Commentator mangles Olympics history

Australians were left shaking their heads at Seven commentator Sonia Krueger's questionable Olympics credentials, but her mistakes pale in comparison to a bizarre gaffe from a Venezuelan newscaster.

Willie Oviedo, a commentator on the state-owned television network TVes, revealed an uncertain grasp on history during the Beijing swimming finals.

"Never in the Olympic Games has any mortal, any living being been able to win eight gold medals," he said during the 4x100 medley relay.

"Only Michael Phelps in the Olympic Games of Munich in the year 1972, over there in the Germany of Hitler, where he refused to give him the medals himself back then."

The commentator had combined elements of the Munich, Berlin and Beijing Olympics into an unusual fantasy version of history.

Subtitled vision of the gaffe has since become a minor YouTube hit.

For the record, Mark Spitz won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games, where nine Israeli team members were killed by Palestinian terrorists.

It was in the 1936 Berlin Olympics that Adolf Hitler refused to acknowledge the four gold medals won by black American Jesse Owens.

Mid last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sacked regular staffers at television station RCTV and took control of the network. It was claimed that RCTV had previously practiced "treacherous journalism."

Now nationalised and renamed, TVes features journalists hand-picked by Chavez's government and some commentators say Oviedo's mistakes are indicative of a decline in quality at the station.

Krueger raised eyebrows in Australia last week when she questioned whether the 48kg category in weightlifting referred to the athletes or the weights on the bar.

She also asked what would happen if it rained during the 800m athletic event.

Seven commentator Bruce McAvaney also weighed in with mixed metaphors, including the timeless comment that "Michael Phelps has climbed every mountain in swimming".

But Oviedo's mangling of Olympics history was in another league.

Broadcasting the Olympics is a unique challenge for television networks around the world, which are given the opportunity to present back-to-back sport for close to 24 hours a day.

With all that time on air, there are many opportunities for commentators to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

American network NBC produced several gems during the 2004 Athens Olympics.

"This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother," one equestrian commentator said.

Another said during a boxing match: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."

"If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again," a softball commentator said.

And while Oviedo's mistake may well gain a place in the pantheon of Olympic gaffes, the most memorable piece of commentary still belongs to the Montreal Games in 1976.

Alberto Juantorena won both the 400m and 800m events in the track and field, causing one commentator to get very excited and say: "Every time the big Cuban opens his legs, he shows his world class."