UKC

I managed to miss much of the coverage of the recent winter Olympics but noticed  the commentators and their commentary got a fair amount of coverage themselves.

As much as I am completely against climbing being in the Olympics I did begin to wonder who might be suitable to take on this role for the Olympic crimpers and crankers? A still slightly boyish team of Neil G and Timmy? The warm Yorkshire wisdom of Steve Mac? The technical Scottish master, Dave McC? An irreverent and nationally unknown local wag? Women? The younger generation?

Nominations so they can get applying for all those nice grants for a one time shot at the crown.

Alan Partridge. 

It's got to be Niall Grimes. The world is not ready, but I would love to be watching the Olympics on the BBC, pissing myself laughing as he does his thing. 

Mountain Spirit. After all, he'll have climbed with most of them by then...

It'll be mr Liam Lonsdale and an older hard climber i reckon. Can't wait to see our sport get Olympic recognition 

Olympic commentators.  Choose two from

Roger Black

Sally Gunnell

Clare Balding

Michael Johnson

Or a really sarky women. 

Helen Skelton.

He does the commentary on the IFSC world cup (some rounds at least), the UIAA ice world cup, and various UK national comps.

Liam does not do IFSC World Cups.

Mike Langley has done a few IFSC World Cups both Lead and Boulder. He would be in the frame.

Leah Crane would also be a possibility.

Andy Kirkpatrick.

I quite enjoyed Leah Crane during the Moonboard Masters competition this year as well as of course the BIFF. Informative yet entertaining.

Joe Brown

It'll be Chris Bonington as he's the only recognisable name in TV land.

I think Liam & Leah would be a good combo. And Grimer.

Grimer.

Leah Crane has certainly impressed as a presenter (rather than commentator) at recent comps. She seems to have a natural talent for the job.

I'm a fan of Charlie Boscoe over Liam and Mike however Niall Grimes would be my first choice.

Dream team:

Leah - presenting.

Charlie - commentating.

Steve Mac - analysing.

Niall - roving reporter.

There will likely be 2 lots of commentators, one for the Beeb and one for the Olympic Broadcasting Service - the OBS provide all of the pictures from the Olympics and provide a commentary for countries that don't have their own.

John Redhead would be great and a total mind f*ck

Terry Wogan?

None of them are commentators, I don’t think Black and Gunnell even work for the BBC these days. The BBC ‘experts’ that turn their hand to pretty much anything seem to be Cram, Backley and Edwards, or Simon Brotherton.

They do usual get someone involved in the actual sport as well though.

I'm not sure the general public could cope with John Redhead!

Liam Lonsdale (thanks, I couldny remember his name) did the commentary at World Cup last Sept at Rarho. I'd never heard of him, but actually, he was very good at it! Seems an obvious choice.

Hazel Findlay? -British, brave, female, and surely also the next Chief Scout? And a "proper climber" so no mumps from UKC (actually, that last point is impossible)

Shauna Coxsey? Natalie Berry? -tonnes of comp climbing experience!!

The Wide Boyz? -they have very good chemistry, important when not much is happening, or itgoes wrong.

Andy Kirkpatrick isn't a bad suggestion, bit of wry humour!

What about Jamie Andrew? Paralympian Climber, and motivational speaker of many years, he's surely got to be under consideration?

Aye, Jamie Andrew. Possibly with JP Devlin who does the darts, cos he'd be good. And Hazel obvs. On our "first time out there", it would be great if we didn't appear to be a grndered sport.

I think Liam was the compere at the Ratho WC rather than the TV/webcast commentator.

Hopefully Shauna will be competing!

Go on Shauna, go on Shauna...

Has to be Grimer.

Yes, my bad. And i should know the distinction as  i spoke quite a bit to mike and liam at the Ratho WC!!

How are none of them commentators?  I suppose if you are talking about someone giving a blow by blow talk through of an event, yes maybe so.  But the list was to demonstrate that the Olympic climbing event will be given about as much consideration as most of the other none track & field events on TV.

The people listed, or similar if you want to mention Cram & co will be given the job of "coming live from....." but I do not expect anything like what is being discussed here.

Lets wait and see.

I reckon the BBC will follow their normal strategy for World Cup football for the climbing commentary.  They'll hire Bob Pettigrew and tell him to just go on and on about events in 1966 and pretty much ignore what's happening on the wall. 

We will see. Looking at the Winter Olympics there was a mix of professional commentators and people who had competed in the events; Amy Williams, Alex Coomber (Skeleton), John Jackson (Bob), Jackie Lockhart (Curling), Wilf O’Riley (Speed Skating), Christopher Dean, Robin Cousins (Figure Skating), Chemie Alcott, Graeme Bell (Skiing), Ed Leigh, Jenny Jones (Boarding).

Taekwondo was pretty small in the UK pre London yet the Beeb had a specialist commentator for that - Mike Cullen who was a Scottish taekwondo team member, and also did one season of commentary for the IFSC webcasting.

The Ozzy Reviews man. He's pretty good at the badminton:

https://www.facebook.com/ozzymanreviews/videos/1261223350580196/

Ondra is definitely doing "next level shit".

Ideally teamed up with Grimer for expert analysis.

Jesus, that could be comedy gold. Just wait until he has an attempt at all those wierd foreign names........

Surely Leo Houlding has to be on the shortlist?! As far as I'm aware, he has no interest in competition climbing and no commentating experience, but he has appeared on the BBC before so they'll have his number and he could wingsuit into the commentary booth. That's probably all the qualification you need.

Who would the American broadcasters want? Presumably, the only two faces the public might recognise... Alex "no fear" Honnold and Tommy "Dawn Wall" Caldwell.

They'll be getting the vote next!

Why are you looking at the winter Olympics?  It has no relation to this.  Those commentators mentioned are commentating on a big important part of the winter Olympics.  Truth be told, whoever is commentating on climbing in the Olympics is doing the graveyard shift akin to Taekwondo or judo.  You normally see a round or two and a medal ceremony on tv with Claire Balding doing the links.

A duo of Mountain Spirit and Johnny Dawes.

Bear Grylls, you know it, I know it...oh f**k!!

The comparison with the Winter Olympics is simple, recent, Olympic competition, featuring largely minority sports.

He'll be too busy taking the urine samples

Comparing the Winter Olympics to Summer Olympics is like comparing a Brother Beyond reunion gig to Live Aid.

I am not confessing to knowing much about show jumping, fencing, diving, taekwondo etc etc but I have enjoyed the limited coverage over the last decade or so when my sleep pattern matched up and I got to take in the nature of the competition.  What I do know is unless the Olympic climbing event is streamed separately on some form of youtube link where we can benefit from proper commentary, the likelihood is as I have described.

Steve Backshall could be a shout. Already on the BBC, known by the general public and big into his climbing.

Everything at the Olympics is available live, on OBS or on BBC.com and they will have a specialist commentator. What the Beeb show on the telly box remains to be seen.

Whether climbing is on at a reasonable time will depend on where they think the biggest TV audience is and schedule the event to suit that audience. At the moment that target is Japan.

I guess it perhaps depends if you mean commentators or pundits (the former could really be done by someone with just a learned knowledge rather than having to be a climber). For the latter, ideally someone who has competed at a national level (in climbing) in the past, who is both enthusiastic and able to inform. I don't know who that would mean in practice but there must be plenty possibilities - Nat Berry, Gaz Parry etc? 

I’m not comparing Summer and Winter Olympics, I’m looking at a recent example of treatment of minority sports within a games setting. Given that the BBC coverage of the Olympics does include a dozen or more feeds on the red button and online, and that Athletics commentators will be busy commentating on Athletics, specialist commentators will be required, the Winter Olympics is a recent example of their willingness to use them.

Who could do the job better than Jerry Moffat? World Cup winner and what a story teller!

Paul Whitehouse, from The Fast Show..."Beany hats for goalposts...isn't it"

Maybe Amazon will outbid the Beeb and we'll get Clarkson and May.

Sylvester Stallone, he's  brilliant at pretend climbing

I think he maybe misunderstood by the Japanese hosts..

Imagine it: An elderly John Redhead live on TV, whinging about what is truth, love and the intangible metamorphosis of movement into light through climbing, complete with scaling the speed wall without a rope only to have a wank behind the auto-belays.

Yeah but on the 5th telling of the me, myself and I story they might realise he is the wrong person

Classic! JR would even find that hilarious alx!

I still vote for Grimer though - hands down surely with the odd special cameo appearance from Big Ron "Aye" - or my mate Charlie Creese [check out our interview vid] who's a consummate professional.

God please don't be Lonsdale. Irritant.

Ruined la sportiva legends with his inane b******t.

If it's the beeb It'll be some tw*t in a beanie or Matt Baker, god help us. Brian Blessed would be my choice.

Stanley Unwin.

Or worse still, Claire Baldwin, asking questions like " how would Bonnington have faired in this competition, would he have won gold?"

Yes Yes Yes! Blessed screaming "Fly my beauties fly!" at the speed climbing with a baffled Japanese co-commentator.

I bet she could spell her name and his!

Well maybe he would - only if someone was placed at the top of the route dangling a tenner for him though.

This might actually just about make it watchable.

Everyone knows Grylls is the foremost climber in UK :')