Podcast news: Adam Summerton pours praise on Paris 2024; talks football commentary

TNT commentator Adam Summerton was a guest on the fourth Sports News Blitz podcast - and admitted he enjoyed watching the ‘greatest show on earth’ at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Summerton followed in the footsteps of John Murray, Charlie Slater and Gary Taphouse in talking to regular Sports News Blitz podcast host Matt Dudley about his career - and his experiences in the sports broadcasting industry.

Known mainly as a football commentator, Summerton stressed the importance of having a journalistic background and a broad knowledge of sports in order to break into the industry.

Team GB won 65 medals at the Paris Games, equalling their haul from London 2012 and winning 14 gold medals - eight less than they secured at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

The likes of Keely Hodgkinson became a household name, and Summerton discussed the importance commentators have in the story-telling aspect of each athlete’s journey to representing their country at the Olympic Games.

He said: “I think with the Olympics, it just takes time to get into it, because a lot of it's about stories and narratives and they develop as the competition goes on.

“I think as a broadcaster, as a journalist, they're what you look out for a lot. And the great thing about the Olympics is that it gives you fantastic stories because a lot of these competitors, they're not people who are like Premier League footballers and get so much attention.

“They're not all incredibly wealthy. A lot of these people are having to really go out there and find sponsors just to be able to participate at all in competition throughout the year and throughout the cycle coming up to the Olympic Games.

“So within that, you'll find that there are lots of fantastic human interest stories.

“That's one of the joys sometimes of the Olympics, because these people aren't always necessarily household names.

“One of the joys of watching the Olympics is you watch things and you get engaged in things and you take an interest in sports and people that you wouldn't necessarily at any other time.

“I'll go back to being a broadcaster and with a journalistic background as well to put a lot of stock in and learn in those stories about the individual competitors.

“This was the original worldwide sporting competition - it's why we love it so much. It's the heritage. It's described as the greatest show on earth.

“I mean, if you ask many people who are participating at the Olympics, they would say it's the greatest achievement of their lives, of their careers just to be there.”

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Turning back to football, following the beginning of the English Football League season last weekend, Summerton gave some tips to any aspiring commentators aiming to jump behind a microphone and express their love for the beautiful game.

He added: “I think the trick with whatever league you're covering as a broadcaster is to immerse yourself in it as much as you possibly can, learn about it and treat it pretty much the same as you would any other league or level.

“That's what I always try to do with the National League. I would put as much effort into covering a National League game as I would a Champions League quarter-final, for instance.

“I think particularly with a league like the National League or with Serie A, you might argue that it's a more niche audience, certainly there aren't as many eyeballs on it as there would be a Champions League quarter-final.

“You could make the argument that your research actually needs to be in some ways even better for something like Serie A or the National League, because you tend to find the people who are watching it really know it and they really are quite immersed in it.

“So I think as a commentator, you do have to be aware of that - but it's not that's not the motivation. The motivation should be your personal pride to do a fantastic job on whatever level of football you do.

“And then it's also about respect as well. It's a respect thing that I know as much about Solihull Moors’ left-back as I do about AC Milan's left back because they're both plying their trades, they're both footballers and they're both doing their best.

“And I think it's important for me to show respect to my listener. My audience know whatever game I'm covering, that I'm well briefed on and well-researched on the players involved, whoever that may be.

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“I think maybe the research challenges do differ slightly. In some ways it can be harder to get information when you cover a high level game because covering a team like Manchester City or Manchester United or Arsenal, there's so much more information about those players and clubs out there.

“A lot more people know a lot more about them. So in order to tell somebody something they don't already know about those players or those teams, you have to really dig a bit deeper.

“So you have to maybe go the extra mile in your research to really find out facts or stories or figures that people don't already know.

“I do think there is an onus for commentary to tell people something they don't already know - and a key skill for me of any good commentator is that you don't shoehorn that in - you use it if it's appropriate.

“You might have this killer bit of information that you're dying to tell everybody about - but if the game doesn't warrant it or the game's 100 mile an hour and it doesn't need any facts or figures or any colour, it just needs you to say what's happening on the pitch, then a part of the skill is being ruthless enough to say, I'm not going to shoehorn that in because it just doesn't warrant it right now, and it might just never see the light of day.

“So a lot of you might just end up with what you call the cutting room floor. It never sees the light of day. You might only use a third of it. So you're constantly thinking from an editorial perspective in real time.

“And that's a really important aspect of commentary - knowing how, when and where to use the knowledge that you've gained in preparing for the game.

“I think you can sometimes feel you have too much. And sometimes you have to say, look, that's enough. I'm well-briefed. I know my subjects. I'm confident I'm across any events, particular eventualities. Let's go. Let's just go for it now. Get a good night's sleep and go to the game.

“There's always that temptation to do that bit more research - but I think there is a tipping point where that can become negative rather than positive.”

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