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Kit's avatar

I think it’s fair to say this is a trend throughout sports but this year’s Olympics has brought it into the light for millions who might not follow sports.

Commenters come in a variety of unhelpful flavors, painfully obvious man, needs a voice coach & a brain coach, on the scene through nepotism and going to make this commentary about me even though it’s not, and last but not least painfully clueless & possibly an artificial belligerence.

I came up as a child listening to baseball and hockey on the radio with my grandfather in the 1970’s. I miss those commentators, emotionally invested in the athletes, steeped in the respective traditions of their sport, committed to authentically sharing the suspense of the games, and most importantly academically critical rather than just mean. I remember when commentators had empathy for athletes.

When commentators can’t model empathy and decency it harms the athletes. It harms all of us by making the world a bit smaller, meaner, and less gracious.

As always Sam love the post. I prefer watching the world’s dumpster fires and laughing along with you to crying alone and trying to put the fires out with my tears.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Full disclosure: I have watched no Olympics commentary, but I feel like I have a good handle on how to do this right. Someone should just like deadpan and try to give advice to all the high level gymnasts, like, "oh hey, he should try to land on that beam if at all possible" or "if she hadn't fallen down at the end, she would have scored higher."

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