Monday, February 11, 2002

Remote Control

By ROB BRODIE -- Ottawa Sun
 Tuning in to CBC analyst Rob Stevens offers the uneducated viewer a serious education in snowboarding lingo.

 And, between all the gnarly phrases, you might just glean a little bit about the sport, too.

 You know it's 'boarding, dude, when you hear about women's half-pipe competitors being "amplitudedly enhanced" or turning in some "big-ass height."

 Of eventual silver-medal winner Doriane Vidal of France, Stevens said "that's the sickest run I've ever seen." Turned out there was one a little sicker, um, better, later turned in by gold-medal winner Kelly Clark of the U.S.

 'Boarders were also "folding up like a rusty lawn chair" and "warping my senses."

 As the drama neared its conclusion, Stevens exclaimed "my synapses are just burned out ... I don't know if I can get any more excited."

 CBC daytime host Ron MacLean got a kick out of Stevens' talk and any viewer with a sense of humour had to dig it, too. To play-by-play voice Brenda Irving's credit, she just let Stevens run with it.

 You also knew one thing by the end: This was women's snowboarding at a level never seen before. As Stevens, in his own unique way, made perfectly clear by the end of it all.

 HIGHS:

  A new CBC feature, The Olympic Connection, gave viewers an interesting look at the advances in speed-skating equipment over the years through the eyes of Catriona Le May Doan and legend Gaetan Boucher ... Keeping it simple: NBC's Hannah Storm curved a sheet of paper to give viewers quick insight into how halfpipe works ... There are stunning views and then there is ski jumping. Breath-taking, to say the least ... CBC's Brian Williams was at his straight-shooting best, calling the NHL all-star game "a joke" that should have been cancelled instead of held so close to the Winter Olympics.

 LOWS:

  In the 'timing sucks' department came this gem yesterday. At almost the precise moment NBC was wrapping up a heart-warming feature on Shannon Bahrke's teary celebration of her freestyle skiing silver medal on Saturday, Clark won the first U.S. gold of the Games. A result American viewers wouldn't see until much later, of course ... The men's downhill usually offers some of the Games' best drama. Yesterday, it went off with a whimper. Williams sounded disappointed in calling it a "boring" affair.

 QUOTABLE:

  "I was so nervous, I felt like puking on the side of the halfpipe." -- Canadian snowboarder Natasza Zurek, on how she felt before her first event.

 TODAY'S BEST BET:

  Figure skating, pairs free skate. We've got our first medal. Now, we go for our first gold.

2002 Games News Coverage