Discussion: COC on TV

Well this is not exactly at the level of the WOC coverage in Norway but we are getting some local television interest in orienteering as a result of the Canadian Orienteering Championships coming back to Ottawa.
First up was Emily Kemp talking about 'O' on a morning show.
She did really well, of course. Watch it here http://www.youtube.com/user/AMorningVideo#p/u/3/Nt...
(This is the station's YouTube so the more hits we get the better it will be for future orienteering coverage in Ottawa.)
Next up might be local CBC story on Wednesday's Chase Sprint. Later in the week CTV Ottawa Sports will be doing a "You're Never Too Old' segment on one of our members competing this weekend who also competed in the first COC's in 1968.

Excellent!

Nicely done Kempster!

Nice!

Well done Emily!!

Fantastic!

Awesome! You're a rockstar Emily :)

Now I wonder who the "older" athlete could be who competed in 1968? Any ideas Gord?

That was really cool! Nice work Emily!

Kudos to both Emily and to the person(s) responsible for (1) coming up with the idea, and (2) getting the TV Show to say yes. Impressive.

super cool !!

Nice job!

The older athlete is Michael MacConaill who is one of three people entered in this year's COC who also participated in the 1968 event. The other two are Pierre Brassard who was Junior Men's Champion and Irene Jensen.

talk about articulate... good job!

This was a great bit, and kudos to the host for asking the right questions, too.

Emily used the word "controls" which isn't in the everyday vernacular of most people, but right after she used it, the host clarified the meaning of the word with reference to the map.

I also liked how they tied in the competitive and the recreational aspect to the sport. Basically, hey there's a BIG event here (promoted by one of Canada's best athletes), and you can come participate, even if you are a grandma, and here's the website to get involved. Perfect!

More on TV and the COC: Today a local CTV reporter and cameraman came to the Relay event to do a story on one of our older participants. I expected them to do a quick film and dash. Instead they did extensive interviews before the event and after. The cameraman told me he had expected to be filming a start and then 'see you in an hour" sort of thing. Instead he was very pleasantly surprised by all the action in the arena of the relay. He had lots of action to film.
That's two days in a row we've had different TV crews come to an orienteering event and say how fascinated they were with the action. Yesterday it was the Sprint on a university campus, today the relay at a XC ski area.

This was great. Wish I had watched it before I tried talking to a bunch of college kids about the sport because Emily had some good quick lines. The last time I saw anything about orienteering on TV was when Murray referenced in the "Friends" episode of Flight of the Conchords.

The host was good too, like a smart version of Sweet Dee from Always Sunny. Now that's a show that could make orienteering look awesome. :-P

Is there a short list of great examples of media coverage (print, audio, video) of orienteering?

Anytime someone produces a big event, it would be nice to show the local media some great examples and say, "Hey, orienteering has been covered before, and this is what has worked really well."

This video would make my short list. Any others? Links?

>Is there a short list of great examples of media coverage (print, audio, video) of orienteering?

Here is a link to the media coverage (newspaper, radio, web) from GHO's Adventure Running Kids program earlier this year. Unfortunately we don't have a copy of the TV coverage we got.

http://dontgetlost.ca/index.php?option=com_content...

The TV coverage is reaching people. When I crossed the border Friday In Cornwall, Ontario, the Customs agent asked--Destination?
"Ottawa" I says.
And the purpose of your visit?
"Orineteering I replied"
Oh! he says, -there's a big event going on in Ottawa.
"That's why I'm going" I responded.
At which point he said, "have a nice trip" and I'm on my way.

Yesterday, to my surprise, my customs agent (Phila airport) knew "orienteering" as well, and some Trondheim-area mountains, that I didn't know about.

when Larry K crossed the boarder and said he was going Orienteering, the boarder guard asked him where his oars were.

Larry King crossed the border to go orienteering? :-D

Several weeks ago Attack Pointers were treated to the appearance of a young Ottawa orienteering star (Kempster) being interviewed on one of our local television stations. Now we have one of our older stars, Michael MacConaill, being interviewed on another station for their weekly Sports segment "You're Never Too Old". Michael was one of the few participants at COC 2010 that also participated at the first COC, also held in Ottawa back in 1968.
In this clip there are some great background shots of orienteers in action at the relay event during Ottawa O-Week.
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/2008...

Great clip.

That's great too!