Street really needs good commentators if you’re not into the sport already. The subtleties of what makes a trick hard to execute are really easy to miss to an untrained eye.
Hell, that’s true of BMX Freestyle too to a certain extent. The men’s winning run might have looked less impressive than silver/bronze, but there is a lot of stuff like gaps, lines, use of the arena etc that the judges look at.
Yeah, the need for better commentators is definitely a big piece of it. Especially when it comes to the score differences between two different tricks/runs.
But even the best commentators can’t make the fact that there was a roughly 60% failure rate look good. The idea that the supposed best in the world (because that’s what Olympic athletes should be) are failing to land any points 60% of the time made it absolutely laughable. And I mean that quite literally. The people I was watching with were quite literally laughing at how absurd it was that this is the standard.
The men’s was certainly much better than the women’s (or, frankly, the girls’, since it seemed like nearly all of them were about 11–16), but it was still really poor to my eyes. I think I had given up before they got to the finals though.
I admit I skipped the women’s competition since I had your kind of experience with it when watching Tokyo and it didn’t look like this time around would be different.
I enjoyed the men’s final though. But we did have a good commentator.
Street really needs good commentators if you’re not into the sport already. The subtleties of what makes a trick hard to execute are really easy to miss to an untrained eye.
Hell, that’s true of BMX Freestyle too to a certain extent. The men’s winning run might have looked less impressive than silver/bronze, but there is a lot of stuff like gaps, lines, use of the arena etc that the judges look at.
Yeah, the need for better commentators is definitely a big piece of it. Especially when it comes to the score differences between two different tricks/runs.
But even the best commentators can’t make the fact that there was a roughly 60% failure rate look good. The idea that the supposed best in the world (because that’s what Olympic athletes should be) are failing to land any points 60% of the time made it absolutely laughable. And I mean that quite literally. The people I was watching with were quite literally laughing at how absurd it was that this is the standard.
I don’t remember being as upset as you about the street final. Was it the men’s or women’s? I didn’t watch the women’s final.
The men’s was certainly much better than the women’s (or, frankly, the girls’, since it seemed like nearly all of them were about 11–16), but it was still really poor to my eyes. I think I had given up before they got to the finals though.
I admit I skipped the women’s competition since I had your kind of experience with it when watching Tokyo and it didn’t look like this time around would be different.
I enjoyed the men’s final though. But we did have a good commentator.