Alan Tyers BBC strikes getting Kenny on the Olympics couch
The absolute breakout star of the BBC’S coverage has been Dame Laura Kenny: insightful, charismatic, chatty. No question that we will be seeing her for many years to come alongside Sir Chris Hoy, himself a charming and knowledgeable presence and always a welcome one.
The athletics has had a star in Michael Johnson for years now and he continues to excel; Dame Denise Lewis is calling it a day to take up her role at UK Athletics but, as was the case in their track and field event, there is a dynastic line in the BBC athletics studio to Dame Jessica Ennis-hill, who is an equally enjoyable broadcaster. A lot of dames in that paragraph; no real pantomime villains are on offer, although Johnson is not afraid to put the boot in.
There will always be irritations with BBC coverage about too much cheerleading of “our boys” and “our girls” but I am sure we are no worse than any other country in this regard. Christine Still in the gymnastics is a template for how the well-connected expert should conduct herself; she has always managed to strike the tricky balance between urging on the British athletes that she has coached/mentored while remaining objective.
It is admirable how well the BBC has integrated the lesser-known sports; in some of the more esoteric ones you definitely need your hand held by the commentators: Ed Leigh and Mike Langley have been excellent on the climbing, for instance. Or so it seemed – maybe if you had never watched a football match before you would be saying: “Wow, this Michael Owen bloke is amazing, he knows so much stuff.” Perhaps not.
Rebecca Adlington and Beth Tweddle have been examples of the pundits being too involved with athletes they are discussing, it is all a bit too matey-matey. Jeanette Kwakye was a terrible one for this when she was in her athletics reporter role, but she turned into a solid anchor of the morning coverage alongside JJ Chalmers, the ex-royal Marine turned Invictus Games medal winner turned TV host. They formed a fine double act, as did the ever-reliable Mark Chapman and Isa Guha on the nightly round-up programme.
I have enjoyed some of the more left-field bookings such as Fred Sirieix, roving reporter and proud dad of a diving medallist. The more yoof-targeted sports like the BMX and breaking have obviously benefited from having an informal, enthusiastic style, like Marc Churchill and Tim Warwood in the skateboarding. Chapeau as always to the mighty Andrew Cotter and
Hazel Irvine for their unflappable, indefatigable work on the ceremonies and elsewhere.
Overall, the blend of every second of action being on Discovery+ and the BBC having to cherry-pick as best it could worked out fine. I cannot say there were any particular moments where I felt like I was missing out on something essential as a BBC viewer. One reason for having sport on the BBC is the argument that free-to-air television is accessible to all and thus most likely to inspire the next Denise or Laura.
Perhaps, although the sports that Britain consistently excel at are the ones that either not many other countries do, or are only realistically accessible to a sliver of society worldwide, or ones in which the targeted, calculated application of money and infrastructure can deliver irresistible golden advantage. I am not convinced that sailing or rowing, for instance, are going to yield Team GB fewer medals in the 2044 Olympics because they were slightly less comprehensively viewable on free-to-air TV in 2024.
Whether the Olympics and visibility have any bearing on the nation’s fitness or appetite for sport still seems debatable. Yougov produced a poll at the weekend that asked Britons if they reckoned they could qualify for Los Angeles 2028 if they began training now – 27 per cent of our compatriots think they could. It is absolutely amazing that these people walk among us, or at least lumber on their knuckles. And in the 18-to-24 age group, fully 17 per cent of respondents reckoned that they could get into the 100metres sprint if they gave it a crack until 2028. Simply astonishing.
Perhaps the Olympics is actually inspiring people too much – to the point of derangement. Or maybe we as a nation are so removed from physical activity that we have lost all sense of how it is done. But they say you have to see it to be it and, on that score at least, we have seen everything we could have wished for over these past two weeks.
Rebecca Adlington and Beth Tweddle were too involved with the athletes – all a bit too matey-matey