Sports fans often joke that commentators are people who professionally interfere with watching sports broadcasts. But it is almost impossible to imagine some matches or competitions without overly emotional or, on the contrary, reasonable comments. Interestingly, many well-known sports commentators came to this profession quite by accident.
All according to plan
There are one-off representatives of the editorial offices of sports channels and programs who began to engage in commenting after graduating from the humanitarian faculty of the university, mostly, of course, certified journalists. There are also representatives of an interesting profession with acting and philological education. For example, Viktor Gusev and Georgy Cherdantsev are translators by education, Vasily Kiknadze and Vasily Utkin studied at the philological faculties, however, Utkin studied only 4 courses. But even they did not all come to the editorial office to work as commentators at once.
Recently, there have even been specializations in "Sports Commentator" at universities or in refresher courses for journalists. However, successful popular sports commentators believe that education is not a priority in the profession. A large number of sports commentators are not needed in any kind of sport, which means that it makes no sense to arrange a recruitment for such piece specialties, since there will be nowhere for people to work after training.
From sports to the microphone
Another path that gives the world new stars of the sports broadcast is from professional sports. Former athletes wishing to remain in the sport, after the end of their careers, become coaches (alternatively, specialists in the coaching staff) or commentators. Their advantages are knowledge of the sport from the inside and wide connections with the right people.
Representatives of such a transformation from athletes to journalists are Olga Bogoslovskaya (former athlete), Vladislav Baturin (former footballer), Vladimir Gomelsky (former basketball player), Lydia Ivanova (former gymnast) and other commentators quite well-known for fans of certain sports. Dmitry Guberniev, one of the most famous and scandalous characters in Russian sports journalism, became a commentator after graduating from the coaching department.
Will of chance
There are also some representatives of the profession who happened to be in it by accident. They studied in technical or economic specialties, but by the will of fate and thanks to their great love for sports, they were in the right place at the right time.
So, the now popular football commentator Vladimir Stognienko became him thanks to his brother, with whom they began to root for football clubs. Accidentally hitting the editorial office of one of the sports channels, he became a commentator beloved by millions. Some of the now well-known "masters of the air" came to journalism, having won competitions of sports commentators (Ilya Kazakov, Yuri Rozanov). Alexei Popov generally began his career before the age of 18, because he was so "sick" of races that, after reading an article about them in a magazine, he decided to talk to the journalist who wrote it, and this communication allowed him to immediately get a job.
To become a commentator, you just need to be genuinely interested in sports or its specific type, have the correct speech, clear diction and a pleasant timbre of voice, be able to present yourself and be objective. Luck plays an important role in this matter, because in order for a person to be noticed, you need to try. The modern development of Internet technologies makes it possible to loudly declare oneself, so, in principle, the goal of becoming a sports commentator is achievable.
