz it up a bit as many sports have without hurting it's integrity (please no WWE comments)

Possible cancellation (from Wikipedia)

Because of some costs, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been under pressure to reduce the number of events and the number of athletes in each summer game. The IOC had adopted a system where "core sports" would continue indefinitely in future Olympics, but "non-core" sports would be selected for inclusion on an Olympic game-by-game basis. Wrestling had been one of the 26 core sports. However, following the 2012 London Olympics, the IOC's Executive Committee conducted a study of the 26 core sports in terms of their success at the London Olympics as well as world-wide grassroots support. The study sought to trim one core sport so that starting with the 2020 Olympics, only 25 core sports would continue to make room for one non-core sport. On February 12, 2013, the IOC Executive Board voted to recommend that wrestling be dropped as a core sport.

The international federation that governs wrestling (then known as FILA and now as United World Wrestling) responded with a statement the same day:

FILA was greatly astonished by today's recommendation of the IOC Executive Board not to maintain wrestling among the 25 core sports for the 2020 Olympic Games. FILA will take all necessary measures to convince the IOC Executive Board and IOC members of the aberration of such decision against one of the founding sports of the ancient and modern Olympic Games.

On February 15, FILA held an emergency meeting and its President, Raphaël Martinetti, asked for a vote of confidence. When only 50% of his Board voted to support him, he resigned as FILA President. Although wrestlers would be able to continue to compete in the World Games, United States wrestlers expressed grave disappointment at the possibility that they could be excluded from future Olympics.

Wrestling had to compete with seven other non-core sports—baseball/softball, squash, karate, sport climbing, wakeboarding, wushu and roller sports—for a place in the 2020 Games. On September 8, 2013, the IOC announced that wrestling had won the bid as a non-core sport and would remain part of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Nenad Lalović, the new president of FILA, was largely credited with bringing the sport back into contention after wrestling made the short list in May. Lalović following the announcement stated, "Normally this is done in a few years, we did it in a few months. It was a question of our survival" and that, "We did all we could, we changed our sport and the federation was successful. We continue to work tomorrow."

[Double Dare]

In 2020 Karaoke will be a sport.
The IOC sucks!

[Deerkeeper]

Way to go Andre. This only the beginning.

[paulwoods13]

If you're seriously talking about Byron MacDonald then my respect for your judgment couldn't get much lower. Yeah, Byron pulled a fair sized boner regarding the Chinese swimmer but one of those every thirty years I can live with. And the fact that what he said was construed by some as racist to Chinese people shows even more how f'ed up our society is.

"Annoying motormouths" don't get invited back time after time after time. They are there because they are good at what they do, aside from a gaff every thirty years or so.

I actually don't care that he made a gaffe -- it happens to the best of them. But Byron just wouldn't shut up. It's as if he thought he was the play-by-play guy rather than doing colour. Elliotte could barely get a word in at times. As for individuals being invited back because they are good, generally that's true. But there's still Rod Black, who is good at many sports, but simply awful at football play by play.

[Argoknot]

I actually don't care that he made a gaffe -- it happens to the best of them. But Byron just wouldn't shut up. It's as if he thought he was the play-by-play guy rather than doing colour. Elliotte could barely get a word in at times. As for individuals being invited back because they are good, generally that's true. But there's still Rod Black, who is good at many sports, but simply awful at football play by play.

Byron MacDonald was part of that stable of excellent colour people CBC had developed over the years: Irene MacDonald (diving), Aldo Roy (weightlifting),

Geoff Gowan (track) to name a few.

Elliotte is a great reporter but he's no PBP guy, not yet at least. Through no fault of his own he was thrown in there, but frankly I'd rather they switch roles with Byron providing most of the commentary and Elliotte the fill. The blend we're looking for here is flowing conversation not encyclopedic knowledge. It doesn't have to be one does PBP and the other does colour. Sometimes they do spill over and you will have a colour guy finish the call instead of disrupting the conversation.