CBC's 1968 Summer Olympic host Lloyd Robertson was praised by The Globe and Mail writer Leslie Millin for his cool demeanour in the face of many technical glitches including "strange breaks, noises, lapses and unscheduled fade-outs." Millin applauded Robertson, normally a newscaster, for "working with the grace and agility of a man hired to stamp grapes in a Sicilian winery."[10]
Alexandre Despatie joined the broadcast team for Canada's French-language television coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver during a brief break from training for the 2012 Games. He co-anchored the coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies alongside legendary Quebec hockey commentators Richard Garneau and Pierre Houde, narrated numerous athlete profiles, and took viewers on a tour of Granville Island, where many francophone musicians performed during the Olympics.
Kelly VanderBeek worked as an analyst/host during the Vancouver Olympics and London Olympics for CTV, continuing with the Sochi Olympics with CBC. She hosted the Raising an Olympian features and was a part of the PrimeTime Panel discussing hot topics from the day in sport. She has also worked as a guest host for Sportsnet, CBC, and Sportscene. In 2018, Vanderbeek provided daily CBC Olympic Overnight Show co-host duties, alongside Craig McMorris at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.[15]
Andi Petrillo anchored CBC's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia. On October 24, 2015, CBC Sports launched a new show, Road to the Olympic Games, which Petrillo co-hosted with veteran sportscaster Scott Russell. CBC owns the Olympic rights in Canada until the 2032 Games, and the show features elite high-performance athletes. Andrew Chang was also a part of CBC's broadcast team for the 2014 Winter Olympics.[17][18]
In 2018, Perdita Felicien joined the CBC TV network broadcasting the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in South Korea and later the Tokyo Olympics (2021).
Steve Armitage reported on and hosted Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts for the Vancouver Canucks for nearly 30 years,[19] the Canadian Football League and Grey Cup for 30 years, the Olympics including speed skating, swimming and diving, and the World Cup. Armitage was laid off by the CBC in August 2014 due to cuts to sports programming and the loss of hockey coverage to Rogers Media.[20] He did, however, return to work for CBC at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics to call events such as long track speed skating. Armitage announced his retirement at the conclusion of the 2022 Winter Olympics.[21]
Bob Cole's work during CBC's broadcasts of the Olympic ice hockey have also become memorable among legions of Canadians. His call on the final shot of the shootout in the semi-final game of the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano between Canada and the Czech Republic represented Canada's then-ongoing failure at the games and haunted fans for the next four years. With Canada scoreless in the shootout and Brendan Shanahan representing their last chance, Cole said in a panicked voice as Shanahan skated in towards Czech goalie Dominik Hasek, "He's gotta score, that's all!" But Shanahan was stopped by Hasek, prompting Cole to dejectedly say "No, he can't do it."[29]
At the gold medal game of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City between Canada and the United States, Cole's animated call of Joe Sakic's second goal of the game is also one of his more memorable moments. Also, when Jarome Iginla scored Canada's fourth goal of the game, with four minutes remaining in the third period, Cole was so excited when the goal was scored he yelled out "GORE!" (a hybrid of "goal" and "score"), and then proceeded to call out "Goal, Canada! Goal! Wow! A lot of Canadian fans here! The place goes crazy here in Salt Lake City, and I guess coast to coast in Canada, and all around the world!" When Sakic scored Canada's fifth goal with 1:20 remaining, Cole yelled out "Scores! Joe Sakic scores! And that makes it 5–2 Canada! Surely, that's gotta be it!" As the final seconds of the game ticked away, and as the crowd broke out in perfect unison singing "O Canada", Cole said, "Now after 50 years, it's time for Canada to stand up and cheer. Stand up and cheer everybody! The Olympics Salt Lake City, 2002, men's ice hockey, gold medal: Canada!"[30][31]
With an average Canadian audience of 10.6 million viewers, that game was the most-watched CBC Sports program, beating the previous record of 4.957 million viewers for Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals (the final game of the 1972 Summit Series between an NHL all-star team and the Soviet Union, which had been the most-watched sports program Canadian television history, was simulcast on CBC and CTV while Cole called the game on CBC Radio), in which the New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years, beating the Vancouver Canucks, another moment Cole himself called: "Here comes the faceoff and blare it Manhattan! The New York Rangers have done it here on a hot June night in New York! The Rangers are Stanley Cup Champions!"[32]
Since joining CBC Sports, Bruce Rainnie has broadcast four Olympic games (2000, 2002, 2004, & 2006). In 2006, he called the gold medal performance of the Canadian Women's Hockey team. Also in 2006, Rainnie was first on the scene to interview Brad Gushue after his rink won gold in Men's Curling. In 2007, Rainnie replaced the retiring Don Wittman as CBC's lead curling commentator.[43]
A six-time medalist at the Canadian Championships, Brian Stemmle currently works as a television colour commentator for Rogers Sportsnet. He worked for CBC during the Olympics in 2006 and was the lead commentator for Alpine Skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler.
At the 2006 Torino Olympics, Colleen Jones did CBC segments about curling. Jones provided curling commentary for NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She served as the sideline reporter for the curling events at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.
Todd Brooker has been a ski commentator on television for a number of years, and has worked for most of the major networks in North America. He has covered alpine skiing for numerous Winter Olympics for U.S. television, and currently provides commentary and analysis on CBC in Canada during the World Cup ski season. Brooker covered alpine skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics for NBC in the United States.
Anastasia Bucsis has been CBC's Long Track speed skating analyst since 2018. She has also hosted digital shows for CBC during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.[54]
Summer Olympics
1960
For the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, the CBC produced a total of 17 hours of radio and TV coverage. CBC Television broadcast same-day highlights each night. The half-hour package featured was provided by CBS Sports, which had the broadcast rights in the United States. CBS sportscasters Bud Palmer, Gil Stratton, and Bob Richards provided commentary. CBS sent videotapes of each day's events by jet to Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City, where a mobile transmission unit there beamed the pictures to the CBC and CBS networks. On radio, Ward Cornell and Thom Benson gave listeners 15-minute reports every evening except Sunday on the CBC's Trans-Canada Network and Doug Smith gave half-hour evening wrap-ups on the CBC's Dominion Network.
Vic Lindal was a colour commentator in the Sport of Volleyball at four Olympic Games; Montreal, Quebec in 1976 with CBC, Los Angeles, USA in 1984 with CBC, Seoul, Korea in 1988 with CBC, and Barcelona in 1992 with CTV.
Bob Moir was the executive producer for coverage of the 1976 Summer Olympics hosted in Montreal. He envisioned expanded coverage of the Olympics, despite criticism of CBC Sports for spending money from taxpayers to do so. He toured Canada to explain the project and boasted that, "the biggest team in Montreal will be the CBC team ... it will be bigger than the [1976] Canadian Olympic team".[62] His crew for the English-language coverage of the Olympics included 245 people who produced 169 hours of content, compared to 14 hours of content at the 1972 Olympics.[62]
The 1976 Summer Olympics gave CBC Sports hosts their first chance to speak with athletes immediately following events, when Moir had a studio constructed for live televised interviews. When multiple events were held simultaneously, Moir had 20 videotape machines in use to record an event to air at a later time.[62] When Poland played Russia for the gold medal in volleyball, Olympic coverage was extended to show the game to its conclusion, which delayed airing of The National news program by 35 minutes. During the Olympics, Moir had a telephone hotline to CBC director of operations Gordon Craig to discuss airtime, and later commented that he felt a "sense of power" when the news was delayed.[62]
In reference to audience measurement ratings in Canada, Moir felt that "the Montreal Olympics was the impetus for what you see today".[62] He also felt that the model used to cover the 1976 Summer Olympics set the standard used by CBC Sports for future live coverage of the Olympics, and stated that the CBC has not lost money covering an Olympics since 1976.[62]
Byron MacDonald has also acted as a commentator for swimming events; he was a two-time recipient of the Gemini Award for Best Sports Play-by-Play or Analyst in recognition of his swimming analysis on CBC at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics.[63]
During the 2016 Summer Olympics, MacDonald attracted criticism for remarks on a hot mic that a swimmer in the women's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay (which was implied to be a member of the Chinese team) had "dropped the ball", and that she "went out like stink, [and] died like a pig." MacDonald and the CBC later apologized for the remark, stating that he meant it as a description of her performance, and did not mean for it to be a personal attack.[64]
CBC Television signed Ron Lancaster as a colour commentator on CFL broadcasts in 1980. He was part of a trio that included Don Wittman doing the play-by-play and former Argonaut head coach Leo Cahill doing colour commentary (Cahill left after the 1985 season). He was with the CBC from 1981 to 1990 and was a member of the CBC team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea as the play-by-play broadcaster for basketball.
Jim Van Horne has broadcast from five Olympic games, including 1988 in Calgary, covering alpine skiing, 2000 in Sydney covering tennis, 2008 in Beijing, assigned to baseball and softball, and 2010 Vancouver, mentoring the commentators from APTN, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and worked in 2018 Pyeongchang on the worldwide live stream.
Karin Larsen's career in the media began in 1988 as a sports researcher for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and since she began working as a sportscaster, she has been an announcer for six Olympic Games and four Paralympic Games, notably broadcasting the play-by-play for her own sister's silver medal performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Larsen also announced for synchronised swimming for CBC Sports at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.[77]
During his career, Scott Oake has covered a total of 12 Olympic games for the CBC, including the 2008 Beijing Games where he did play-by-play for flatwater canoeing and rowing events.[78] Oake has covered downhill skiing at every Winter Olympics from Calgary in 1988 to Sochi in 2014.
After his retirement from competitive sport Rob Snoek moved into broadcasting as a play-by-play announcer for Ontario Hockey League games, first for the Oshawa Generals on CKDO,[79] and later for Peterborough Petes games on CJMB-FM.[80] He first joined the CBC's Olympic team in 2002, covering a variety of both main Olympic and Paralympic events.[81]
Chantal Vallée has contributed as a colour commentator for basketball on prominent Canadian broadcasting channels, including CBC,[91]CTV, Sportsnet, TSN, and RDS. Her extensive coverage encompasses significant sporting events such as the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics.[92] and the 2019 NBA play-offs.
Clare Rustad has served as a soccer analyst on CBC, TSN and Sportsnet for events including the Pan Am Games, the FIFA Women's World Cup, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[93]
^"CBC Progam Guide: Personalities A-Z". CBC.ca. Retrieved May 21, 2024. Welcome to the CBC Personalities A-Z page. Below, you will find an alphabetized list of CBC on-air personalities. To search for a personality by last name, simply click on the appropriate letter in the alphabet line provided.
^Ohler, Shawn (February 26, 2002). "Lucky Loonie Stunt Pays Off". Calgary Herald. p. A1. A record-busting average of 8.7 million Canadians watched on television as the men's hockey team snatched gold from the United States in Salt Lake City...The audience actually peaked at 10.6 million, the CBC said Monday...CBC says that prior to Sunday, its highest-rated sports show was Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks, which attracted an average of 4.97 million viewers.
