Fans watching the Olympics were left baffled as the commentary for the boxing was played over Sweden vs Australia in the women’s football.
The Olympics officially got underway on Friday, a year delayed and with lots of Covid protocols, with the opening ceremony but the action actually started earlier in the week, with the football and the softball tournaments getting going early.
On Saturday, the second round of fixtures started in the women’s section, with 2016 silver medalists Sweden taking on the bronze medalists from Rio, Canada.
Fans tuning in to watch on Eurosport were in for a surprise though. Instead of getting commentary for the match they were treated to commentary from the boxing, happening on a different Eurosport channel.
Trying to watch Sweden Australia on Eurosport 5.. with no commentary, instead they’re playing crackly commentary from a boxing match. PLZ sort it out @Eurosport_UK @EurosportCare pic.twitter.com/s9OoO8DCpl
— Anna Phillips (@annaphillips_) July 24, 2021
eurosport not doing great on the technical side, currently watching the sweden-australia match and it has boxing commentary on it 😭 #tokyo2020
— Laura (@_coops_) July 24, 2021
Watching the Sweden v Australia game on eurosport 5 via my virgin media box and all I can hear is commentary for the boxing. #confused #eurosport #virginmedia 😳
— Rodney Cyrus (@rodney_cyrus) July 24, 2021
Boxing commentary during the women’s football. What’s going on @Eurosport_UK #SWEvAUS #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/cNlYp8BV1K
— H.R.Owens (@heatherowens33) July 24, 2021
Fans tuning in to watch the Games on the BBC were also left disappointed to find that the free to air coverage in the UK had been massively diminished this year.
The Beeb are only able to show two sports at one time, whilst the majority of the coverage has been move behind a paywall on Eurosport.
As well as the issue with the wrong sport’s commentary being on, viewers were finding that other sports had no commentary whatsoever.
No commentary on any of the extra Eurosport channels, it’s just a stream. It’s a must for the more niche sports to help guide the viewer and add to their enjoyment. BBC had commentary teams across all 24 channels in the last two Olympics
— Starmer (@ostarmer) July 24, 2021
The amount of Olympic streams available on the Eurosport Player is fantastic, but the lack of them which have commentary (whether down to them or OBS) is bitterly disappointing
— Alex Klymyszyn (@AlexKlymyszyn) July 24, 2021
Eurosport’s #Tokyo2020 coverage has been a disaster so far. Currently no commentary on any of the Eurosport Player streams. Main channels show the same as the BBC. And the extra broadcast channels show the same sports all day, no variety. @Eurosport_UK @EurosportCare
— Chris Smith (@hobnob_monster) July 24, 2021
Quite often viewers switch onto the Olympics to watch sports they wouldn’t normally put on and don’t have as much knowledge of, so the commentary is very important.
Eurosport had already surprised fans on Friday, with two pundits in different countries looking like they were in the same studio, thanks to some brilliant technology.
Hopefully things will get better as the Tokyo Games continue and fans can enjoy them the same way they usually do, especially as without fans these Games are strange enough as it is.
Featured Image Credit: Eurosport