PHOTO: Bildbyrån + X
Daniel Ståhl and Armand Duplantis won gold.
The Athletics World Cup was a great success for Sweden.
But now a clear huge criticism is being raised against TV4.
The Athletics WC is over for this time and Sweden managed to collect three WC medals in the form of the golden heroes Armand Duplantis and Daniel Ståhl and Perseus Karlstrom silver. The goal was also three medals in advance, but we will never forget the way Duplantis and Ståhl won their golds.
Criticism of TV4
While “Mondo” was totally superior and showed how playfully easy it is to win a WC gold, “Ståhlmannen” offered maximum excitement when he won the discus final with the very last throw and also broke a new championship record. But alongside the Swedish successes, clear criticism has been directed at TV4 after the athletics WC.
The article continues after the picture.
The seasoned columnist Mats Olsson did not like at all what he saw on TV4 when the TV channel showed its experts Carolina Klüft and Michel Torneus who celebrated Ståhl’s WC gold.
“Actually, you shouldn’t be surprised by anything in terms of sports coverage on television, but when TV4 let the camera rest on the experts Carolina Klüft and Michel Tornéus, who cheered wildly when Daniel Ståhl threw further than Kristjan Ceh, some kind of limit was crossed for what is decent on TV,” he writes in SportExpressen.
“Or the borders have been blurred and the doors kicked in for a long time and it is free for what was once contemptuously called cheerleading journalism”.
READ MORE: Desiré Inglander’s beautiful love tribute to Armand Duplantis after the WC gold: “You are so beautiful”
Klüft & Tornéus
The columnist then compares with Discovery during the last Winter Olympics when the Swedish people also received cheerleading journalism in prime time.
“All that disappeared when Hans Fahlén as a reporter at the Beijing Olympics in 2022 celebrated like a Metallica fan in the mosh pit with a Swedish flag when Walter Wallberg took a surprising gold in the hump course. I guess it’s called ‘good television’, it usually does. Fahlén himself wondered that time in Beijing if you were allowed to do that among journalists, but it happened to him because so big in the world history of sports was Wallberg’s gold medal. The fact that Fahlén’s brother, Lars Fahlén, was the national team coach at the same time was nothing to worry about. It wasn’t better before, it was different,” writes Olsson in his column.
The article continues after the picture.
Mats Olsson is clear with his opinion on what he thinks of this behavior in Swedish television sports channels.
“The media world is developing and no one can stop the development. If the television audience wants to see jubilant experts as cheerleaders, it should be allowed to do so. If it then affects objectivity is another matter. I know, it’s a hard word that no one uses anymore, but if you’re unsure of the meaning, you can always google it. I don’t think it’s that ‘good TV’ either. If I want to see the WC in athletics, I want to see sporting achievements, not TV celebrities cheering,” he asserts.
READ MORE: Jacob Hård is now forced to fight back – after harsh words about Sweden in Norway: “Never heard it”
The video, which you can see below, of Klüft and Tornéus posted on social media has also received criticism from TV viewers.
“When I haven’t followed the broadcast at all, this becomes almost ridiculous. Two grown people get really upset because someone throws a plate “a long way”. So far that he wins the WC in throwing the disc far,” writes a user on X (formerly Twitter).
“Could it be Sweden’s biggest blunder of all time to give the WC to TV4, how the hell is it possible to throw in a commercial break right after a WC gold and championship record?”, writes another critical voice.
“Hell how much you missed seeing Klüft celebrate championship gold,” writes a third who is positive.
Do you agree with the criticism of TV4? Share the article and have your say!
Watch the video: