Once upon a time — a few days before they lit the torch for Athens 2004, if memory serves me — your humble blogger penned his usual preview of the planned Olympic broadcast coverage for the Ottawa Sun.
(at least it was 'usual' procedure for seven Games while I was there).
Often, those pre-Olympic columns would revolve around an interview with the CBC's then-dean of the Games, Brian Williams (now at TSN). A veteran of the sporting Big Show that I dubbed the network's "Mr. Olympics" before those Summer Games in Greece (it was such a good reference that Peter Mansbridge used it to introduce the esteemed Mr. Williams before the Mother Corp.'s coverage of the opening ceremony in Athens. Undoubtedly a coincidence ... but I digress).
While we Canadians have set our clocks, so to speak, to Williams' direction of prime-time coverage of the Games over the years — gawd, we're gonna miss him in Beijing this summer — another TV broadcaster south of the border had already set the standard for how an Olympics should be presented.
To me, ABC's Jim McKay was the original Mr. Olympics, a distinction and honour he is most worthy of wearing. And this isn't just being said out of necessary respect on the day on which McKay passed away at age 87.
For someone who developed a passion for all things Olympics at a young age, McKay was the gold standard for it all. The man you trusted to give you the straight goods from wherever the Games were being held (a dozen times in all), back when ABC was America's Olympic network (pre-1990s, for those who don't recall).
Of course, McKay is most famous for his work on that terrible day in Munich in 1972, when he carried us all through what would end up being the darkest moment in Olympic history: The massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists.
"They're all gone," McKay told us when the awful news was confirmed, the tone of his voice truly offering up all that needed to be said.
While McKay's longest association was with ABC's often wild and wacky Wide World of Sports — the anthology show that gave us "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” — I will always remember him as the man who spoke in front of the five rings so many times.
Forever, he'll be Mr. Olympics to me.
Showing posts with label ABC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABC. Show all posts
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
When We Were One
The book hasn't been opened in who knows how long.
But there it sits on a shelf in my living room, the three words in its title a tangible reminder of a remarkable two weeks 20 years ago, when Canada proudly opened its door to the world perhaps like never before.
Calgary 1988. It was our first try at being Winter Olympics hosts (we'd done the Summer Games thing 12 years earlier in Montreal) and did those warm Albertans ever pull it off just right. Those Olympics raised the bar to new heights and, if you ask the fortunate folks who go to these things on a regular basis, maybe only Lillehammer 1994 has surpassed it since.
Think of those Games and names like Katarina Witt, Alberto Tomba, Brian Boitano and Canadian heroes Brian Orser, Liz Manley, Karen Percy and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall rush to mind. And, oh yes, who could forget the likes of Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team?
The Olympics, though, is also about a spirit, one that unites the world as one like perhaps nothing else. If you have been or ever aspire to be an Olympian, you know of what I speak. And nothing symbolizes that spirit much more than the flame that is lit the signify the launch of the Games and isn't extinguished — always with a sense of sadness — when they come to a conclusion.
That flame is something Canadians from coast-to-coast embraced in the days and weeks leading up to Calgary '88. The torch relay became such a rallying point for a nation, even esteemed ABC commentator Jim McKay said he had never seen anything like it from an Olympic host country.
Rarely have I been prouder to say that I am Canadian.
No doubt, those feelings will spring forth once more in less than two years time, when Vancouver becomes the third municipality in the Great White North to become an "Olympic city." All of which serves as an introduction to the blog you're reading now.
During my years in the newspaper business, I was intimately involved in the coverage of many an Olympic Games. Always from the "home front," mind you, but the connection was clearly there. During my time at the Ottawa Sun, I profiled a number of Ottawa-area athletes who traversed all parts of the globe to realize the dream of a lifetime. Since Atlanta 1996, my commentary on the television coverage of the Games became a regular Sun feature (yes, I got paid to watch it all on TV).
Now that my career has taken a different turn, though, I felt a little bit like Brian Williams — all dressed up but without an Olympics to cover (Williams, you no doubt know, will sit out CBC's coverage of Beijing 2008 but will be CTV/TSN/Sportsnet's prime-time anchor for Vancouver 2010).
This blog, I hope, will fill a bit of that void.
Oh, and the name of that book?
It's the title of this blog.
Now you know why.
But there it sits on a shelf in my living room, the three words in its title a tangible reminder of a remarkable two weeks 20 years ago, when Canada proudly opened its door to the world perhaps like never before.
Calgary 1988. It was our first try at being Winter Olympics hosts (we'd done the Summer Games thing 12 years earlier in Montreal) and did those warm Albertans ever pull it off just right. Those Olympics raised the bar to new heights and, if you ask the fortunate folks who go to these things on a regular basis, maybe only Lillehammer 1994 has surpassed it since.
Think of those Games and names like Katarina Witt, Alberto Tomba, Brian Boitano and Canadian heroes Brian Orser, Liz Manley, Karen Percy and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall rush to mind. And, oh yes, who could forget the likes of Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team?
The Olympics, though, is also about a spirit, one that unites the world as one like perhaps nothing else. If you have been or ever aspire to be an Olympian, you know of what I speak. And nothing symbolizes that spirit much more than the flame that is lit the signify the launch of the Games and isn't extinguished — always with a sense of sadness — when they come to a conclusion.
That flame is something Canadians from coast-to-coast embraced in the days and weeks leading up to Calgary '88. The torch relay became such a rallying point for a nation, even esteemed ABC commentator Jim McKay said he had never seen anything like it from an Olympic host country.
Rarely have I been prouder to say that I am Canadian.
No doubt, those feelings will spring forth once more in less than two years time, when Vancouver becomes the third municipality in the Great White North to become an "Olympic city." All of which serves as an introduction to the blog you're reading now.
During my years in the newspaper business, I was intimately involved in the coverage of many an Olympic Games. Always from the "home front," mind you, but the connection was clearly there. During my time at the Ottawa Sun, I profiled a number of Ottawa-area athletes who traversed all parts of the globe to realize the dream of a lifetime. Since Atlanta 1996, my commentary on the television coverage of the Games became a regular Sun feature (yes, I got paid to watch it all on TV).
Now that my career has taken a different turn, though, I felt a little bit like Brian Williams — all dressed up but without an Olympics to cover (Williams, you no doubt know, will sit out CBC's coverage of Beijing 2008 but will be CTV/TSN/Sportsnet's prime-time anchor for Vancouver 2010).
This blog, I hope, will fill a bit of that void.
Oh, and the name of that book?
It's the title of this blog.
Now you know why.
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