I am currently watching the winter Olympics on the Canadian television station CTV, which has the rights to all Olympics broadcasting in Canada. 100% metric, as it should be.
John F-L > For the US, Summer Olympics are a USC-fest due to track and field; > everything is converted, and you have to go to the Olympic website to get > the correct results in metric. In the Winter olympics, most events are > times. In ski jump, I never heard the announcers use anything but meters > for the length of jump. > > The Olympics Committee operates three or four speed guns on the luge, > reading in km/h. NBC gets that feed and displays it unchanged on the > screen, yet the announcers talk about it (instantly) in miles per hour. > Since the speed increases considerably (65 to 145 km/h typically) from the > first to last gun, seeing figures in one set of units and hearing them in > another, and the cycle repeating for the next contestant leaves you with > NO idea of what you've seen/heard. > > I don't think there are many other events they can ruin in this manner. > > > > > ________________________________ > From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> > Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> > Sent: Mon, February 15, 2010 4:46:03 PM > Subject: [USMA:46656] RE: NBC's Annoying Luge Coverage at the Olympics > > > I'm still not surprised that NBC, as an American network, uses US > Customary units as much as possible. > > However, there has been talk from correspondents in the UK that local > coverage oriented towards Britons (rather than a world audience) typically > uses Imperial. > > Can anyone over there tell me which units the local BBC and local media > outlets are using to cover the Olympic events? > > Cheers, > Ezra > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Martin Vlietstra" <[email protected]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 1:31:41 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific > Subject: [USMA:46655] RE: NBC's Annoying Luge Coverage at the Olympics > > > At the Athens Olympics, the British womanâs marathon hopeful, Paula > Radcilffe was suffering from a stomach bug. Although she led for much of > the race, things caught up with her and she visibly got to the 36 km mark > (denoted by a huge â36â). She stopped, summoned up strength, and > then withdrew a short distance afterwards. Even though millions of > Britons saw this on television and the commentator used the word â36 > kilometre markâ, the press was divided as to whether she had covered 21 > miles, 21.5 miles or 22 miles. >  > > ________________________________ > > From:[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of John M. Steele > Sent: 15 February 2010 00:01 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:46650] NBC's Annoying Luge Coverage at the Olympics >  > In the end, the luge is scored entirely by summing finish times. > However, during the run, some split times and speeds are available. The > speeds, like everything else are SI, kilometers per hour, and NBC flashes > those graphics on screen. Apparently the announcers get instant > coversion and yack endlessly in miles per hour while you are looking at on > screen graphices in km/h. The disconnect is both annoying and confusing. >  > NBC: Please let have the REAL results. Don't bother converting. > (You will be less confused if you mute the announcers and just read > on-screen graphics.) >  > Fortunately, there are fewer Winter events they can screw up with > unnecessary conversion. compared to the Summer Olympics.
