Gymnastics Coverage - It Just Ain't Fair
I was recently thinking how it's unfair that gymnastics gets so little coverage throughout the year. Here in the USA, there are very few competitions that are televised. I'm forever grateful that so many competitions now offer live streaming yet it's still unfortunate that gymnastics gets so little TV time except for the Olympics. I take a moment to compare the coverage of gymnastics, both elite and college, with that of basketball and (American) football. It just ain't fair!Case 1
College basketball player goes pro: televised production on ESPN in prime time of the player's name being announced, his family's reaction, him taking a picture with the manager of the team and some of his new gear.
Gymnast goes pro: all we get is a tweet
Case 2
NFL Draft: Radio City Music Hall
Much like the NBA, the NFL draft is discussed thoroughly with extensive coverage surrounding the event.
source
World class Gymnast commits to college in the US:
Picture belongs to Christine Peng Peng Lee
Christine (Peng Peng) Lee has been a force in Canadian gymnastics. She placed 19th at the 2011 World Championships, 4th place at 2011 Pan American Games, 6th place AA at 2012 Test Event, and was the silver medalist on Balance Beam and Floor at 2012 Pacific Rims. Although an injury took her out of contention for the Canadian Olympic Team, Lee's efforts and strength was recognized when they named her Honorary Team Captain. She is now a freshman at UCLA.
Case 3
ESPN talks March Madness (College Basketball 16-team tournament). They have experts in the field analyzing every aspect of the tournament. Click through the video to see what I mean here
This could have been a potential line up on each event with the expected team. Then, gymnasts could have been moved around as they discussed different team combinations.
This could be an interesting fact for college gym just as it is - bids made by conference. It could also be used in the Olympics for number of times USA, Russia, China, and Romania have won gold since the 1996 team.
This could be a pie chart showing how many vaults McKayla has hit versus not hit in the past few years (obviously the gray would be smaller). Or it could show number of medals each of the Big 4 countries took home in 2008.
I like that ESPN has a discussion with different basketball experts discussing the minutia of the tournament. It would be great for gymnastics but I'm well aware that it's usually only given 2 hours on a national network not a sports network. ESPN did show a college meet (SECs I think) but that was two weeks after the meet.So what do we get...
The Velcro Whiteboard of... Nothing
And again I say, It Just Ain't Fair
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