Ironman Kona 2009 Coverage on NBC
On Saturday, I watched the Ironman on NBC as I do every year when it airs on TV. I find the Ironman to be inspirational, exciting, and even emotional, as I watch all the stories unfold: from the pros racing to win, to the challenged athletes to the people who are still doing the race into their late 70′s.
This year, the highlight of the show for me was watching Chris Lieto make a serious challenge to win the men’s race. Lieto’s best finish ever was last year when he took 6th. For those who have watched the Ironman for a few years, you know that Lieto is usually 1st off the bike, but is known as not being a strong runner, and always loses his lead fairly quickly in the marathon. This year was different, and there was a race. Shocking his closest challenger Craig Alexander I’m sure, Lieto was still winning the race at mile 20! He then battled Alexander for a couple of miles before finally running out of juice. His absolute guts amazed me more than anything in the race.
Although I found my usual excitement and inspiration from watching the show, I was disappointed in NBC’s overall coverage this year. Here are a few of my critiques:
1. They completely dropped the ball on the women’s race. Chrissie Wellington beat a long standing course record set by Paula Newby-Fraser, and this was barely mentioned! Wellington’s feat was even more impressive being that this was her 3rd Kona victory in a row in only her 3rd appearance! The race for 2nd place was an afterthought and they didn’t even show the rest of the elite women.
2. Lieto’s battle with Alexander on the run was not really explained. Lieto was not supposed to be there challenging for the win at mile 21…and hung on for 2 more miles! The real drama here wasn’t really displayed.
3. The swim was given 5 minutes of coverage. Of course I’m going to complain about lack of swimming coverage as a swim guy, but 5 minutes out of 1 hour 25 minute show was even less than normal!
4. The interest stories were mostly discussed in the final 20 minutes. The kid with no legs, Rudy, was an amazing story even though he did not finish the race. Somehow, however, they failed to mention that he completed another Ironman race just a few weeks later!
Maybe it’s time to consider changing the show up next year. Perhaps if NBC was not the only game in town, we may get to see more about the race, and pick up some of the slack. Granted, it’s not easy to cram an 8-15 hour race into a 1 hour show, but I contend that there is room for improvement in 2010 and beyond.
I completely agree with all of your critiques, but sadly, I don’t expect the 2010 coverage to be any different.
The fact is that NBC is completely set on diluting down coverage to the lowest common denominator. When you are struggling to compile an 8 – 10 hour pro race into a 90 minute program, bothering to cover details like the fact that Kona isn’t the only ironman that happens every year, course records, pros that the general public has never heard of before and why anyone should care about Paula Newby-Fraser is just a waste of time.
I’ll take what I can get. At least they give us pretty decent attention twice every year. Their choice of content to include might not be the best, but the production itself is always pretty amazing.
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I stopped watching NBC coverage a few years ago. I just got so sick of Al Trautwig and his lame comments. Too many inspirational stories. For tri-geeks, the PROS are the inspiration, and we need more of that type of coverage. The kicker for me a few years ago was watching Julie Molnar schlub her way through T1 then about 30 miles of the bike only to DNF. Why should she as a DNF get ANY coverage when there are so many hardcore everyday joes and janes who actually TRAINED and finished?
It made my stomach turn and I promised myself never to watch it again. I’d much rather read about the race than have to endure NBC’s maudlin commentary. Trautwig and NBC need to go.
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This actually was the first year I was able to watch IM Kona on NBC – in fact, I scheduled (and extended!) my afternoon ET workout to coincide with the broadcast.
In comparison to the ’08 telecast (which I’ve watched on-line – http://www.hulu.com) the ’09 women’s race coverage was a stinker. I love Chrissie, but NBC didn’t get squat.
As an AG’er who had a swim meltdown at IM FL, I was impressed with a couple of aspects of NBC’s telecast:
1. The level of violence during the AG swim. Jef Mallet’s description of “Australian Rules football in a washing machine!”
2. Coverage of pro and AG DNF’s. Normann Stadler’s DNF on the run was poignant. The gentleman who missed the swim cut-off by seconds…also heart-rending.
As for Al Trautwig…I’d like to think he’s been saddled with bad scripts…but as time has progressed it seems not. Someone has to go; either the writers or Al. Perhaps Mike Rowe would make a better commentator…better yet, a former triathlete like Mark Allen or Scott Tinley.
The worst part had to be how the entire story of the day was wrapped up…or wasn’t wrapped up. It looked like someone at NBC said, ‘oops – that’s 90 minutes – stop right now and flash the DVD ad!’ Worse than the worst entry-level film editing class project, graded D-minus.
I’m afraid the networks will never understand the magnitude of IM, nor will they ever be able to contain or translate it to a 90-minute (b.s. – more like 60 minutes with 30 minutes of commercial breaks!) telecast. And the worst part is they will never drop their tin ear to hear the cries of the triathlon afficionado.
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Other men live to eat, while I eat to live.
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Lookers-on see most of the game
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proof is in the results. 3 emmy’s nominations for last years tv show ain’t too shabby.
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blah, nothing on your blog is loading fast for me. I click something and it just sits for around 40 seconds, then my anti virus thing pops up and says there’s a threat and asks if I want to proceed. Anyone else getting this or do I just have a crappy antivirus?
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