It's all fine and well that Blogger has added Hebrew to it's list of supported languages. What I want to know is why the sign in page came up in Hebrew? Granted, I could write this blog in Hebrew almost as easily as in English. However, I write it in English, and did not appreciate having that page come up in Hebrew. I absolutely do not like the fact that it was assumed that because I blog from Israel, I would like to sign in in Hebrew. I do not. I signed up in English, blog in English and want to continue signing in in English. Had I wanted to blog at Blogger in Hebrew, I would have opened a new blog in that language. I guess that in the grand scheme of things it's no big deal, just a minor annoyance that makes no difference at the end of the day.
Not much has been going on here this weekpretty much because I've spent most of it in Zagreb at the European Figure Skating Championships courtesy of Eurosport. I revel in every single minute of the competition.
The only thing about it that bothers me is that our sports news completely ignores our skaters. Our brother and sister ice dance couple are doing quite well and have a shot at being in the top five, which is damn good. We also have a couple in the pairs competition who could well end up in the top twenty. Don't people in this country realize what an amazing accomplishment that is? What a foolish question. Of course they don't. If it's not soccer or basketball only medals count, and even then, just the Golds. I do recognize and applaud their accomplishments wish they got a bit more encouragement from the sports establishment.
And on that note, it's off to Zagreb I go.
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6 comments:
Do you mean Sokolov and Sosinova? Yep. No one ever mention them. But the news are not the ones to blame. They only talk about the stuff that the public cares about.
And it's not true that if it's not soccer or basketball only medals count, you hear about Shahar Pe'er all the time, don’t you?
Actually I meant Roman and Alexandra Zaretzki, and the new up and coming pairs couple whose name escapes me at the moment.
I will grant you that on the news they only talk about sports people care about unless someone wins a medal. Shahar Pe'er and Dudi Sela just prove my point, as does the wind surfer who got a Gold medal in Athens and was recently removed from the team.
How on earth can the Israeli public learn to be interested in anything other than football, basketball, and medal winners if all the coverage is of those things only.
When things other than those are covered it's only in the context of bringing honor to Israel, never about their accomplishments.
It was also pretty much like that when Galit and Sergei were winning medals in Ice Dance.
It's been like this ever since I can remember. And that goes back to before there was even an ice rink here.
It just bothers me that our guys rarely get a mention even for a top 5, 10, or even 20 placement.
On the other hand, if a footballer sneezes in a hotel corridor, it's all over the news.
I'm not saying that there should be live coverage of these competitions, but that our skaters should at least be mentioned.
Trust me, it sucks big time when you work as hard as they do to compete under our flag and they don't even rate a mention.
I can't completely agree with you. Athletes like Alex Averbukh and Arik Ze'evi get media coverage in almost every competition. Even if they don't get a medal they still get mentioned. I see that you know your sports, especially your ice skaters. But you gotta understand that what's considered to be a great achievement in Israel (like being in the top five of Europe), doesn't count so much in Europe. If an Israeli athlete does well for a while then it doesn't matter what he's doing, he will get noticed eventually.
It does suck when you work so hard and actually do something in a big competition and then all the media forgets to show up in the air port, but the news company doesn't care about the athletes as they care about ratings, and it's not like we don't have so much other crap on the news that we can complain about the lack of sport coverage.
I think you just made my point for me. Averbuch, Zeevi Gal Friedman and a very few others get mentioned only when they "bring pride" to Israel or the exact opposite. I'm not saying the nightly news should be giving our athletes coverage every day. And no one expects them to show up at the airport to cover their triumphant return home, unless Maccabi suffered a humiliating loss, or a big win. What really gets me is that not one of our several sports channels even bothers to show any part of the competitions.
You know what? Getting into the top 5 in Europe does matter to Europeans. Israel does not consider any thing less than a medal or a decent shot at one to be worthy of mention and then, only in relation to bringing honor to the country. We are incredibly provincial in that way.
The really sick part of it is that too many top quality athletes get mentioned in the sports part of the news when they have funding problems which also adds weight to my point. Our skaters are supported from outside the country and train there.
Oh, well, at the end of the day it's just the same old same old.
That depends on where you're looking. I know for sure that for some of the European countries, a place in the top 5 is considered to be a massive failure. And well, broadcasting costs money. And sorry, but you can't except the sports channels to buy the broadcasting rights for something that they know won't bring much ratings, especially when it's already being broadcasted on Eurosport and especially when all they do all day is just thinking of new ways to steal money from the viewers.
It's true that not always everybody gets coverage but you can't say that nobody ever gets it unless its basketball, football or in case the athletes wins a medal. Triathlon competitions are being aired all the time, and Tennis of course is also constantly being covered by Israeli TV. And I remember sometime ago when the national football team played in France and it wasn't aired anyway.
Btw, I think all this sports talking brings bad luck to our athletes. We already jinxed Shahar Pe'er last night…
Din, Those countries who think that a top five placing is a failure are Russia and the ex Soviet satelite countries, and they are not exactly Western European as far as that goes.
Also, I am not arguing for massive local coverage, and I for sure do not want our lot to broadcast the championships. Just a mention now and then, like they do with other sports. No one can broadcast the skating competitions like Eurosport.
Trust me, we did not jinx Shachar.
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