I’ve been following the results all week, but today was the first day for televised action. Obviously from my name, I was once a diver. There is one woman, Cynthia Potter, who I think has a contract with NBC to provide play-by-play for all the diving events. I have to say that amongst the diving community Cynthia Potter is universally loathed.
I was wondering if the general population had the same feelings toward her. She is consistently negative, always looking for errors. I have even noticed a predilection on her part to be particularly negative toward certain athletes (in particular Clayton Moss, an old teammate of mine). She has been known to point out mistakes in a slow motion replay that would have been impossible to pick up live and to wonder outloud why judges didn’t notice them.
On another note, I am more impressed with the performances in the men’s events than I had expected. There is an outside chance for a medal in Athens. The women, from what I’ve seen so far, are going to have to have some big things go their way this summer.
Whatday’all think?
I hit upon this accidentally this afternoon.
After about 10 minutes, I muted the annoying sound and just watched these marvelous atheletes in action.
I was particularily astounded at the good job done by several very young men (14-year-olds?) – incredible!
As I mentioned in my thread in GQ, watching diving, I’m watching something entirely foreign to me, and beyond my capacity to truly comprehend. That said, I too watched today’s trials with my television muted. The analysis seemed to be superfluous; the dives themselves tell everything that needed to be said. If someone over-rotates, you can see that. If someone goes into the water at a bad angle, you can see that too. The yammering from the commentators who are clearly told not to allow any silence in the broadcast detracts from the event in a truly unpleasant way.
I really hope that Potter woman is not doing the commentating from Athens.
Unfortunately, I can almost guarantee that Potter will be commentating every diving event in Athens. Unless we can start a public outcry to have her replaced. I looked around the NCB Olympics website but I couldn’t find a place to email with feedback.
Either way, it makes me feel better that the general public doesn’t appreciate her insignificant ramblings any more than we do.
I missed today’s broadcast, and I cannot find results online. Can anyone share the women’s platform results?
From USA Diving
1 WILKINSON, Laura (Diver #12) CTC 878.85
2 VIOLA, Brittany (Diver #8) TOD 836.40
3 SOLDATI, Kimiko (Diver #9) CTC 830.43
4 LIVINGSTON, Jessica (Diver #11) WOOD 827.85
5 HILDEBRAND, Sara (Diver #10) IND 809.88
6 BORCHARD, Erin (Diver #7) TRO 773.73
7 POHORENEC, Nicole (Diver #4) LNGH 739.08
8 CARDINELL, Cassandra (Diver #5) IND 735.42
9 SAVAS, Erin (Diver #3) CMD 725.91
10 TUMLINSON, Trisha (Diver #1) SDD 699.39
11 IGNACIO, Taryn (Diver #6) KDC 675.18
12 WEIGLE, Lindsay (Diver #2) IU 666.06
It was an unexpectedly exciting contest. Laura missed her first two dives badly and Brittany moved to within 5 points with 2 dives left and within 7 points going into the last round.
Brittany’s last dive wasn’t anything spectacular and Laura landed on her head. The final scores reflect a bit of politics on the part of the judges. (This isn’t GQ is it?)
Oh, yes…from the Diving Rumor Mill: for several months Brittany Viola had been flying to Houston to practice synchro with Laura every weekend. One weekend she shows up and finds that Laura and Kimiko had been surreptitiously training synchro without telling her.