Snappy Exit

I missed the CBC broadcast this weekend as Hurricane Earl had our power knocked out from Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning.  Lucky for me, CBC is still hosting the broadcast on it’s website. It was nice to get to see some of the races, but all in all the coverage can only be called poor.  Actually, I would go so far as to say that the broadcast was the worst I have ever seen.

They couldn’t take the time to show the 1000 c1 final (one of only 4 Olympic-Event finals Canada was in).  Instead we had to suffer through the highlights.   Then, they took the time to show the Women’s K1 finals.  Oh well, at least the CBC showed 10 strokes from the C1 race, they didn’t show a single highlight from the C4, only the mugshots of the boys.  Also, the continued reference to Laurence’s “Kayak” took away a little of my enthusiasm at having just watched Canada win the first ever Women’s Canoe Gold.  I know that we want to see finals - and that is where the excitement is, but I am disapointed that we couldn’t even see a little bit of our Women’s kayak team in the heats or semis and saw only a few of the Men’s Kayak athletes.

Also, it was pretty obvious that CBC wasn’t on site.  The opening and closing were filmed on the Toronto waterfront, and we didn’t get a single interview with the team.  The lack of coverage and interest is what will kill amateur sport in Canada.  Just a few months ago we were all amazed at how a country could rally around its Olympic stars at home…now the country doesn’t even care enough to send a camera crew to Poland.

UGH!

So, in this digital age you have to be quick.  The videos posted by erbse2006 that I shamelessly copied to my own site have been taken down under threat of legal action.  I wouldn’t mind so much if there was somewhere else to find them but they don’t seem to be readily available anywhere.  I think the ICF is missing the boat on this.  If they want to promote the sport and get people excited they need to take advantage of the free publicity that YouTube can give.  Maybe after the CBC broadcast something will get posted again.

The Women’s C-1 race was very impressive this year.   Not just because Canada came out on top and has the honor of being the first ever World Champion, but because the event has grown from one in which we would have seen three countries compete just a few years ago to one with a competitive nine boat final.  Congratulations to Laurence and to all those who came before her.