Have no clue what to say to some of what goes on every Olympics in terms of comments directed my way.
Best to just get it all out now so it can stay as reference.
When I am in the booth, there is no passport, and there is no bias based on anything other than performance and story-telling. I go where the story is. I have SOME say in who we show and who we do not, and I do not ever go based on region or country or even who I like personally. We WILL never show 6 and 7 people in a round or semi-final. EVER. Not on US TV where time is at a premium.
The M400m was led with a nice KIRANI JAMES PIECE, A HUGE one. The W100 was led with a SHELLY-ANN FRASER-PRYCE piece, a very good one. W400? SANYA. M100? BLAKE! M200 will be BOLT - see a trend?
I am sorry if for some me not mentioning someone who has a red white and black next to their name in lane 7 in the heats seems highly offensive. THAT IS NOT MY JOB. if they are likely to do well they will get a mention, and I don't miss. I don't ignore someone who then ends up with a medal. Doesn't happen. My job is to tell the story to an audience quickly, and let's be honest, in a race usually the story of contenders revolves around 3 or 4 people. Sometimes more. Even fewer in a first round or semi, obviously
So to anyone who feels I ignore my region or sell out my country or whatever, tough for them. Good luck with that. Go back and look at what Olympic coverage looked like in 1996 or 1992, and get back to me.
I do my job based on making the sport work on US time constraints of TV, which are the tightest of any country because of what airtime costs in the USA. Right now a billion dollars of ad time is projected from these games, which are rating higher than Beijing.
Sometimes I do races that don't even get shown. Bottom line is, NBC is not some radio station, it is not my job to "BIG UP TNT and DE CARIBBEAN as much as possible" as one guy sent me very angrily on facebook - as though this is some shout out session. Me, taking basket, from people who don't get what I do or HOW to do it? Nope. People still saying how the 100 in Beijing I ignored Richard Thompson's performance. A man ran 9.69, won by 6 meters and broke the WR and you think the focus is going to be on the other medalists? Really? I am a silver medalist, I know how that goes.
I have been there since '07 and I remain, not because of job security, which I don't worry about - but because I try to do it with some integrity.
I think I have the best job in the world, so if the consequence is that the Caribbean thinks I "sold out", some USA fans think I am ' too pro Caribbean ' and Trinidad thinks I don't "BIG WE up" enough, so be it. Price I'm willing to pay. By definition, everyone saying that shows impartiality.
One thing is for sure. I am not going anywhere.
Thanks to those who send many a kind word. I hate even addressing this stuff because it seems like it's a big deal or it happens often. Really doesn't.