Apparently, the practice differs according to the sport. In swimming and
diving, I have heard nothing but metric. In weightlifting, the weight
categories were given only in kilograms, and the weights lifted primarily
in kilograms, with a few inch-pound conversions thrown in.
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On Fri, 3 Aug 2012, John M. Steele wrote:
So far, NBC has only broadcast part of one field event in their coverage today;
the qualifying round
of men's shot put.
As expected, the announcers have avoided telling us the true performance and
settled for the
approximate conversion to feet and inches, in spite of lines on the field being
marked in metric.
Very confusing, as always.
Oddly, the NBC website gives only official results in metric:
Overal schedule:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/track-and-field/results-schedules/index.html
Shotput:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/track-and-field/event/men-shot-put/phase=atm051900/index.html
Just as an example, the performance of Reese Hoffa (winner in group B) was
broadcast as 70-01, but
his measured performance is 21.36 m.
Hey NBC, the Olympics is totally metric, the athlete's performance IS the
story, hence important to
the story, so it's OK to report metric. Please tell us the athlete's true
(measured) performance
first, then throw in a conversion if you are really convinced you need to.
