Time & Perspective Quote by David Coleman

The line is funny because it’s impossible, delivered as if it’s merely informative. David Coleman, the BBC’s signature track-and-field voice for decades, is trying to narrate momentum - that delicious, visceral sense that a runner is “coming on” - but the numbers betray him. If the last lap is 64 seconds and the previous was 62, the athlete isn’t accelerating; he’s fading. Coleman’s intent is clear: translate the drama of endurance racing into a clean, TV-friendly verdict. The subtext is even clearer: live commentary rewards confidence more than accuracy, and audiences often hear tone as truth.

This is the particular trap of sports narration in the broadcast era Coleman helped define. You’re not just reporting; you’re pacing the viewer’s heartbeat, stitching together split times, body language, and race narrative in real time with no pause button. Coleman reaches for a familiar storyline - the late surge - because it’s the most legible plot a distance race offers. The slips happen when the script outruns the data.

Culturally, the quote survives as affectionate folklore because it captures something enduring about mediated sport: the authority of the voice. Coleman isn’t mocked as a fraud so much as remembered as a human metronome under pressure, proving how easily “analysis” becomes performance when the clock is ticking and the nation is listening.