After having been passed over as Olympic swimming commentator by Australia’s Seven Network due to an alleged assault incident onboard a plane right after Australian Olympic Trials, distance swimming legend Grant Hackett will indeed be involved with Olympic coverage after all.
The 3-time Olympic gold medalist will be providing swimming commentary for Qatar’s beIN Sports network, having reportedly signed a two-week contract. Hackett will be reporting from the network’s studios in Qatar and not from on-site in Brazil and it’s unclear whether or not Hackett’s production will make its way to Australian audiences.
Says Hackett, “It will be more previews and reviews, but really it is just nice to do something connected with the Games.”
“After swimming at three Games and doing commentary in London, I was worried I wouldn’t be involved, but this opportunity came up and I thought ‘great.’ Hackett continued, “It’s another interesting experience that has come my way because of sport, so you have to be happy with that.”
As for Qatar, the nation itself has no significant swimmers of note, but they’ve been trying to buy them for years. South African Olympians Ryk Neethling and Roland Schoeman each reportedly turned down R 20 million (~$1.4 million) offered to change nationality and compete for Qatar back in 2005.
Good luck Grant -hope the Rio Qatar job goes really well. No one could be a better swimming commentator – Hope we get to hear some of your reports and wish you were commentating for Australia!????
Grant — Please tell Rowdy or anyone else who will listen to STOP feeding us close-up shots of the lead swimmer. Please show the race, not the splash. There is a good angle for watching swimming. It’s not a side shot, and definitely not a close-up. Imagine being in the stands about ten rows up, and seeing all the swimmers, or at least the ones in the lead group. Even when Katie Ledecky is 25 meters ahead, make sure someone else is in the shot or there is no perspective.
Rowdy doesn’t operate a camera.
No twitter for Tafoya and no purple nurples from Hackett.
Hopefully he does something stupid and ruins this opportunity
Guilty
I think its time to move on to cassettes man.