The Beijing Olympics have been amazing, thus far – with the triumphs of Michael Phelps and Men’s Gymnastics giving U.S. fans something to cheer about . . . but I have to take a moment and express my mounting frustration with something we have to suffer through, again and again, in televised events like the Olympics – the Bad Question. Maybe an even better term would be the Lazy Question – “Describe what’s going through your mind right now ?!?!”
“How does it feel?!?!?” “How big a thrill was this?!?!?!”
Nothing makes me want to throw a bowling ball at the TV screen as much as hearing that kind of inane question asked over and over and over again. I think part of the problem is that the people who pose those questions tend not to be experts in that particular sport, unlike the commentators, and they are often left without any background for asking truly insightful, probing questions about things like technique, strategy, etc. (They’re often sports types, but generalists who are at poolside and trackside and courtside posing their same unimaginative questions to athletes in an array of sports.) If you want to know the difference, watch something like Wimbledon – where Mary Carillo or John McEnroe are dispatched down to the exit from Centre Court in order to interview the just- crowned champion and the defeated runner-up. They know the sport and they are in a position to ask questions that mean something.
Let me say right now that I am not saying that I would do any better, given this particular assignment. I don’t know a butterfly stroke from a butterball turkey . . . but I will say that I know the pleasure of posing an insightful question and having the guest say “Wow. What a great question” or “Hmmm. I’ve never been asked that before.” Nothing is sweeter for the interviewer to hear from a guest. Now try to imagine an athlete at poolside or courtside being inspired to say “Wow. What a great question.”
Not in a million years.
pictured: a photo of me doing an interview with one of the country’s leading motorcycle racers, who was a special guest at Gateway Technical College’s automotive center. I was certainly out of my element, but not once did I ask “how did it feel?!?!”