Johanna Griggs hits back at Tracey Holmes over Commonwealth Games fiasco

Johanna Griggs hits back at ABC journo Tracey Holmes over claims Seven knew athlete entry to the closing ceremony wouldn’t be shown.

ABC sports journalist/presenter Tracey Holmes has been attacked by Jo Griggs over the closing ceremony furore.

Channel Seven commentator and former athlete Johanna Griggs has once again defended the network’s coverage of the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, describing it as a “farce” as she hit back at claims from ABC journalist Tracey Holmes that Seven had a “minute by minute” rundown of the evening.

In a lengthy statement released on Twitter, Griggs said she wanted to “clarify and correct” several claims made by Holmes in an online article and an interview she gave on ABC’s 702 Sydney radio station.

Griggs made headlines when she told viewers on live television she was “furious” the closing ceremony organisers were “wrecking a tradition” by choosing not to show pictures of athletes or the flagbearer, Kurt Fearnley. Organiser Peter Beattie apologised immediately and said he had “got it wrong”.

In an article published on the ABC’s website on Monday, Holmes said sentiment supporting Channel Seven is misplaced.

“It is standard practice for a minute-by-minute rundown to be made available to those who will be covering the ceremonies — sometimes 48 hours in advance — and this practice was followed by Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation,” she wrote.

“Prior to the Gold Coast closing ceremony all rights holders, including Channel Seven, were given a minute-by-minute briefing on Saturday morning detailing how the closing ceremony would unfold — complete with a 34-page media guide. The guide makes no mention of athletes marching in as part of the ceremony. Organisers confirmed Channel Seven had a number of representatives at that briefing.”

In her statement, Griggs said she was one of three people representing Seven in the briefing, 24 hours before the opening ceremony.

Firstly, thank u to everyone for your overwhelming support around this issue. I’m still sad that a wonderful Commonwealth Games has been tarnished with such a sad ending. But when someone has a crack at your integrity, u have to respond. I hope this answers some of your questions pic.twitter.com/BHY1mTvsSO

— Johanna Griggs (@JohGriggs7) April 16, 2018

“I still have the guide,” Griggs said.

“At no point in the guide does it mention that there wouldn’t be one single shot shown of athletes watching the performances. We assumed, like every other Closing Ceremony ever shown, that the host’s vision would feature athletes non-stop, celebrating, letting their hair down… like we all expect at the Closing Ceremony.

“If we’d left that briefing room with any indication given to us that no athletes would feature, then of course we would have made other arrangements to capture those moments. But instead we thought we were going to broadcast an innovative and exciting show.

Griggs said there was a representative of the ABC in the briefing, and those who were there knew the organisers were “going to try something different” by having athletes in the stadium already when it began at 8.30pm.

The organisers of the closing ceremony decided to break with tradition and arranged for the athletes to enter the stadium before the start of the ceremony. #GC2018 pic.twitter.com/5DQFSGBTaB

— 7CommGames (@7CommGames) April 15, 2018

“There was no TV rehearsal of the Closing Ceremony as there is for the Opening Ceremony. That isn’t necessarily unique, but clearly a rehearsal would have rung alarm bells,” she wrote.

“As rights holders, we were allowed one camera in the stadium, a news camera, on the condition we wouldn’t show the vision for 24 hours. We made the decision to show it anyway at the back of the ceremony when we realised what a farce the Closing Ceremony was turning out to be.

“I stand by the fact that we could only show the vision supplied to us on the night, and that whoever made the decision to not cut away to the athletes made a bad call. And the athletes left because they didn’t feel at all included in the show, which is such a shame as they were the real stars who should have been celebrated.”

The conditions applied to Channel Seven for the Commonwealth Games, Griggs said, were “very different to anything we’ve experienced before”.