Hawaii IM second hour coverage

"trihard" <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Not to mention that they have given the impression that drafting on the bike is permitted in the
men's race, but not the women's.

Loved the 1st hour, the second hour was just a shorter version of previous year's coverage, as far
as I'm concerned.

I have to say that if I knew nothing about triathlon, then watched that coverage to try to gain an
understanding of the sport, I would actually have diminished knowledge by the end of the hour.
It's one thing to assume your audience doesn't understand the sport and therefore gloss over the
details of the rules. It's another to mis-inform and "de- educate" an ignorant audience with
misleading terms.

Tom

In article <[email hidden]>, Tom Henderson

Quoted message said:

I have to say that if I knew nothing about triathlon, then watched that coverage to try to gain an
understanding of the sport, I would actually have diminished knowledge by the end of the hour.
It's one thing to assume your audience doesn't understand the sport and therefore gloss over the
details of the rules. It's another to mis-inform and "de- educate" an ignorant audience with
misleading terms.

You mean by saying things like, "In cycling, there is strength in numbers" when it's supposed to be
a non-drafting event?

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night, and party every day. Then it was every other day. . . ."

- Homer J. Simpson

Harold Buck <[email hidden]> wrote in news:no_one_knows-
[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

You mean by saying things like, "In cycling, there is strength in numbers" when it's supposed to
be a non-drafting event?

Exactly, and they also mentioned the "aerodynamic advantage", and used the dreaded "pack" term to
describe the group of cyclists forming behind the first 2 or 3 riders. I realize that there is an
aerodynamic advantage to riding in a group, even at draft legal distances, but for most of the
audience, that distintion wasn't made, and they would assume that drafting is legal at an Ironman.

This is the first year they've made any such comments/references to drafting being legal or pack
riding, as far as I can recall. Get used to it. We were told that it would never appear in the US
beyond the olympic athletes, remember? Hmmm...who told us that...

I thought the coverage was great this year. Somehow they managed to make the race for first place
interesting. Normally that just is fluff for me to get to what others call the "fluff". I much
prefer the every day guy coverage to the top pros, but not this year, for some reason I can't put my
finger on.

Its so awesome to see any coverage of Julie Moss for me. Watching her in 82' was what made me decide
one day to be an Ironman.

[email hidden] (Old Timer) wrote in news:15cf49f4.0312080427.418efb67 @posting.google.com:

Quoted message said:

This is the first year they've made any such comments/references to drafting being legal or pack
riding, as far as I can recall. Get used to it. We were told that it would never appear in the US
beyond the olympic athletes, remember? Hmmm...who told us that...

The same thought crossed my mind. Are they failing to make the distintion because therewon't be a
need to in the coming years?

I hope we're just paranoid.

Tom

Tom Henderson said:

Harold Buck <[email hidden]> wrote in news:no_one_knows-
[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

You mean by saying things like, "In cycling, there is strength in numbers" when it's supposed to
be a non-drafting event?

Exactly, and they also mentioned the "aerodynamic advantage", and used the dreaded "pack" term to
describe the group of cyclists forming behind the first 2 or 3 riders. I realize that there is an
aerodynamic advantage to riding in a group, even at draft legal distances, but for most of the
audience, that distintion wasn't made, and they would assume that drafting is legal at an Ironman.

Yeah, but the 'narrator' was Al Trautwig, the man who makes Bob Costas look like a
super-informed genius.

Won't bother watching NBC coverage of this event again. It makes their Olympic coverage look like
its actually covering the event.

--

Cheers,

Walter R. Strapps, Ph.D

"The sheer closeness of our two countries and the intensity of our mutual interaction combined with
the disparity between us in terms of wealth and power--all these things guarantee there will be
problems in U.S.-Canadian relations without anybody having to do anything to deliberately worsen the
situation."

Robert L. Stanfield, Oct. 28, 1971

Tom Henderson said:

[email hidden] (Old Timer) wrote in news:15cf49f4.0312080427.418efb67 @posting.google.com:

Quoted message said:

This is the first year they've made any such comments/references to drafting being legal or pack
riding, as far as I can recall. Get used to it. We were told that it would never appear in the US
beyond the olympic athletes, remember? Hmmm...who told us that...

The same thought crossed my mind. Are they failing to make the distintion because therewon't be a
need to in the coming years?

I hope we're just paranoid.

I think you are. The narrator clearly didn't know *what* he was talking about ("which superlative
should I use this time?"😉 and the coverage itself was far more concerned with fitting in 'stories'
instead of, you know, the actual *story* of the race that was going on.

--

Cheers,

Walter R. Strapps, Ph.D

"The sheer closeness of our two countries and the intensity of our mutual interaction combined with
the disparity between us in terms of wealth and power--all these things guarantee there will be
problems in U.S.-Canadian relations without anybody having to do anything to deliberately worsen the
situation."

Robert L. Stanfield, Oct. 28, 1971

Was there a race really going on? IT seemed to me like a MTV video - a long one. This year
they didn;t cover the start, the swim? who came out first? Who exactly was 2nd man? some guy
from Belgium?

THe entire coverage was a feature on 2 guys and 3 ladies. Oh and one guy who passed out, came back
to life, walked for 15 miles but ran the last 200 yards. There was so much music and quick images,
many people in the bar I was at thought it was a music video - of course they all had a few pops in
them........

It was "prime' time coverage so of course it was MTV'ish. They've never broadcast IM's for the
triathletes. It's about trying to make it as interesting as possible to the general public. Always
was, always will be.

"James Cagney" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Was there a race really going on? IT seemed to me like a MTV video - a long one. This year they
didn;t cover the start, the swim? who came out first? Who exactly was 2nd man? some guy from
Belgium?

THe entire coverage was a feature on 2 guys and 3 ladies. Oh and one guy who passed out, came back
to life, walked for 15 miles but ran the last 200 yards. There was so much music and quick images,
many people in the bar I was at thought it was a music video - of course they all had a few pops
in them........