Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

[Pego]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

What drives me up the wall is the way he pronounces eastern European, especially Hungarian names. I mean, it's so insulting. Couldn't he just ask people like Szabó or Székely how to pronounce it?

[trackhead]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Gebrselassie hurt his back/hips after his 7:29 run and got beat up by his trainer -- couldn't run and was hobbling to walk in the 48hrs prior to Birmingham. Still put on a good show -- and has withdrawn from World Indoors so he doesn't comprimise his goal of Olympic 10000m gold this summer.

[Conor Dary]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

'During the same meet both him and his co-announcer actually said they found meters confusing...nice, for a track meet, eh?'

This just reinforces my point about how meaningless metric is to the average American.

[Pego]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

<This just reinforces my point about how meaningless metric is to the average American.>

Conor, I think this has been established. What REALLY bothers me is that these announcers are supposed to educate their viewers rather than being clueless themselves. You do agree that they do appear clueless beyond just the metric/imperial conversion, don't you?

[Conor Dary]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

'Conor, I think this has been established. What REALLY bothers me is that these announcers are supposed to educate their viewers rather than being clueless themselves. You do agree that they do appear clueless beyond just the metric/imperial conversion, don't you?'

The problem is if the announcers don't feel confortable with metrics than surely the producers, directors, advertisers etc. at ESPN and the networks also do not feel confortable with metrics. And frankly they are the ones determining whether track gets on the air and the kind of coverage we can expect.

As I mentioned on the other thread, metrics to most Americans sounds like jargon. It puts people off and yet track and field in this country insists on using it. And I REPEAT, it has NOTHING to do with teaching people. I have a MS in mathematics and working on a phd. My brother has a doctorate in Physics, so we understand the metric system inside and out. But when I talk of distances to my brother we talk in feet, yards and miles. If I told him I was training 15 kilometers a day it would sound ridiculous.

[jhc68]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Some metrics are better left as metrics. Many years ago I read a news agency account of an 800 meter race in Europe that had obviously been translated into English, and into feet and inches. The original must have said that the winner's margin was 2 meters, but the version published in my local paper said that he won by "six feet six and 3/4 inches"!!!

[kuha]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

I've been away for 4 days, and so haven't seen any of this news ("news"?). What an idiotic article this is--based on absolutely nothing other than a hunch, and irrelevant anyway. For what it's worth, when Geb was running as a junior, he looked MORE like a junior than the Kenyans he was competing against. But really, Rawson's column is basically the equivalent of an article announcing to the world that athlete A was seen having dinner with someone of the same sex. So?

By the way, it it pure coincidence that Szabo and Satch are retiring at EXACTLY the same time? There may be a bigger story here...

[Pego]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

At the nationals yesterday, Rawson "observed" that Jenny Adams is an equivalent of a "football punter". How is that for a screamer?

[Bob Duncan]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

>At the nationals yesterday, Rawson "observed" that Jenny Adams is an equivalent of a "football punter". How is that for a screamer?

Yes, the fact that she was also doing the long jump. I counted two other football references, all before the first race in the telecast was run.

There was also a horse racing analogy.

Still, it was a good telecast and look for more good stuff today.

[trackhead]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

I'm still waiting to hear Al Michaels describe a punt return in terms of Zalenzy's JT WR.

[az2]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Gebreselassie out

Haile Gebrselassie has withdrawn from next week's world indoor championships in Hungary where he would have defended his 3,000 metres title. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) website said Gebrselassie will be replaced by Abiyote Abate in a last minute change to the Ethiopian squad.

Young sues USATF and USOC
PARIS 2003: Jonathan Edwards brings down the curtain!



The Ethiopian Athletics Federation had included the double Olympic 10,000 metres champion in their squad for the 10th world indoor championships taking place from March 5-7.

The 19-year-old Markos Geneti, who beat Gebrselassie over two miles at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix meeting on February 20, will lead Ethiopia's 3,000 metres line-up.

[marknhj]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

LR was on great form yesterday...in addition to the above, how about the comment that the 1500m plus the length of a football field including the endzones equals a mile! LOL Someone really should compile all these. I can barely wait for this afternoons coverage!

[kuha]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

I can see it now: Larry Rawson's "My Life as A Television Miscommuncator: Or, How to Confuse and Infuriate Nearly Everyone."

[tafnut]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

I came late here and caught the Rawson bashing. I'm going to defend the guy. His comment about the 800m = 7 football fields is essentially correct. A football field is 120 yards long. 7 x 120 = 840 yards, close enough. That said, it's a pretty silly analogy because no one could visual that distance because it's not something anyone ever does (run up and down a football field in succession). I agree that his attempts to make the events 'relevant' to Joe Public are silly, but my reason is that who cares? Not even Joe Public, and especially not the cogniscenti. I defend Larry on the grounds that he cares and he's been around a while. He DOES need to stop the silly comparisons and the yodaisms, but he's knowledgable, and with a few tweaks could be very beneficial to us with his long corporate memory. Best of all, he ain't no CL, may she rest in peace. I'm a very forgiving person, but my molars were ground down to the nub, listening to her prattlings.

[Pego]

Re: Gebrselassie's Age Questioned

Sorry, tafnut, I'll take CL over LR every day.