Of All the Marathon Times, the Worst One Was the Starting Time

In the telecast of the L.A. Marathon, the announcers consistently mispronounced the Russian surname, Ivanova, of the Soviet winner of the women’s division. They mispronounced it “Eva nova.” In fact, it sounds like “Yvonne of ah.” A similar error is to mispronounce Gorbachev’s given name, Mikhail, as if it were “McHale.” In fact, it has three syllables and sounds like “Meek high eel.”

Television and radio announcers owe us accuracy in pronunciation, as well as in everything else.

THEODORE MELNECHUK

San Diego