SRF expert rages after 100-meter finals Mega show for men, mini show for women
One mega show, one rain. There are two very unequal 100-meter finals in Paris. The organizers are criticized on social media and by SRF.
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- The men's 100-meter final on Sunday was accompanied by a big show.
- The women's final on Saturday was held like every other competition without a show.
- This inequality caused a lot of resentment on the net. The presenter duo at SRF are also annoyed.
"Wow, now the lights are going out," marveled SRF presenter Paddy Kälin shortly before 10 p.m. on Sunday evening in the pitch-black Stade de France. The 80,000 spectators are also excited, a loud murmur goes through the audience. Then the music comes on and wildly wandering shards of light illuminate the stadium in Paris, which is filled to capacity. Showtime. The men's 100-meter final is one of the absolute highlights of the Olympic Games in Paris.
The eight athletes are introduced to pompous music and a perfectly staged tracking shot brings the tartan track, bathed in special light, directly into the living rooms of the tens of millions of TV viewers. "We are immersed in an electrifying atmosphere," Kälin breathes into the microphone. You can feel the excitement at home. Pure athletics spectacle.
More music, more lights. More waiting. Seven minutes and 58 seconds pass between the start of the light show and the starting gun. At some point, even the SRF commentary duo can't take it any longer: "What are these gentlemen being kept in suspense here? Let them run."
And then they run.
The stadium is upside down. For nine seconds and a few hundredths of a second. Then Noah Lyles crosses the finish line with half a hair's breadth of a lead. Madness. 80,000 spectators celebrate the US American as the fastest man on the planet.
No show for the women
24 hours earlier, the picture was somewhat different. The same packed stadium, the same tartan track, the same discipline. But no show. There are neither light patterns buzzing through the Stade de France nor heroic music playing. The women's 100-meter final is about to begin in light rain.
It moves along more quickly. The athletes are introduced - and off they go. Only the race takes longer than the men's - just under a second. Julien Alfred from St. Lucia outdistances the competition and is the fastest woman on the planet.
It's unclear why the women's race is not given the same fanfare. What is clear is that the tournament organization, which had made gender equality a priority for weeks before the games, has had to take a lot of criticism on social media.
SRF expert Sprunger: "That's not on!"
SRF duo Paddy Kälin and Ellen Sprunger also noticed the drastic difference between the two show events. "What we both found a bit strange was the procedure before the start. A show is okay, but at some point it's good. They were almost bursting until they were allowed into the blocks," Kälin analyzes the long wait before the men's final and is annoyed about the lack of a show for the women. "It's not okay that they put on such a show today. And yesterday before the women's 100: nothing."
Athletics expert Sprunger sees it the same way. "That's not on! When they started with the lights, I also thought to myself: Yesterday they really didn't do anything in the women's 100 meters." For Sprunger, it is clear who is to blame: "For me, this is a faux pas de Francais."
