I’ve been watching the Olympics a lot the last week. Not as much as I would like as I value my sleep, but I’ve been getting in some great couch time. I’ve so far been quite impressed with Channel Nine’s coverage – they say what is coming up and they actually show that event, unlike Channel Seven’s debacle in Beijing! I’m not even minding the ridiculous number of replays of the same races over and over again. My only issue with the whole coverage is the interviewing. The number of interviews are fine, and the quality of the questions are generally pretty good, except one question.

“So, can you tell us what went wrong?”

What does that even mean? Why is there an implication that something actually did go wrong? As my Mum says, not everyone can win. And it’s okay not to get the gold. Sometimes a person does the best they can, or maybe they feel like they could have done better, but suggesting that something went wrong is such a cop-out. What answer are they expecting?

“Well I got a massive wedgie at the halfway mark and was so distracted I couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing.”

It’s not a question that needs to be asked as there is most likely no answer, and I imagine it would just make the athlete feel like they weren’t good enough. Like losing needs to be justified, or someone/something needs to be blamed for their “loss” instead of “well the person who beat me ran/swam/rowed/dove/kayaked better than me today.”

Oh, and another one I just heard:
“If you had your time again, what would you do?
Answer: “I wouldn’t do this interview.”