Unbelievable on TV last night, when the new ‘Wacko’ Jacko said that he thought Caster Semenya might have got silver because she ‘didn’t want to win’ after all the controversy a three years ago.

Michael Johnson’s face was a picture – anger, incredulity and at a loss for words for a few seconds. A couple of words I would have suggested he use would be “drivel” and “tosspot”. Then Denise ‘here come the girls, I’m a bit of diva’ Lewis goes and agrees with him.

It’s time Wacko Jacko started looking for panto bookings for Christmas I’m afraid.

When Michael Johnson turned up on Lineker’s show, I thought he was going to say he was only there to escape the insanity in the other studio. He has had an unenviable task trying to stay above it all in that studio, and he has been magnificent – truly a legend (with his head screwed on). He’s been like a medieval sage contending with village idiots who still worship funny-shaped vegetables.

I did wonder what Jackson was on about as well .The look on Michael Johnsons face was one of incredulity.M J restores your faith in American intelligence ,unlike Mit Romney 🙄

Has he finally lost it you ask…?

I think he lost it a long time ago! He’s mad as a hatter, but at least he brings emotion to it.

Michael Johnson is the very rarest of pundits/spectators in that not only has he been there, but he was the very best at what he did for a decade, he is intelligent, shows emotion but doesn’t get carried away, is impartial pretty much all the time, and he really knows his subject matter. By all accounts he’s a nice approachable guy too! Has to be said he looked a LOT happier sat in the birds nest 4 years ago alongside Sue Barker than he has done alongside Inverdale and the 2 clowns… I won’t be surprised if he doesnt want to work for the Beeb again, it’s not like he needs the money (the guy is silly rich, like many many millions), which would be a massive shame.

CJ and DL do seems to be divas. Actually put me off watching if he was commentating. Not quite sure about all the hype about coloured athletes. Surely the majority of the world isn’t Caucasian.

And as fir Bolt being the best athlete ever, coming from British commentators in the same week that Mo does the double. Yeah he’s bloody good and the fastest ever over a sprint distance but best ever?

Michael Johnson was also brilliant when Inverdale was pushing the whole ‘coloured athletes are just genetically better’ thing. He just said that was lazy thinking and lazy stereotyping. Surely what you have to do if you want to compete with Blake and Bolt is to identify what they have – in my opinion foremost among them a massive proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibre (and in Bolt’s case) the ability to harness the power to move long levers.

So now all we need to do is find a six foot seven guy with more fast-twitch than everyone else and GB can win the 100m next time in 8.2 seconds!!!!

I think the Bolt thing refers more to his 3peat of medals as no one has defended both titles before .Seven athletes have don the 5/10 thousand double though .More impressive was Daley Thompsons defence of the decathlon title an event that breaks people.

Where has Daley Thomson been? Of all the past champs that they’ve dragged in for punditry etc. i would have quite liked to see him.

Impressive and shows he is at the t of his game but to keep pushing Best Ever is over the top. Legend I’d agree with.

dannyh I remember Inverdale said that just after the 10k and Johnson pointed out Mo’s training partner Rupp from the USA who came second is white.

Yes, it was a daft comment.

Tbh, apart from Boardman and MJ, I think the presenting team has been poor.
Inverdale is patronising, Lineaker wooden and unsure of the most basic facts.
Gabby Logan has been surprisingly decent,not as good as Sue Barker though.
Denise Lewis is shallow, CJ has been mostly ok, but is prone to the odd gaff.

Biggest surprises have been Cav & Jamie Staff – both superb presenters who are able to hold the attention, no matter how much or how little you know about an event.

I found Cav got more confident each day and not scared to say what he thinks.

Didn’t see that Jackson moment – but would echo comments about Michael Johnson, who has been intelligent, observed, impartial, informative, very funny at times and just a joy to watch throughout. He knows what’s he’s talking about and it shows, and he’s also careful not to overstep the limits of his knowledge in other sports. Nuff said about the Brits … Tessa Sanderson on Gabby’s bit the other night was a particularly cringeworthy moment. But then don’t even get me going on Helen Skelton ‘interviewing’ Annie Last after the XC, why, oh why oh why do they let these people anywhere near…

I had to ask who Helen Skelton was when she was doing the BMX 😳

I have to agree about Cav as well. Everyone knows ‘Cav-baiting’ is great sport when the bloke has just ridden 150 miles to finish outside the top ten – which is why it was so tiresome when he was provoked. I find more than one syllable answers difficult after 30 miles on a mountain bike!

Given the remit to be a commentator and not have a microphone shoved in his face when he knackered showed Cavendish to be very together, only being ‘edgy’ when he really meant it and quite ‘knockabout’ in his banter and style that was really good.

I have no problem with commentators swimming against the tide when they genuinely believe something needs saying, what I don’t like is these people (like Wacko Jacko and Diva Lewis) ALWAYS thinking there has to be an ‘angle’ to go at. 95% of the time it really IS as simple as ‘Semenya came second because she underestimated the kick that the Russian athlete was capable of’.

Who is Helen Skelton?

In August 2012, Helen announced she was closing her Twitter account because she “cannot cope with negative comments”.[8]

Wise move.

Daley Thomson has been working for Aussie tv, he’s come across really well from the little I’ve seen of him. MJ has also been spreading his wisdom down under, always a class act 🙂

He has had an unenviable task trying to stay above it all in that studio, and he has been magnificent – truly a legend (with his head screwed on). He’s been like a medieval sage contending with village idiots who still worship funny-shaped vegetables.

Nailed-on-the-head type stuff right there!!

Haven’t seen his name mentioned, but think Jake Humphrey is the best of the presenters. Seemed to really get into the cycling.

Lineaker = great for footy, not much else. Not been impressed with most of the punditry this time.

Haven’t seen his name mentioned, but think Jake Humphrey is the best of the presenters. Seemed to really get into the cycling.

REALLY??? 😕

I think Jake has been a breath of fresh air for F1, but his woeful lack of cycling knowledge has grated on me and I guess many others a number of times! I’m sorry, but get people who know about the sport to commentate on it no matter what. Exclaiming Vinokuorov was a “popular winner” in the road race showed he’d done no homework at all!

Why do people keep hating on Boardman? He’s as dry and drole as they come, but the man knows his bloody stuff!

Daley Thompson was on the beeb one night last week

He just said that was lazy thinking and lazy stereotyping.

Well to be fair it seems to have been the subject of various academic studies (of quality unknown to me) so I don’t think you can blame the pundits for stereotyping. Regurgitating bad science perhaps, dunno.

Personally I think the stats are interesting.

Colin Jackson = Pantomime Dame.

The Jackson footage of him watching the men’s 100m final is priceless. Here comes was his name …

Daley Thompson was on the beeb one night last week

I missed that, would have liked to have seen the great man on the tv. He always seems like a bloke who really does not give a fk about what other people think about him (ie an arsehole), so you can see him not really fitting into yr typical bbc smarmfest.

Johnson was excellent. Boardman was good too apart from having no data on the road race. Porter, Inverdale, Lewis, Jackson and Lineker were particularly bad.

Look, Ian Thorpe has been very good

CJ is trying to rival Garth Crooks in the bonkers stakes

Denise Lewis has been nicely turned out, not much else to commend her for though

Clare Balding put in a good shift

Most annoying award goes to Phil who interviews the athletes soon as they have finished

I think it just needs a bit of thought and review when it comes to commentators and pundits. I don’t subscribe to the ‘you have to have played the game at a high level to be a good pundit’ argument. It doesn’t work like that – take John Arlott or CMJ on cricket – absolutely superb yet neither had a playing career to speak of. Contrast that with Ian ‘you always need five slips and a gully even when the ball hasn’t gone past the edge all day’ Botham or Shane Warne who got virtually everything totally wrong in the 2009 Ashes.

You also have the career smarms, though, the anchor men like Charles Colvile and Richard Keys – what do they actually add?

Then you have the inexplicable, but ‘cult’ figures – like the uncategorisable Henry ‘My dear old thing’ Blofeld.

Good player / athlete + Good commentary (for example):

Mike Atherton
Nasser Hussain
Geoff Boycott
Ian Thorp
Michael Johnson
Alan Shearer
Brian Moore
Chris Boardman
Phil Tufnell (yes, even him – he doesn’t pretend to know things he doesn’t)

Good player / athlete + Bad commentary:

Fred Trueman
Bob Willis
Ian Botham
Martin ‘Look’ Keown
Colin ‘Wacko’ Jacko
Roy Keane (sorry, but he talks cobblers a lot of the time)
Eddie Butler (only there to wind Moore up)

Non-Player / athlete + Good Commentary:

CMJ
John Arlott
Jake Humphrey
Barry Davies

I think it really boils down to (in descending order of importance):

Intelligence
Knowledge
Lucidity
Modesty (not speculating outside of your knowledge to sound good)
Integrity (saying something controversial if it needs saying)
Character (actually being able to ‘kick the tyres a bit’ with fellow commentators).

Basically what would make you respect or listen to anyone in any walk of life, then. Just because you’re the best spin bowler ever (Warne) doesn’t automatically mean you’re a great thinker on the game. Why didn’t the Aussies ever make him captain? Because they realised his talents were innate rather than intellectually acquired perhaps?

Of what I have seen Balding has been great.

I like Claire Balding because she does her homework, you can tell she knows the stats and the names and has some backstory available to avoid a gaffe, good job

colin jackson needs to go… painful, I was yelling at the telly after the Caster Semenya ‘analysis’ I was hoping for Johnson to rip him into bits but he’s too polite thankfully

Johnson was ace, Balding and Foster at the swimming were good, Denise Lewis and Gary Lineker were both woeful.

Look, Ian Thorpe has been very good

Most annoying award goes to Phil who interviews the athletes soon as they have finished

Thorpe was a revelation; eloquent, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and balanced. How he hasnt been signed up by a network yet is beyond me. And he went to Tooting Bec Lido this weekend to give free swimming lessons to play his part in the “legacy”. Him and Michael Johnson are head and shoulders above the “professional” presenters, and not just in knowledge of their respective sports.

Cav got better as he relaxed and Jamie Staff seemed a natural.

Phil Jones- 2 weeks of stuffing a mike in someones face, grabbing them by the shoulder and asking “how does it feel?”. REALLY grated when he pretty much bullied the Jamaican relay team into interview when they had the decency to stop and recognise David Rudisha’a medal ceremony and anthem.

The worst pundit of the lot was David “like I always say” Beckham. I’d swear he only knows 40 words.

Michael Johnson was also brilliant when Inverdale was pushing the whole ‘coloured athletes are just genetically better’ thing.

I thought Michael Johnson made a programme which explained the impact of slavery on suitability for sprinting etc?

Mind you I never hear people talk about how white people are genetically superior in terms of swimming, sailing or horse riding.

Michael Johnson was also brilliant when Inverdale was pushing the whole ‘coloured athletes are just genetically better’ thing.

I thought Michael Johnson made a programme which explained the impact of slavery on suitability for sprinting etc?

Edit: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/michael-johnson-survival-of-the-fastest/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

Mind you I never hear people talk about how white people are genetically superior in terms of swimming, sailing or horse riding.

Re the commentary/punditry team I thought it was quite poor generally – have we given up even pretending to be impartial now? Jamie Staff and MJ were the only good bits for me. I didn’t find Cav engaging at all despite his obvious knowledge.

I thought Jamie Staff was a bit rubbish. Yes he had some nice banter and background stories especially interesting information on training. But he kept calling the races wrong in the BMX time trial which suggests he cant spot the good riders and their skills just by watching, which to me is the mark of a good commentator.

Constantly said it was deceiving because the faster riders look slower as they stick closer to the ground.

Well this is true ! but I’d love to be paid to constantly repeat the same line.

By the end the other younger fellow (from the football) seemed to be calling more right. Seemed to me that although Jamie is a good athlete the “professional” commentator had more of an eye for spotting the quicker riders after only a couple of hours watching the sport.

I suppose this is somewhat unsurprising.

Mind you I never hear people talk about how white people are genetically superior in terms of swimming, sailing or horse riding.

I remember an article saying how black Americans are notoriously bad at swimming, and that many never learn, which is a throwback to segregation and black people not being allowed to use public swimming pools. They never learned, so they never taught their kids, and their kids never taught their kids, etc.

EDIT: Found it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11172054

Mboy,I think it’s abit harsh to expect someone to become a cycling expert overnight. That’s why he had people along side him like Boardman,Cav and Staff. He probably wasn’t a F1 expert to start with either. I still think he comes across well though and not as smug and self satisfied as some of the other presenters.

yeah Jake Humphrey thats the one who was commentating with Jamie Staff. Obviously knew less that Staff to begin with but reckon he would make a better pundit in the long run, seemed to watch the BMXes with a keener eye. Just because you good at something doesnt mean your good at spotting talent in others.

Ie Pele Roy Keane etc = Good footballers = Terrible pundits / Managers
Alex Ferguson, Wegner, Mourinho = So So Footballers = Great Managers

I remember an article saying how black Americans are notoriously bad at swimming

A good point, but remember that for the same reason whites dominated sprinting for the best part of a century, and I am sure there are plenty of white kids in local clubs training and trying to win.