Olympics on CBC commentators
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The following is a list of commentators to be featured in CBC Television's Olympic Games coverage.
Hosts[edit]
CBC's 1968 Summer Olympic host Lloyd Robertson was praised by The Globe and Mail writer Leslie Millin for his cool demeanour in the face of many technical glitches including "strange breaks, noises, lapses and unscheduled fade-outs." Millin applauded Robertson, normally a newscaster, for "working with the grace and agility of a man hired to stamp grapes in a Sicilian winery."[1]
Brian Williams[2] was the principal studio anchor for CBC's Olympic Games coverage for the 1984 Winter, 1984 Summer, 1988 Winter, 1988 Summer, 1992 Winter, 1996 Summer, 1998 Winter, 2000 Summer, 2002 Winter, 2004 Summer and 2006 Winter Olympics.
Terry Leibel became the first woman to co-host CBC Sports Olympic coverage during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. She also covered the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympic Games and the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. She earned Gemini Award nominations for her work in the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics and won a 2003 Gemini Award becoming the first female sports broadcaster to do so.[3] She was also the first woman to do play-by-play for the Olympics, handling cycling, equestrian and white-water events for NBC Sports during the Summer Games in Barcelona in 1992.
Scott Russell was the network's top broadcaster for gymnastics and has covered them at the Olympic Games of 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008*, 2012, 2016, and 2020 (delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic until 2021), the 1994 Commonwealth Games and the 1999 Pan American Games. (* - He was the host for the second half of the 2008 Summer Olympics, since the previous host, Ron MacLean's.[4] mother died).
Dave Randorf hosted TSN's coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics, 2002 Winter Olympics, 2004 Summer Olympics, and 2010 Winter Olympics. Working for Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, Randorf co-hosted the CTV Olympic Morning block during the 2012 Summer Olympics.[5]
Alexandre Despatie joined the broadcast team for Canada's French-language television coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver during a brief break from training for the 2012 Games. He co-anchored the coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies alongside legendary Quebec hockey commentators Richard Garneau and Pierre Houde, narrated numerous athlete profiles, and took viewers on a tour of Granville Island, where many francophone musicians performed during the Olympics.
Kelly VanderBeek worked as an analyst/host during the Vancouver Olympics and London Olympics for CTV, continuing with the Sochi Olympics with CBC. She hosted the Raising an Olympian features and was a part of the PrimeTime Panel discussing hot topics from the day in sport. She has also worked as a guest host for Sportsnet, CBC, and Sportscene. In 2018, Vanderbeek provided daily CBC Olympic Overnight Show co-host duties, alongside Craig McMorris at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.[6]
Craig McMorris has worked as an analyst for the CBC since 2014, providing snowboarding commentary at the 2014 Winter Olympics, 2018 Winter Olympics, and the 2022 Winter Olympics. He served as cultural content for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and he also worked as a commentator for the CBC at the 2020 Summer Olympics, covering skateboarding in its Olympic debut.[7]
Andi Petrillo anchored CBC's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia. On October 24, 2015, CBC Sports launched a new show, Road to the Olympic Games, which Petrillo co-hosted with veteran sportscaster Scott Russell. CBC owns the Olympic rights in Canada until the 2032 Games, and the show features elite high-performance athletes. Andrew Chang was also a part of CBC's broadcast team for the 2014 Winter Olympics.[8][9]
In 2018, Perdita Felicien joined the CBC TV network broadcasting the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in South Korea and later the Tokyo Olympics (2021).
By event[edit]
Winter Olympics[edit]
1992[edit]
Steve Armitage reported on and hosted Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts for the Vancouver Canucks for nearly 30 years,[10] the Canadian Football League and Grey Cup for 30 years, the Olympics including speed skating, swimming and diving, and the World Cup. Armitage was laid off by the CBC in August 2014 due to cuts to sports programming and the loss of hockey coverage to Rogers Media.[11] He did, however, return to work for CBC at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics to call events such as long track speed skating. Armitage announced his retirement at the conclusion of the 2022 Winter Olympics.[12]
1998[edit]
Bob Cole's work during CBC's broadcasts of the Olympic ice hockey have also become memorable among legions of Canadians. His call on the final shot of the shootout in the semi-final game of the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano between Canada and the Czech Republic represented Canada's then-ongoing failure at the games and haunted fans for the next four years. With Canada scoreless in the shootout and Brendan Shanahan representing their last chance, Cole said in a panicked voice as Shanahan skated in towards Czech goalie Dominik Hasek, "He's gotta score, that's all!" But Shanahan was stopped by Hasek, prompting Cole to dejectedly say "No, he can't do it."[13]
At the gold medal game of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City between Canada and the United States, Cole's animated call of Joe Sakic's second goal of the game is also one of his more memorable moments. Also, when Jarome Iginla scored Canada's fourth goal of the game, with four minutes remaining in the third period, Cole was so excited when the goal was scored he yelled out "GORE!" (a hybrid of "goal" and "score"), and then proceeded to call out "Goal, Canada! Goal! Wow! A lot of Canadian fans here! The place goes crazy here in Salt Lake City, and I guess coast to coast in Canada, and all around the world!" When Sakic scored Canada's fifth goal with 1:20 remaining, Cole yelled out "Scores! Joe Sakic scores! And that makes it 5–2 Canada! Surely, that's gotta be it!" As the final seconds of the game ticked away, and as the crowd broke out in perfect unison singing "O Canada", Cole said, "Now after 50 years, it's time for Canada to stand up and cheer. Stand up and cheer everybody! The Olympics Salt Lake City, 2002, men's ice hockey, gold medal: Canada!"[14][15]
With an average Canadian audience of 10.6 million viewers, that game was the most-watched CBC Sports program, beating the previous record of 4.957 million viewers for Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals (the final game of the 1972 Summit Series between an NHL all-star team and the Soviet Union, which had been the most-watched sports program Canadian television history, was simulcast on CBC and CTV while Cole called the game on CBC Radio), in which the New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years, beating the Vancouver Canucks, another moment Cole himself called: "Here comes the faceoff and blare it Manhattan! The New York Rangers have done it here on a hot June night in New York! The Rangers are Stanley Cup Champions!"[16]
Sandra Bezic served as a commentator for NBC during the 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014 Olympic games, the World Figure Skating Championships during the early 1990s, and numerous other skating events broadcast by NBC and CBC over the years.
2002[edit]
2006[edit]
Since joining CBC Sports, Bruce Rainnie has broadcast four Olympic games (2000, 2002, 2004, & 2006). In 2006, he called the gold medal performance of the Canadian Women's Hockey team. Also in 2006, Rainnie was first on the scene to interview Brad Gushue after his rink won gold in Men's Curling. In 2007, Rainnie replaced the retiring Don Wittman as CBC's lead curling commentator.[17]
2014[18][edit]
At the 2006 Torino Olympics, Colleen Jones did CBC segments about curling. Jones provided curling commentary for NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She served as the sideline reporter for the curling events at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.
Craig McMorris has worked as an analyst for the CBC since 2014, providing snowboarding commentary at the 2014 Winter Olympics, 2018 Winter Olympics, and the 2022 Winter Olympics. He served as cultural content for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and he also worked as a commentator for the CBC at the 2020 Summer Olympics, covering skateboarding in its Olympic debut.[20]
2018[21][edit]
2022[22][edit]
Anastasia Bucsis has been CBC's Long Track speed skating analyst since 2018. She has also hosted digital shows for CBC during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.[24]
Summer Olympics[edit]
During the Munich massacre crisis at the 1972 Summer Olympics, Don Wittman and Bob Moir crawled through a hole in a fence to access the Olympic Village and give live reports, while posing as medical staff on the 1972 Canadian Olympic team.[25][26] Wittman and Moir were 50 metres (160 ft) away from the Israeli Olympic team building, and could see the nine hostages sitting in a circle, guarded by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. They filed radio reports to the CBC, and remained on location all day until the hostages were loaded onto a bus.[27]
In a 1994 interview, Moir discussed the decision to sneak into the Olympic Village by saying,
"We were young and stupid, I guess. [Wittman] and I have always done things like that. We always went after the story."[27]
1976[edit]
Vic Lindal was a colour commentator in the Sport of Volleyball at four Olympic Games; Montreal, Quebec in 1976 with CBC, Los Angeles, USA in 1984 with CBC, Seoul, Korea in 1988 with CBC, and Barcelona in 1992 with CTV.
Graham Leggat began a second career as an analyst on soccer telecasts for the CBC at the 1976 Summer Olympics and at the World Cup.
1984[edit]
Byron MacDonald has also acted as a commentator for swimming events; he was a two-time recipient of the Gemini Award for Best Sports Play-by-Play or Analyst in recognition of his swimming analysis on CBC at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics.[28]
During the 2016 Summer Olympics, MacDonald attracted criticism for remarks on a hot mic that a swimmer in the women's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay (which was implied to be a member of the Chinese team) had "dropped the ball", and that she "went out like stink, [and] died like a pig." MacDonald and the CBC later apologized for the remark, stating that he meant it as a description of her performance, and did not mean for it to be a personal attack.[29]
1988[edit]
CBC Television signed Ron Lancaster as a colour commentator on CFL broadcasts in 1980. He was part of a trio that included Don Wittman doing the play-by-play and former Argonaut head coach Leo Cahill doing colour commentary (Cahill left after the 1985 season). He was with the CBC from 1981 to 1990 and was a member of the CBC team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea as the play-by-play broadcaster for basketball.
2008[30][edit]
Jim Van Horne has broadcast from five Olympic games, including 1988 in Calgary, covering alpine skiing, 2000 in Sydney covering tennis, 2008 in Beijing, assigned to baseball and softball, and 2010 Vancouver, mentoring the commentators from APTN, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and worked in 2018 Pyeongchang on the worldwide live stream.
Karin Larsen's career in the media began in 1988 as a sports researcher for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and since she began working as a sportscaster, she has been an announcer for six Olympic Games and four Paralympic Games, notably broadcasting the play-by-play for her own sister's silver medal performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Larsen also announced for synchronised swimming for CBC Sports at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.[36]
During his career, Scott Oake has covered a total of 12 Olympic games for the CBC, including the 2008 Beijing Games where he did play-by-play for flatwater canoeing and rowing events.[37] Oake has covered downhill skiing at every Winter Olympics from Calgary in 1988 to Sochi in 2014.
After his retirement from competitive sport Rob Snoek moved into broadcasting as a play-by-play announcer for Ontario Hockey League games, first for the Oshawa Generals on CKDO,[38] and later for Peterborough Petes games on CJMB-FM.[39] He first joined the CBC's Olympic team in 2002, covering a variety of both main Olympic and Paralympic events.[40]
For the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics, Mark Lee covered the track and field events for CBC.[41]
For the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, David Moorcroft provided track and field analysis for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He commentated for Channel 4 at the 2011 World Athletics Championships. During the 2012 London Olympics he again served as a track and field analyst for Canadian television, this time for the CTV-led Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.[42] In 2016, he performed the same role for CBC/Radio-Canada's coverage of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.[43]
In May 2008, Anne Montminy did commentary for the CBC Television Network at the 2008 Beijing Olympics covering diving competitions.[44]
Michael Smith works for CBC Television Sports and CTV Television as a color commentator for track and field events; in this capacity, he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Sports Analyst at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards as a commentator for CBC Television's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics.[45]
2016[46][edit]
| Sport | Play-by-Play Announcer | Colour commentator | Reporter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Mark Lee | Michael Smith and David Moorcroft | Scott Oake |
| Basketball | Matt Devlin (Men) Bruce Rainnie (Women) |
Jack Armstrong (Men) Chantal Vallée (Women) | |
| Beach Volleyball | Rob Snoek | Mark Heese | |
| Cycling | Mark Connolly (Track) Mitch Peacock (BMX) Doug Dirks (Mountain Biking) |
Richard Wooles (Track) Kevin O'Brien (BMX) Lesley Tomlinson (Mountain Biking) | |
| Canoeing | Doug Dirks | Karen Furneaux | |
| Diving | Elliotte Friedman Mark Lee (Synchronized Diving) |
Blythe Hartley | Andrew Chang David Amber |
| Equestrian | Bruce Rainnie | Ian Allison | |
| Football | Nigel Reed | Clare Rustad | |
| Gymnastics | Brenda Irving | Kyle Shewfelt | Andrew Chang |
| Rowing | Doug Dirks | Barney Williams | Karin Larsen |
| Rugby sevens | Mitch Peacock | Andrea Burk | |
| Swimming | Elliotte Friedman | Byron McDonald | Andrew Chang David Amber |
| Tennis | Rob Faulds | Robert Bettauer | |
| Triathlon | Brenda Irving | Barrie Shepley | |
| Volleyball | Charles Parkinson | Emily Cordonier and Paul Duerden |
During the 2012 London Olympics, Kyle Shewfelt served as a gymnastics analyst for the CTV Television Network-led Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.[47]
In 2016, Elliotte Friedman was a commentator during CBC's coverage of diving and swimming events at the 2016 Summer Olympics to replace Steve Armitage (who was unable to attend the Games due to his diagnosis with chronic heart failure).[48]
Chantal Vallée has contributed as a colour commentator for basketball on prominent Canadian broadcasting channels, including CBC,[49] CTV, Sportsnet, TSN, and RDS. Her extensive coverage encompasses significant sporting events such as the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics.[50] and the 2019 NBA play-offs.
Clare Rustad has served as a soccer analyst on CBC, TSN and Sportsnet for events including the Pan Am Games, the FIFA Women's World Cup, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[51]
2020[52][edit]
Dan Shulman previously worked for CTV in its coverage of the 1994 Winter Olympics from Lillehammer, Norway, covering hockey, and the 1994 World Championships of Basketball.[53]
References[edit]
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- ^ Baluja, Tamara. "CBC lays off veteran sportscasters Steve Armitage and Mark Lee". j-source.ca.
- ^ "CBC lays off veteran sportscasters Steve Armitage and Mark Lee amid budget cuts - Toronto Star". Toronto Star. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "Longtime broadcaster Armitage announces retirement". TSN. 18 February 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
- ^ Larkin, Matt (November 9, 2018). "Top 100 Goalies: No. 5 – Dominik Hasek". The Hockey News. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
- ^ Wharnsby, Tim (December 20, 2018). "Bob Cole is now getting the send-off he deserves". CBC News. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
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- ^ Ohler, Shawn (February 26, 2002). "Lucky Loonie Stunt Pays Off". Calgary Herald. p. A1.
A record-busting average of 8.7 million Canadians watched on television as the men's hockey team snatched gold from the United States in Salt Lake City...The audience actually peaked at 10.6 million, the CBC said Monday...CBC says that prior to Sunday, its highest-rated sports show was Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks, which attracted an average of 4.97 million viewers.
- ^ globeandmail.com: Rainnie slides into Wittman's curling shoes
- ^ http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2013/10/cbc-unveils-broadcast-coverage-of-sochi-2014-olympic-games/ CBC unveils broadcast coverage of Sochi 2014 Olympic Games
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- ^ a b Rud, Jeff (August 27, 1994). "Munich massacre changed the way we view Games". Times Colonist. Victoria, British Columbia. p. 11.
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