This isn’t really true. For most races BBC used their own commentary, by Matt Chilton and Annie Emerson. It was only for races where there would be lower viewing figures (i.e. in the middle of the night) when BBC would use the “world” commentary feed by Trevor and Helen
That isn’t Barry or Helen’s fault. They were there as commentators for BBC until the end of last season and ITU used the same commentary for english speaking production. Blame ITU if anyone.
Rachel Klamar did the Dutch commentary this year. Not every country takes the english commentary. In France it was on TV so no need to watch ITU.
I thought I was going mad, but yes I could have swore BBC used a different bloke than Trevor, I don’t actually mind Annie Emerson.
Prefer her to Helen, Annie has a habit of getting a lot of stuff wrong, but I’ll take it over Helen continuing to talk in boring tones over key parts of the race.
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Annie has done hardly any since she started doing the higher paying other commentaries. Helen is a later addition I agree. Annie is better at it though.
This weekend as part of ncaa regionals they had a super sprint DL event in NC. KZ’s squad of pro athletes raced it, I think they had 3 podiums, one win. I got to talk to her a bit and we both laughed we have very much “development” athletes at this point (her athletes are more advanced DL athletes going into pro ranks). She seems to have found a groove with being a mom and balancing a itu squad demands.
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Presumably the Olympic points chase starts in Yoko? Already!
question to ponder: who is most likely to defend their gold? CB, AY or Germany?
What’s going to be a little interesting is that imo Wtcs has gone a bit t100-y in that with so many races, points may get split out if athletes skip races along the what 10 race schedule. You may have more people with similiar points and a more compact standings. Premium is usually put on the Olympic distance races but still may see a lot of people skipping races simply cus calendar has so many events and other athletes getting sorta “artificially” improved standing.
I would say all 3 have a solid chance to defend their title yet all three will face fierce competiion and 2024 was likely for all 3 the the easiest shot to win that goal . beaugrnad will have to be contempt with lombardi and tertch and some upcoming atheltes like mansson.
yee to have to fight hauser and the new agressive swim cyclists like graf that will make it much harder for yee to be in contention.
and germany will likely be a bit worried about their 2nd male one would assume hellwig will be back but they are a bit thinly spread on the male side. and intersintgly so is france atm. and uk right now would be happy where they are atm.
Id go for Yee, there’s a few men coming through who could close that huge gap him and Wilde had over everyone else around the last Olympics though.
I think Yee will be fine, but Hayden will have to bring his swim back to another level if he wants to still have a chance at L.A.
The biggest threat to both might actually be David Cantero Del Campo!
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cantero is just an spanish yee or mola lol
but i guess we will go again with breakaway swim as packs stick more often and graf and hauser devay have a massive interest to stay away
US’s Summer Rapp is officially retiring from her professional career.
Likewise Jodie Stimpson, at her very best (can remember one year particular she was looking like becoming a world champion. Controversially never made the Olympics, very unlucky with injuries in her career, happy retirement!
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Have spoke to her a few times this summer as she’s coaching an itu junior development team here in the states. I think she’s excited about that new chapter
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What will be interesting is, yes the US needs both of them seemingly. But the US needs both of them to be optimal at ITU and more directly the MTR…..so a schedule to put themselves in the best position for that will be very interesting to see how either or both handle that. US needs medals, as there likely is no chance of indvidual medal worthy performances in LA.
It may play out siniliar to what happened w Ben Kanute. He was a near lock for MTR Tokyo in ‘17-‘19 time frame until it was clear he had lost his top MTR ability and other men had closed the gap, so you could pick atleast 2 other men in place of Kanute by the time Olympics occurred. Kanute raced middle distance and MTR only in that time period and was showing signs of “non specialization” impacting his ability. In the Women’s case I don’t think anyone has closed the gap *yet, even though it’ll both knibb and Spivey’s top end MTR ability is likely past their prime at this point.
The US women I think are sorta at a major crossroads of where/who the next generation of talent is going to be.
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I would say ruff and wetteland are doing fine , it not a lot for such a big country but at least it shows NCAA is not a total waste of time.
What will be interresting is seeing the relationship/pathway for USAT’s newly funded daily training group led by KZ. An athlete of her’s just picked up the squads 1st international win at a recent CC level this past weekend. With those 2 you mentioned I don’t know how impactful they’ll be in the race for LA Games spot but yes they are sorta in line once most of the older senior level US women fully roll off.
My comment was more directed at LA Games roster. If Spivey and Knibb stay part time itu’ers and still the best of the US allotment, I don’t know that that’s likely a good thing for the US’s medal chances.
I would say the medal chances for Usa are likely to be the lowest for a good while. ie atm most likely 0 to 1. and even for the relay uk and Germany ( if hellwig gets back ) look quite good and with Hauser Australia is rather strong in the anchor position.
ruff is the 4 th youngest athelte in the top 90 in the world ranking and while no doubt she would profit from the games being 2029 I would not write both off for 2028.
USA had the potential to medal in Paris (MWMW) and did so superbly, repeating their success in Tokyo (WMWM). Entirely predictable (see contemporary threads) that if within range after the third lap, Knibb would ride up, and she did. I wish she had had more bike racing experience as the silver medal she earned for the USA (by surprisingly out-sprinting Potter) could have been gold if she’d taken care to bury Lindemann with her pass.
I fear that with the reversion this Olympiad to WMWM even if the two Ws are Spivey and Knibb (any younger American talent will surely need to look to Brisbane) the chances of an MTR medal are slim: can Pearson expect to be in there with a shout? I guess Jorgensen might still be soldiering on, but as a relay team member, which leg would you trust her with?
USA Needs Knibb to be anywhere near top 5 in the MTR: we’ll see whether a home Olympics motivates her ‘enough’.