Why do (some) people hate athlete profiles?
February 13, 2022 10:03 AM Subscribe
In general, I'm not a sports fan. But I always watch the Olympics, and I particularly enjoy the profiles of athletes (profiles of the type where they show the athlete training in their hometown and interview coaches, relatives, etc.). Over the years, I've encountered a number of people who say that they hate these profiles. Why is that?
The people who say that they hate the profiles tend to be hardcore sports fanatics, and they typically say that they only enjoy the competitions themselves (and some people have told me that they don't like the Olympics in general). But no one has explained to me why athlete profiles are so annoying. Isn't it more enjoyable to watch the events if you know something about the participants?
Incidentally, I've noticed that over the years, the Olympic broadcasts seem to feature fewer and fewer of these profiles, so maybe a lot of people dislike them. I dunno.
The people who say that they hate the profiles tend to be hardcore sports fanatics, and they typically say that they only enjoy the competitions themselves (and some people have told me that they don't like the Olympics in general). But no one has explained to me why athlete profiles are so annoying. Isn't it more enjoyable to watch the events if you know something about the participants?
Incidentally, I've noticed that over the years, the Olympic broadcasts seem to feature fewer and fewer of these profiles, so maybe a lot of people dislike them. I dunno.
I hate them! I think they're designed to give you only one view of an athlete, and tilt you in some particular way emotionally about them. I find them saccharine and manipulative. I feel like they only pull them out for the athletes that are likely to win, or who have something really notable in their past, usually overcoming some sort of serious-but-inconsequential adversity like an injury, death of a parent, being somewhere not near a major sporting area. Those adversities are never "real" things like racism, sexism, abuse or a horrible family life (or if they are they're treated in the lightest of ways). I feel like they're designed to support American exceptionalism, a "go go nuclear family" view, and an "aw shucks anyone can be an athlete in the Olympics if you train/care enough" mindset. I'd rather that tv-watching time was spent showing us more athletes actually competing including the non-top performers and more people from events where the US wasn't expected to do super well. I am not a hardcore sports person at all, but I also like my tv-watching time to be focused and that's just not the stuff that I care about.
posted by jessamyn at 10:16 AM on February 13, 2022 [78 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 10:16 AM on February 13, 2022 [78 favorites]
It's probably the American Idol effect, where the personal stories that get the most attention are the ones that involve sTRuGgLe and aDvErSitY which in US speak usually means poor, adopted, child of drug addicts, previously homeless, or for lack of a better narrative often just black or brown. It's great when people are able to succeed despite circumstances because of their abilities and hard work, but when the story is about THAT instead of the actual sport a person has devoted their life to, it feels desperately exploitative. America loves its misery porn.
It also has a bit of like. Ok you know when you're watching Bake Off and every god damn time they go to one contestant the narrator describes them as "lorry driver Alec" or whatever? It's like omg we get it, he earns a living driving a truck, but wtf does that have to do with baking a cake right now here for tv??? Just let people be good at a thing without dragging the same irrelevant narrative into it at every opportunity.
posted by phunniemee at 10:23 AM on February 13, 2022 [15 favorites]
It also has a bit of like. Ok you know when you're watching Bake Off and every god damn time they go to one contestant the narrator describes them as "lorry driver Alec" or whatever? It's like omg we get it, he earns a living driving a truck, but wtf does that have to do with baking a cake right now here for tv??? Just let people be good at a thing without dragging the same irrelevant narrative into it at every opportunity.
posted by phunniemee at 10:23 AM on February 13, 2022 [15 favorites]
I'd like them if they were less produced/packaged, more personality/ training, maybe some interesting non-sports bits. Anybody who gets to the Olympics has something to say about what provides motivation, what's fun about their sport, what's not so fun. The ones I've seen feel way too similar. I don't hate them, but I assume they're the publicist's version of the person.
posted by theora55 at 10:28 AM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 10:28 AM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
For me, they just feel as they promote a way to enjoy sports that's kind of hostile to what I enjoy. I'm adult enough now to accept that human interest is what other people like, and I shouldn't yuck on their yum. But for me, what's beautiful about sports is that it's inhuman - these are supernatural beings, they can do things I've tried to do for years, vastly better than I could ever imagine, with ease. If the profiles leaned into that aspect, I'd find them delightful. But they almost inevitably do the opposite, and for me, that lessens the athlete rather than building them up.
posted by wattle at 10:34 AM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by wattle at 10:34 AM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
For something like the Olympics where there are so many sports happening simultaneously, an athlete profile being shown means you aren't able to see another event so it's a wasted opportunity.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:48 AM on February 13, 2022 [18 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:48 AM on February 13, 2022 [18 favorites]
Back in the day (like 1970s) sports on TV were targeted at men. Women were at most a secondary audience. As the televised olympics got to be a bigger and bigger money undertaking, there were efforts to broader the appeal. This included adding "human interest" segments and personal stories of the athletes.
To the traditional sports audience, this stuff is useless fluff. Sports is about seeing people hit each other, or hit a ball, or throw something at something else. Sports involves using your muscles and beating the other team. Human interest fluff isn't just waste of time, it stops this from being the sports show that unshaven men can watch while drinking a beer and belching into something else completely. Hence the hate, from the point of conception.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:51 AM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
To the traditional sports audience, this stuff is useless fluff. Sports is about seeing people hit each other, or hit a ball, or throw something at something else. Sports involves using your muscles and beating the other team. Human interest fluff isn't just waste of time, it stops this from being the sports show that unshaven men can watch while drinking a beer and belching into something else completely. Hence the hate, from the point of conception.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:51 AM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
I find them saccharine and manipulative.
This is what I hear from my sports-fan friends.
posted by FencingGal at 10:51 AM on February 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
This is what I hear from my sports-fan friends.
posted by FencingGal at 10:51 AM on February 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
Hate 'em. I don't turn on the Olympics to learn about athletes' lives.
I remember in the Long Ago when there wasn't so much of the profile thing during the Olympics, and you had to go a bit farther afield to learn about the athletes. That wasn't necessarily a better time, because the rise of the profiles came about in response to and in order to pique interest for a broader viewership. That said, the rise of the profiles continued through the era of it being hard and annoying to figure out how to watch the Olympics. It's better this year, but my interest in watching the Olympics (moderate, mostly focused on a few sports) waned when I would turn on the Olympics and get... profiles. Talking heads. Anything but the events that I knew perfectly well were happening while Biff the Bobsledder talked about Arrogant Wossname's bold new training methods.
posted by cupcakeninja at 10:53 AM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
I remember in the Long Ago when there wasn't so much of the profile thing during the Olympics, and you had to go a bit farther afield to learn about the athletes. That wasn't necessarily a better time, because the rise of the profiles came about in response to and in order to pique interest for a broader viewership. That said, the rise of the profiles continued through the era of it being hard and annoying to figure out how to watch the Olympics. It's better this year, but my interest in watching the Olympics (moderate, mostly focused on a few sports) waned when I would turn on the Olympics and get... profiles. Talking heads. Anything but the events that I knew perfectly well were happening while Biff the Bobsledder talked about Arrogant Wossname's bold new training methods.
posted by cupcakeninja at 10:53 AM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
I dislike them because they’re so commercial. There is never any singular or artistic viewpoint in their creation. They just feel like a series of ads for the athletes, all made by the same person. No subtlety or nuance. But I also feel pretty ambivalent about the Olympics these days. I feel like competing at the Olympics is mostly a goal that is harmful to the athletes in the same way that competing in pro football is. So that colors my perception of the whole enterprise. The stories are supposed to make me feel inspired, and I decidedly do not.
posted by HotToddy at 10:54 AM on February 13, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by HotToddy at 10:54 AM on February 13, 2022 [9 favorites]
I think if they covered more things than the same story over and over and were more interesting things like hey this is their training schedule boy look how hard they work. This is their diet, this is how they train. If it was more about the work & dedication it took to get where they are the people that helped them on the way and not the same old personal stories. Also during olympics, the stories are great and all, but there is so much happening I could be watching instead and I'm going to forget their name in 20 minutes when I switch to another sport anyway.
posted by wwax at 10:56 AM on February 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by wwax at 10:56 AM on February 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
I hate them for the same reason I hate admissions essays. I'm uncomfortable with the way that everyone is expected to have, and to share, a narrative about overcoming personal challenges.
It results in this gross commodification of difficult personal experiences; they're shaped into something safe and inspiring, that will resonate with the audience without challenging them in any way. Minor challenges have to be puffed up, while certain types of very difficult challenges--well, we don't talk about those.
Sometimes people just work hard. Sometimes people don't want to talk about their challenges in public. Sometimes people's challenges make other people uncomfortable. Sometimes people don't overcome their challenges, and people look at the safe, sanitized versions in inspiration porn and wonder why it's their fault.
It's not that I'm necessarily uninterested in the athletes' personal lives, but I don't really see these profiles as real coverage. They're fluff that's passed through layers and layers of PR. I would much rather see more coverage of the events, or actual coverage of the details of the sports and things like that.
(They're not ALL like this but enough are that I just want them all gone.)
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:58 AM on February 13, 2022 [31 favorites]
It results in this gross commodification of difficult personal experiences; they're shaped into something safe and inspiring, that will resonate with the audience without challenging them in any way. Minor challenges have to be puffed up, while certain types of very difficult challenges--well, we don't talk about those.
Sometimes people just work hard. Sometimes people don't want to talk about their challenges in public. Sometimes people's challenges make other people uncomfortable. Sometimes people don't overcome their challenges, and people look at the safe, sanitized versions in inspiration porn and wonder why it's their fault.
It's not that I'm necessarily uninterested in the athletes' personal lives, but I don't really see these profiles as real coverage. They're fluff that's passed through layers and layers of PR. I would much rather see more coverage of the events, or actual coverage of the details of the sports and things like that.
(They're not ALL like this but enough are that I just want them all gone.)
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:58 AM on February 13, 2022 [31 favorites]
In addition to what everyone has said above, normal sporting competitions in the U.S. aren't broadcast with these kinds of profiles. You flip on an NBA game or a baseball game and you just get to watch ... the game. Invariably the announcers will mention some details about various players' backgrounds, and over the course of a season, you'll probably learn a fair bit if you watch every game. But they never take a break in the action to deliver this to you. So for a serious sports fan, the NBC approach to the Olympics is very different from what you're used to.
Also, most people just haven't lived especially interesting lives, even if you're a top-class athlete!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:05 AM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
Also, most people just haven't lived especially interesting lives, even if you're a top-class athlete!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:05 AM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
Agree that they’re fine except for the repetitive, formulaic nature. (Please oh please kill the narrative “They won only because they wanted it badly enough.”)
posted by Melismata at 11:29 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Melismata at 11:29 AM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don’t like them because I feel like I’m watching audition tapes for jobs with advertisers should the athletes win enough to be interesting, and that makes my skin crawl.
Didn’t they have to give up enough of themselves just to get there? And now they have to package and sell everything that’s left? Ugh and double ugh.
posted by jamjam at 11:35 AM on February 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
Didn’t they have to give up enough of themselves just to get there? And now they have to package and sell everything that’s left? Ugh and double ugh.
posted by jamjam at 11:35 AM on February 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
The people who say that they hate the profiles tend to be hardcore sports fanatics
I'm not remotely a hardcore sports fanatic and I really dislike them. I dislike them because:
(1) They're really awful PR fluff. It feels really cynically manipulative combined with extruded-product levels of don't-give-a-shit. It's like watching the life story of the candidate at a national political convention; utter bleah.
(2) The coverage of most olympic sports has gotten good enough that there's almost always someone very knowledgeable commentating. So if you're paying any attention to what you're watching, you'll already hear a lot about who these people are and who's coming back from an injury and why this year means so much to this person.
(3) It overlaps heavily with the gross jingoistic rah-rah-America coverage in the US. Every minute we hear about someone competing for or from the US feeding their kittens like the world's greatest hero is a minute we could have spent watching the world leaders in this sport from Japan or Lichtenstein or wherever but nope. Instead of showing you the best in the world at this sport you see once every four years, we'll take a break from showing you the American in 19th place to talk about what pizza toppings the American in 19th place likes the best. I will admit that US coverage has gotten better about this with the expansion into several channels at a time.
At this point it's mostly 1 and 2 for me. Watching loogie or skellington I'd much rather hear from a former competitor in the sport about the different people than watch a slick-yet-somehow-halfassed promo about one of them.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:59 AM on February 13, 2022 [14 favorites]
I'm not remotely a hardcore sports fanatic and I really dislike them. I dislike them because:
(1) They're really awful PR fluff. It feels really cynically manipulative combined with extruded-product levels of don't-give-a-shit. It's like watching the life story of the candidate at a national political convention; utter bleah.
(2) The coverage of most olympic sports has gotten good enough that there's almost always someone very knowledgeable commentating. So if you're paying any attention to what you're watching, you'll already hear a lot about who these people are and who's coming back from an injury and why this year means so much to this person.
(3) It overlaps heavily with the gross jingoistic rah-rah-America coverage in the US. Every minute we hear about someone competing for or from the US feeding their kittens like the world's greatest hero is a minute we could have spent watching the world leaders in this sport from Japan or Lichtenstein or wherever but nope. Instead of showing you the best in the world at this sport you see once every four years, we'll take a break from showing you the American in 19th place to talk about what pizza toppings the American in 19th place likes the best. I will admit that US coverage has gotten better about this with the expansion into several channels at a time.
At this point it's mostly 1 and 2 for me. Watching loogie or skellington I'd much rather hear from a former competitor in the sport about the different people than watch a slick-yet-somehow-halfassed promo about one of them.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:59 AM on February 13, 2022 [14 favorites]
Not a sports fan, nor a gamer (in fact my brother, the game designer, has labeled me The Anti-Gamer, who doesn't have a competitive bone in his body.) And as a nerd (or puke, as they would call me) not a fan of jocks, either. The Olympics? The only part that holds my interest is the opening, when the teams of all the nations participating enter the arena. Sometimes the various competitions are notable, for a little while: the display of super-human athletes' prowess; but I feel no particular urge to monitor my country's team, or revel in their victories. And this human-interest stuff, highlighting some jock's struggle? Yish, change the channel quick, please.
posted by Rash at 12:22 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 12:22 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
They've been around a long time, but it served a bit of a purpose before Internet Times. Now, I just want to watch as many athletes compete as possible. If I want to know more about an athlete, I can (and do!) look up the athletes on my own.
I would can leave behind the new feature of watching the athletes awkwardly chat with their families at home over zoom/skype/whatever.
posted by kimberussell at 12:30 PM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
I would can leave behind the new feature of watching the athletes awkwardly chat with their families at home over zoom/skype/whatever.
posted by kimberussell at 12:30 PM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
I like knowing about the athletes. I dislike NBC-style packaged profiles because they usually don’t fulfill their promise while spending valuable viewing time. They take me out of the flow. They feel like an unwelcome relic of a previous era when maybe commentators were less competent and inclusive in their coverage and the internet didn’t exist. More specifically:
They’re only done for select athletes, who tend to be the ones expected to win. They also tend to focus only on certain marquee events.posted by theory at 12:44 PM on February 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
They’re rarely about athletes from other countries.
They usually ignore team-based aspects of many events.
They have a formulaic sameness.
The sappiness.
I expect an Olympic-level athlete to overcome hardships; they all do. I don’t care to know the particulars.
Add to that the manipulative music playing underneath….it adds up to aural pablum.
posted by BostonTerrier at 12:44 PM on February 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
I expect an Olympic-level athlete to overcome hardships; they all do. I don’t care to know the particulars.
Add to that the manipulative music playing underneath….it adds up to aural pablum.
posted by BostonTerrier at 12:44 PM on February 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
I've held a grudge against the profile segments since some winter olympics eons ago when the network still didn't have a great balance on when they could cut away from one thing to show another thing, but they knew that figure skating was a big deal that women liked to watch, and more women meant more advertiser dollars. They'd cut away from a live, exciting hockey match to show a canned profile of a figure skater, then come back to hockey and try to recap the goals that had happened in the meantime. And then they'd do it again.
Now as long as they're not interrupting a live event I'm watching I don't mind profiles unless they're just treacle. Social media is helpful in this regard, I think, because the networks can follow that conversation to humanize the athletes without exploitative vamping. But the network coverage still gets treacly, because treacle is easy. Also when I last really followed the Olympics I noticed that for less popular sports they'd show the Team USA competitors even if they ended up in like 12th place, maybe show the gold medalists from Some Other Country, and otherwise fill the time with profiles and highlights from other sports. If you wanted to follow that sport, well, you weren't going to see it on NBC.
I'm also in the crowd that would enjoy the profiles more if they featured athletes with interesting stories no matter where they're from, not just the same formula applied over and over to Team USA. Even then, I'd appreciate the profiles much more in moderation.
posted by fedward at 1:00 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Now as long as they're not interrupting a live event I'm watching I don't mind profiles unless they're just treacle. Social media is helpful in this regard, I think, because the networks can follow that conversation to humanize the athletes without exploitative vamping. But the network coverage still gets treacly, because treacle is easy. Also when I last really followed the Olympics I noticed that for less popular sports they'd show the Team USA competitors even if they ended up in like 12th place, maybe show the gold medalists from Some Other Country, and otherwise fill the time with profiles and highlights from other sports. If you wanted to follow that sport, well, you weren't going to see it on NBC.
I'm also in the crowd that would enjoy the profiles more if they featured athletes with interesting stories no matter where they're from, not just the same formula applied over and over to Team USA. Even then, I'd appreciate the profiles much more in moderation.
posted by fedward at 1:00 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Virtually no other programming has this sort of canned, formulaic bio.
Perhaps you enjoy watching the live musicals that have been broadcast occasionally as specials. How could you enjoy them without it cutting away to give you a two minute biography about how Celina Smith works hard on practising her singing and dancing? Especially if it cut back after the bio and ad break to rejoin the musical in progress halfway through "It's A Hard Knock Life".
Wouldn't an episode of Schitt's Creek be more engaging if they cut out three minutes of it for an interview with Annie Murphy talking about how she had only a few hundred bucks and was going to leave Hollywood before she got the call to audition for Alexis?
Couldn't you enjoy the weather report more if there was a two minute montage of meteorology school before the weekend forecast?
Every other type of TV programming, including most sports, largely separates out the behind-the-scenes, biographical material from the actual thing itself, and I think that it's better for that. Every athlete has trained really hard, made sacrifices and overcome adversity to get to the Olympics; why not take it as a given?
posted by Superilla at 1:50 PM on February 13, 2022 [10 favorites]
Perhaps you enjoy watching the live musicals that have been broadcast occasionally as specials. How could you enjoy them without it cutting away to give you a two minute biography about how Celina Smith works hard on practising her singing and dancing? Especially if it cut back after the bio and ad break to rejoin the musical in progress halfway through "It's A Hard Knock Life".
Wouldn't an episode of Schitt's Creek be more engaging if they cut out three minutes of it for an interview with Annie Murphy talking about how she had only a few hundred bucks and was going to leave Hollywood before she got the call to audition for Alexis?
Couldn't you enjoy the weather report more if there was a two minute montage of meteorology school before the weekend forecast?
Every other type of TV programming, including most sports, largely separates out the behind-the-scenes, biographical material from the actual thing itself, and I think that it's better for that. Every athlete has trained really hard, made sacrifices and overcome adversity to get to the Olympics; why not take it as a given?
posted by Superilla at 1:50 PM on February 13, 2022 [10 favorites]
I'm not a big sports fan, so, when I bother to actually tune-in to watch an event, I want to see the event and not profile crap. Watching the Olympics on Peacock has been a major improvement. No profiles, and pretty much no jingoism. Just the events with knowledgeable, unbiased commentators.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:01 PM on February 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 2:01 PM on February 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
I am pretty hardcore about sports (both watching and participating) and I dislike the profiles, too. As an alternative to the formulaic profiles, I much prefer The Players' Tribune that features essays written by elite athletes in a variety of sports, not only popular pro sports (e.g., hockey, baseball, football, soccer). I find these essays much more fascinating and engaging. Unlike the stock Olympic profiles, they are not all about The Media Narrative (TM). Additionally, now that many athletes are on social media, it's easier to find out more about them in their own words.
posted by skye.dancer at 2:57 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by skye.dancer at 2:57 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Well, this has been enlightening (though it does make me feel like I view the world in a totally different way from y'all). Just a follow-up question: Don't publications like Sports Illustrated, Basketball News, Baseball Digest, Runner's World, etc. feature athlete profiles, as well? Or are those profiles less superficial, saccharine, and manipulative than the ones featured during the Olympics?
posted by alex1965 at 3:25 PM on February 13, 2022
posted by alex1965 at 3:25 PM on February 13, 2022
I used to be hardcore about sports but now am more of a casual fan. (Except for the Portland Timbers. #RCTID!) I think there are a lot of things that go into why people dislike the constant Olympic athlete profiles, and most have been touched on in this thread already.
For me, I hate knowing that every time I'm watching an athlete's profile, that's coming at the expense of watching actual competition. I watch the Olympics to see the best athletes in the world, not to watch four-minute feel-good bios. They do this same thing during the Kentucky Derby, but I don't mind it then. They're not plunking the profiles down during the middle of the race. Instead, it's several hours leading up to the main event, and a lot of those hours are spent talking about the horses and trainers. I love that shit! But when I know that the profile is replacing coverage of some event or other? Well, that's frustrating.
I also dislike the formulaic nature of these profiles. It's John Tesh (or somebody like him) telling a feel-good story about overcoming adversity. Please. I'm over it. I've heard this story hundreds of times before. I don't need (or want) to hear it again. Plus, these stories are invariably about American athletes. You rarely get packages about athletes from other countries. Maybe if we did hear more about athletes from other countries, these stories would be more interesting.
But the bottom line is I used to watch the Olympics because I knew that I'd get to see the world's top athletes competing with each other. I haven't watched the past three or four Olympics because that's no longer what the television coverage contains. Instead, it's twenty minutes of profiles and commentary to every ten minutes of sport. It drives me nuts. (And for the hard-core sports fans in my life? They hate these profiles even more than I do. But even my casual fan girlfriend, who doesn't mind the profiles now and then, has grown weary of them.)
posted by jdroth at 3:30 PM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
For me, I hate knowing that every time I'm watching an athlete's profile, that's coming at the expense of watching actual competition. I watch the Olympics to see the best athletes in the world, not to watch four-minute feel-good bios. They do this same thing during the Kentucky Derby, but I don't mind it then. They're not plunking the profiles down during the middle of the race. Instead, it's several hours leading up to the main event, and a lot of those hours are spent talking about the horses and trainers. I love that shit! But when I know that the profile is replacing coverage of some event or other? Well, that's frustrating.
I also dislike the formulaic nature of these profiles. It's John Tesh (or somebody like him) telling a feel-good story about overcoming adversity. Please. I'm over it. I've heard this story hundreds of times before. I don't need (or want) to hear it again. Plus, these stories are invariably about American athletes. You rarely get packages about athletes from other countries. Maybe if we did hear more about athletes from other countries, these stories would be more interesting.
But the bottom line is I used to watch the Olympics because I knew that I'd get to see the world's top athletes competing with each other. I haven't watched the past three or four Olympics because that's no longer what the television coverage contains. Instead, it's twenty minutes of profiles and commentary to every ten minutes of sport. It drives me nuts. (And for the hard-core sports fans in my life? They hate these profiles even more than I do. But even my casual fan girlfriend, who doesn't mind the profiles now and then, has grown weary of them.)
posted by jdroth at 3:30 PM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
more about athletes from other countries, these stories would be more interestingAlas, no, you wouldn't want to swap. My country has no mountains of note, almost no snow, never has freezing weather, and so obviously has very few winter sport athletes, and almost nobody follows winter sport. People here watch to see strange and baffling obscure sports we only see every four years ('hockey on ice, seriously? what next?') And yet on TV there's interruptions to interview some random Brett from Shepparton, Brett's mum, etc. etc.
Coverage of the Winter Olympics that breaks frequently to cover the life story of the one or two Australians they could find is very very boring, and obviously contrived. It's bizarre and insulting.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:01 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also, these profiles don’t age well. Some networks won’t re-run or license license their old glowing segments on brave cancer-fighter Lance Armstrong.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:23 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Ideefixe at 4:23 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Don't publications like Sports Illustrated, Basketball News, Baseball Digest, Runner's World, etc. feature athlete profiles, as well?
Sure. And in the US there are hours of athlete profile stuff on TV.
But mostly this doesn't interrupt watching the actual competition, which I think is what lots of folks are noting as most annoying. In a magazine obviously you can read it at your leisure, and on TV most of the profile stuff is in the pre-game or post-game shows, or during commercial breaks or various points where the actual play is paused, or during the hours and hours and hours when ESPN (multiple channels 24/7/365, by the way) and other sports networks have time to kill and no games to show. So if you find them dumb and formulaic and saccharine, you can easily avoid most of them during "regular" sports watching.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:41 PM on February 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
Sure. And in the US there are hours of athlete profile stuff on TV.
But mostly this doesn't interrupt watching the actual competition, which I think is what lots of folks are noting as most annoying. In a magazine obviously you can read it at your leisure, and on TV most of the profile stuff is in the pre-game or post-game shows, or during commercial breaks or various points where the actual play is paused, or during the hours and hours and hours when ESPN (multiple channels 24/7/365, by the way) and other sports networks have time to kill and no games to show. So if you find them dumb and formulaic and saccharine, you can easily avoid most of them during "regular" sports watching.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:41 PM on February 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
I’m probably part of the US demographic NBC thinks will love this stuff. I’m a woman, get emotional at commercials, love horrible Netflix romcoms… but I have to say that I think I’m finally done with the Olympics. NBC has ruined it for me. I only just deleted all the hours of prime time of summer Olympics a few months ago without watching it. I literally went online to find which days sports I’d like were on to record but it wasn’t accurate (I.e. forwarding through 4 hours to find trampoline but it never being shown).
I used to like following a few sports during the Olympics to see the suspense of who was going to win but when I watched the last summer Olympics they almost only showed the US athletes and the way it was edited I couldn’t follow who was winning, who the big talents were, etc. This editing was done to get and keep viewers he entire 4 hour broadcast but I found myself fast forwarding to find, say, gymnastics, and just got snippets here and there and couldn’t tell what was going on. It was all too spoon fed. A big part of the chopped up feel was because of these human interest stories.
So in short, it’s because it’s too much/often, too disruptive to the cadence of actual competition. I am not a huge sports fan and used to enjoy the human interest stories because they introduced me to sports and athletes I knew nothing about. I feel that human interest segments today aren’t informing me about the sport or the landscape of the competition — I don’t care about their family for the most part. Actually, last summer Olympics I found it interesting to see the “zoom” shots of their families watching specifically because it showed how affluent so many of the families are and put a real sour taste in my mouth.
I understand that I could watch a sport on peacock now, and I might, but I feel like NBC just went too far and pissed me off. I enjoyed the first profile on Simone biles, but didn’t need to see a new one every hour for weeks. I felt like there were commercials for the commercials. I was also conscious of the pressure on athletes (many who are quite young!) not only to preform their sport but also to be media savvy knowing it affects their sponsorships and future income.
posted by Bunglegirl at 4:47 PM on February 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
I used to like following a few sports during the Olympics to see the suspense of who was going to win but when I watched the last summer Olympics they almost only showed the US athletes and the way it was edited I couldn’t follow who was winning, who the big talents were, etc. This editing was done to get and keep viewers he entire 4 hour broadcast but I found myself fast forwarding to find, say, gymnastics, and just got snippets here and there and couldn’t tell what was going on. It was all too spoon fed. A big part of the chopped up feel was because of these human interest stories.
So in short, it’s because it’s too much/often, too disruptive to the cadence of actual competition. I am not a huge sports fan and used to enjoy the human interest stories because they introduced me to sports and athletes I knew nothing about. I feel that human interest segments today aren’t informing me about the sport or the landscape of the competition — I don’t care about their family for the most part. Actually, last summer Olympics I found it interesting to see the “zoom” shots of their families watching specifically because it showed how affluent so many of the families are and put a real sour taste in my mouth.
I understand that I could watch a sport on peacock now, and I might, but I feel like NBC just went too far and pissed me off. I enjoyed the first profile on Simone biles, but didn’t need to see a new one every hour for weeks. I felt like there were commercials for the commercials. I was also conscious of the pressure on athletes (many who are quite young!) not only to preform their sport but also to be media savvy knowing it affects their sponsorships and future income.
posted by Bunglegirl at 4:47 PM on February 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
Don't publications like Sports Illustrated, Basketball News, Baseball Digest, Runner's World, etc. feature athlete profiles, as well? Or are those profiles less superficial, saccharine, and manipulative than the ones featured during the Olympics?
It's less annoying because you can turn the page! The magazine doesn't have a built-in mechanism that makes you absorb the backstory for precisely four minutes before you are allowed to get to the thing you really want to see!
posted by Daily Alice at 5:36 PM on February 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
It's less annoying because you can turn the page! The magazine doesn't have a built-in mechanism that makes you absorb the backstory for precisely four minutes before you are allowed to get to the thing you really want to see!
posted by Daily Alice at 5:36 PM on February 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
I am not a hardcore sports fan, except for the sport I play myself. I mostly hate the profiles just for reasons others have mentioned.
I love story. I'm interested in gossip about the athletes, their coaches, and the team. Really. I often look up things on my phone while I'm watching so that I can know more about what is going on. But I just would rather be watching the competition.
Also, the network profiles often focus on specific athletes who may not be the best, just the ones they think we want to watch. And they tell a kind of "story" that I find annoying; it's as if they have decided already who is worth watching and who isn't, and done their best to predigest the competition for us. It's doubly annoying when the person they spent all the camera time on turns out to have a bad day. Seems unfair.
posted by Peach at 7:19 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love story. I'm interested in gossip about the athletes, their coaches, and the team. Really. I often look up things on my phone while I'm watching so that I can know more about what is going on. But I just would rather be watching the competition.
Also, the network profiles often focus on specific athletes who may not be the best, just the ones they think we want to watch. And they tell a kind of "story" that I find annoying; it's as if they have decided already who is worth watching and who isn't, and done their best to predigest the competition for us. It's doubly annoying when the person they spent all the camera time on turns out to have a bad day. Seems unfair.
posted by Peach at 7:19 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
"If you like sports, why don't you like something that isn't sports being shown instead of sports?"
Like, this doesn't seem that complex to understand.
posted by Superilla at 7:20 PM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
Like, this doesn't seem that complex to understand.
posted by Superilla at 7:20 PM on February 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
I watch the Olympics, hate the profiles, and I also hate those “watch parties” they keep showing now.
The way I see it, all the athletes want to win, everyone has a life story, most people have family and friends back home rooting for them. All the athletes have worked very hard to get to the Olympics. The focus on only very select American athletes feels manipulative and pandering, takes me out of the event, and is not in the spirit of why I’m watching the Olympics to begin with.
Really, I just want to watch the events. They’re already so chopped up and filled with ads on NBC as it is.
In response to your followup question, I don’t read sports magazines. I rarely watch sports at all outside of the Olympics.
posted by wondermouse at 8:04 PM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
The way I see it, all the athletes want to win, everyone has a life story, most people have family and friends back home rooting for them. All the athletes have worked very hard to get to the Olympics. The focus on only very select American athletes feels manipulative and pandering, takes me out of the event, and is not in the spirit of why I’m watching the Olympics to begin with.
Really, I just want to watch the events. They’re already so chopped up and filled with ads on NBC as it is.
In response to your followup question, I don’t read sports magazines. I rarely watch sports at all outside of the Olympics.
posted by wondermouse at 8:04 PM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
Don't publications like Sports Illustrated, Basketball News, Baseball Digest, Runner's World, etc. feature athlete profiles, as well? Or are those profiles less superficial, saccharine, and manipulative than the ones featured during the Olympics?
1. Yes
2. Also yes
Also, I don't read them. The Olympic profiles are very samey and are interrupting the watching of the actual sport. Sports magazines are nominally what you are reading when you are not also trying to watch the actual sport.
posted by jessamyn at 8:20 PM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
1. Yes
2. Also yes
Also, I don't read them. The Olympic profiles are very samey and are interrupting the watching of the actual sport. Sports magazines are nominally what you are reading when you are not also trying to watch the actual sport.
posted by jessamyn at 8:20 PM on February 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
I hate the athlete profiles for several of the reasons mentioned above (they are treacly, formulaic, and cut away from the flow of the sports events I actually like to watch).
And I’m in the demo that is supposed to like these things. I read enough about ice skating that I knew who Valieva was back in October, and I knew of some of the controversies about her coach. My Google news feed regularly serves me videos of college level gymnastics. And I enjoy me some sap too.
But, after Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Michaela Shiffrin have all talked about the problematic obsessive press coverage (and they aren’t the first, just the most recent), it feels downright *exploitative*. These people are performers, yes, but they signed up to perform their sport, not to perform some ideal of “perfect human who overcomes adversity and no longer has privacy and is somehow ok with that.” Aren’t their amazing superhuman feats of athletic prowess enough?
I prefer the stories out of the competition itself. Like the high jumper last summer who kept amazing himself with how he was jumping (he didn’t win, he didn’t medal, but he had a great time coming in fifth or sixth or whichever it was). So, I don’t watch the prime time coverage because it obscures those stories.
posted by nat at 10:18 PM on February 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
And I’m in the demo that is supposed to like these things. I read enough about ice skating that I knew who Valieva was back in October, and I knew of some of the controversies about her coach. My Google news feed regularly serves me videos of college level gymnastics. And I enjoy me some sap too.
But, after Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Michaela Shiffrin have all talked about the problematic obsessive press coverage (and they aren’t the first, just the most recent), it feels downright *exploitative*. These people are performers, yes, but they signed up to perform their sport, not to perform some ideal of “perfect human who overcomes adversity and no longer has privacy and is somehow ok with that.” Aren’t their amazing superhuman feats of athletic prowess enough?
I prefer the stories out of the competition itself. Like the high jumper last summer who kept amazing himself with how he was jumping (he didn’t win, he didn’t medal, but he had a great time coming in fifth or sixth or whichever it was). So, I don’t watch the prime time coverage because it obscures those stories.
posted by nat at 10:18 PM on February 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
Don't publications like Sports Illustrated, Basketball News, Baseball Digest, Runner's World, etc. feature athlete profiles, as well? Or are those profiles less superficial, saccharine, and manipulative than the ones featured during the Olympics?
Yes, but you have the choice to skip ahead to other things. On TV you don't unless you've taped the show and are watching it later.
However, it sounds like you personally enjoy hearing about the athlete's backstories: I have an interesting experiment to propose. Have a look on Youtube for clips of any of the Paralympic athlete interviews, but only the ones done on a show called "The Last Leg". They'll be talking about the same kinds of stuff, but the tone will be a bit different - respectful, but a little irreverent as well.
I suspect you'll notice that difference in tone. And if you do, and you happen to still prefer the segments on the Olympics - hey, that's fair. But at least you will know that it's possible to do things with a different tone, and that likely it is the tone that people are responding to rather than the content.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:03 AM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yes, but you have the choice to skip ahead to other things. On TV you don't unless you've taped the show and are watching it later.
However, it sounds like you personally enjoy hearing about the athlete's backstories: I have an interesting experiment to propose. Have a look on Youtube for clips of any of the Paralympic athlete interviews, but only the ones done on a show called "The Last Leg". They'll be talking about the same kinds of stuff, but the tone will be a bit different - respectful, but a little irreverent as well.
I suspect you'll notice that difference in tone. And if you do, and you happen to still prefer the segments on the Olympics - hey, that's fair. But at least you will know that it's possible to do things with a different tone, and that likely it is the tone that people are responding to rather than the content.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:03 AM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm an extremely casual fan, I watch a subset of the Olympics plus maybe three or four hockey games a year and that's all my sports needs tapped out. So I have no idea whether sports magazines include these specific types of formulaic profiles. But they annoy the hell out of me at the Olympics.
I can definitely imagine profiles I would enjoy. I don't hate the idea of athlete profiles at all! But they'd need to thread the tricky needle of both being less exploitative of athletes' private lives, and more individual and interesting about the parts of those private lives they do cover. And also stop airing them opposite actual events. It could be done but it would take more effort, expense, and thought than anyone seems motivated to put into them.
posted by Stacey at 6:59 AM on February 14, 2022
I can definitely imagine profiles I would enjoy. I don't hate the idea of athlete profiles at all! But they'd need to thread the tricky needle of both being less exploitative of athletes' private lives, and more individual and interesting about the parts of those private lives they do cover. And also stop airing them opposite actual events. It could be done but it would take more effort, expense, and thought than anyone seems motivated to put into them.
posted by Stacey at 6:59 AM on February 14, 2022
Isn't it more enjoyable to watch the events if you know something about the participants?
I'm sorry but no, I don't care about them. Athletes are all interchangeable to me. I could care less about what lame reason they started playing for or the minor 'setbacks' which drive them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:27 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm sorry but no, I don't care about them. Athletes are all interchangeable to me. I could care less about what lame reason they started playing for or the minor 'setbacks' which drive them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:27 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also, most people just haven't lived especially interesting lives, even if you're a top-class athlete!
I'd say, especially if you're a top-class athlete. You've probably spent most of your teen and adult years in a gym, working out and practicing.
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 11:11 AM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'd say, especially if you're a top-class athlete. You've probably spent most of your teen and adult years in a gym, working out and practicing.
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 11:11 AM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Isn't it more enjoyable to watch the events if you know something about the participants?
If it's a sport I've been following, I already know a lot about them. Basically they only do them on the perceived front-runner, someone with an already-well-known sob story background, or the athletes representing the U.S. Take figure skating for an example. I knew who Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, and Jason Brown were 4-10 years before this Olympics. So four-minutes on an athlete profile is on any one of them is four minutes that could have been used to show the long program of one of the lesser-known skaters from non-USA countries. I would much rather watch someone who isn't usually on tv get their Olympic moment.
And even if I didn't know a damned thing about anyone who was competing in figure skating this year, I would find the skating compelling to watch. The combination of creativity and athleticism, and what each skater or skating team chooses to emphasize in their programs is fascinating, even if I don't know anything about them personally.
posted by creepygirl at 9:30 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
If it's a sport I've been following, I already know a lot about them. Basically they only do them on the perceived front-runner, someone with an already-well-known sob story background, or the athletes representing the U.S. Take figure skating for an example. I knew who Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, and Jason Brown were 4-10 years before this Olympics. So four-minutes on an athlete profile is on any one of them is four minutes that could have been used to show the long program of one of the lesser-known skaters from non-USA countries. I would much rather watch someone who isn't usually on tv get their Olympic moment.
And even if I didn't know a damned thing about anyone who was competing in figure skating this year, I would find the skating compelling to watch. The combination of creativity and athleticism, and what each skater or skating team chooses to emphasize in their programs is fascinating, even if I don't know anything about them personally.
posted by creepygirl at 9:30 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Just a little followup to my earlier answer, on the kind of sports stories I like: the athlete who was having a personal best day at the high jump finals in 2020 was Woo Sang-hyeok. Plus if you watch the whole finals, you'll also get to see a great moment with the shared gold-medal winners. They're on youtube. It's 2 hrs long but really worth watching.
posted by nat at 10:50 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by nat at 10:50 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: So, to summarize, these are the reasons why some people hate athlete profiles during the Olympics:
Anyway, thanks for providing another perspective.
posted by alex1965 at 6:22 AM on February 23, 2022
- They interrupt the coverage of the actual events
- They are saccharine and manipulative
- They unfairly focus on American athletes and/or athletes who are likely to win
- They feature “serious-but-inconsequential adversity like an injury, death of a parent” [Inconsequential? Having recently lost a parent and having overcome at least one near-death health crisis, I find this objection to be unconvincing, to put it as charitably as I can]
- They ignore “real” adversity, like racism, sexism, abuse or a horrible family life
- They’re unrealistic, commercial, and look like they were cooked-up by a PR team. They look like audition tapes for sponsorship gigs
- They constitute “jingoistic rah-rah-America coverage”
- They’re pointless because athletes are not interesting people, and they’re all interchangeable [Sorry, but this is just bizarre to me.]
Anyway, thanks for providing another perspective.
posted by alex1965 at 6:22 AM on February 23, 2022
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I dislike them during the Olympics because I'd rather watch the competitions in full. I wouldn't say I'm a hardcore fan but I like seeing competitors who have no chance for a medal, for instance, rather than just the highlights.
I think there can be a balance and I don't dislike knowing more about these athletes, but when it takes away from showing the actual events, I get cranky.
(I like having Peacock because of this. It's the way I want to watch the Olympics.)
posted by edencosmic at 10:15 AM on February 13, 2022 [19 favorites]