Beating the Olympics Blues
By Michael Weadock, April 2026
What to do next after a wonderful fortnight covering the Winter Olympics for talkSPORT? Nothing brings you back down to earth with a bump than standing in an airport departure hall staring at a screen looking for the word ‘Luton’.
Luton was the next destination after Milan and Cortina, but from a business point of view, with the Winter Olympics and Paralympics over for another four years, we had to find a new project to take us through the Spring months.
Spring months are glorious for sports fans. So many of the top tier sporting events take place during this time of the year. At Anything but Footy, we will be working on the London Marathon and the World Snooker Championships again this year and we’ll definitely be watching the Grand National and the climax of the FA Cup.
One other event holds a special place for us too – The Boat Race. John was heavily involved in coverage of the annual rowing event between Oxford and Cambridge University when it was previously on commercial radio between 2005 and 2010. He won the radio equivalent of the Oscar for the live event coverage with LBC. For years John had told me how special the Boat Race was. Or, the Boat Races as it quite rightly is now with both the men and women racing on the same day on the same course.
Let’s rewind a little. On the 1st October 2025, John sent me a link saying the BBC had lost the television rights to Channel 4. 20 years previously, LBC had their opportunity after the BBC lost the television rights to ITV. Much of our work had been with talkSPORT and we knew The Boat Races probably wasn’t going to be the right fit for them coinciding with FA Cup semi finals weekend. But, what about their sister station Times Radio? Within two minutes of John’s initial message, this was my suggestion.
Fast forward a little bit. We put the idea to Times Radio and they liked it. They liked it enough to sign a three-year deal to broadcast the annual contest between the light blues of Cambridge and the dark blues of Oxford. At that stage, they brought us in to help support the coverage by producing a number of features and interviews that ran in the build up to the event and to ask us to provide commentary on the two races.
We quickly identified Imogen Grant and Charlie Elwes as our preferred choice of co-commentators. Imogen won three Boat Races with Cambridge and Charlie was part of a successful Oxford crew. We also knew both from the Olympics Games where they won gold medals for Team GB in Paris in 2024.
I’ve made no secret of my ambitions in the field of sports commentary and have experience covering football, athletics, cycling, triathlon, tennis and diving as well as the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony. But, could I do justice to The Boat Races as the lead commentator.
I backed myself. Firstly, I’ve covered a lot of rowing and spent a lot of time speaking to elite rowers, so I felt I understood the sport. Secondly, it’s an event I’ve watched over the years and know what it means. Thirdly, and this may come as a surprise to my old schoolteachers, I would do my homework.
When Times Radio confirmed they would like me to do the role, John and I divided our time accordingly. John went to work crafting all the pre-recorded content that would enrich Times Radio’s coverage, and I got my head down preparing for the commentary. Together, we spoke to several members of each crew. For me, these were essential fact-finding conversations and I’m grateful to all those who helped out. For John, these were on the record conversations which he could use to help produce the various features he had in mind.
I also watched about 30 different races available online. I made notes on each one and listened carefully to how the likes of Andrew Cotter, Jonathan Ledgard and Peter Drury had covered the event for television. I also watched all the races from the Barry Davies era of the late nineties and early noughties. It was a commentary masterclass every year and then the opportunity arose to go and meet with Barry to chat in person. Barry had begun his career with The Times newspaper and clearly has an affection for his former employer so agreed we could record a conversation about his Boat Race memories, starting his career with The Times and offering some advice to the latest ‘voice of The Boat Race’ – me.
Thank you, Barry. And, thank you for the lovely message of support you sent, via your son Mark, and appreciation for the mention I gave you as the men’s crews passed your homes in Barnes.
On the day, Times Radio staged a hugely successful broadcast. Visualised on YouTube, as well being broadcast on the radio, credit has to go to the whole team who embraced the event. Audience figures for Easter Saturday afternoon were up a quarter on their usual Saturday and everyone is now looking forward to next year when they have the contract again.
Post-Olympic Blues. They were both light and dark.
