Former Athletes Struggle on TV

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

As an athlete, Kim Su-nyung looked as if she was born with ice water in her veins, with her mastery of skills and unflappability in the biggest of moments bagging her four Olympic golds, most ever by a South Korean.

However, as a television commentator for MBC, the archery legend has been anything but cool and smooth. Kim is one of the many Olympians and coaches hired by the country's three national television stations ― MBC, KBS and SBS ― to provide color commentary for their coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

The broadcasters have competed to hire the high-profile sports figures, which they thought would determine the ratings battle, especially with their Korea-heavy coverage of the Games leaving little room for differentiation.

However, frustrated viewers are now discovering that their beloved sports stars, some of them revealed as shockingly ill-prepared, are some of the few people who find words more difficult than actions.

Kim's commentary during the archery competition was a strange mixture of chants, gasps, sobbing, self-contradiction and long moments of awkward silence.

She was one-half of an odd duo with the over-the-top, play-by-play man, who had the composure and objectivity of a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announcer.

``He is starting to shake,'' screamed the announcer as Ukraine's Viktor Ruban shot a nine after Korea's Park Kyung-mo shot a 10 in the gold medal match of men's individual archery.

``Park is showing his opponent he knows how to shoot a 10,'' shouted Kim in response.

Moments later, Park shot an eight on his next-to-last attempt and eventually conceded the gold to Ruban.

``Ruban is a tremendous player,'' the suddenly quiet play-by-play man said to a background of ``ahhs'' by Kim.

However, the archery crew was not responsible for MBC's biggest on-air blunder. On the night that Jang Mi-ran bagged the gold and set a new world record in women's over 78-kilogram weightlifting, commentator Ahn Hyo-jack, a former Asian Games silver medalist, said ``as a woman, she needs to marry and have a baby some day.''

``In the age of high-definition broadcasting, MBC's level of commentary remains in the pre-color television era,'' wrote a frustrated viewer at the television station's Internet site.

That viewer wouldn't have fared much better flipping the channels to KBS. Covering the Korea-Japan baseball game Saturday, KBS color commentator Lee Yong-chul spent most of the time shouting comments like ``what a pitch," ``I am so proud of our players'' and ``ahh, that was a strike," but seemed rather disinterested in game analysis.

And SBS wrestling commentator Shim Kwon-ho, a two-time Olympic champion, entitled himself to shout directions on-air to Korean silver medalist Jung Ji-hyun.

``I told you not to do that,'' screamed Shim as the play-by-play announcer responded with silence.

Not all former athletes proved as poor broadcasters. Former weightlifting gold medalist Chun Byung-kwan, working for KBS, got acclaim for his humor and easy analysis, and former badminton queen Bang Su-hyun, working for MBC, was also well reviewed.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr

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