'It never gets old': Olympic broadcasters look forward to the Games

Two broadcasters with P.E.I. connections are covering this very different Olympic Winter Games for CBC. 

The Olympic Winter Games in Beijing takes place from Feb. 4 to Feb. 20. They feature seven sports and 109 medal events.

Former CBC News: Compass host Bruce Rainnie is returning to the broadcast team for his tenth Games. 

"I think CBC does the best job in the world with Olympic Games," Rainnie said. 

"It's a weird one, because as you probably know, CBC isn't sending a tonne of actual commentary personnel to Beijing because of the COVID situation worldwide," he said. "These are games I will be calling out of the broadcast centre in Toronto and that's always a little different." 

Rainnie will also have to get used to a time-zone change when he covers the Games. Curling, for example, will have games at 10 p.m., 2 a.m., and 8 a.m. AT. 

Rainnie will be providing play-by-play commentary for curling — a sport Islanders pay a lot of attention to, particularly with P.E.I.'s Brett Gallant as part of Team Gushue in curling.

"Curling is a great sport to cover at an Olympics," Rainnie said. "There's a really high probability of Canadian success." 

Team Gushue is a team that's been together for eight years, a term that Rainnie calls "an eternity" in the sport of curling. 

"Gushue, who is a guy who settles for nothing but the very best, he likes who he has, and in Brett Gallant he has one of the best players in the world playing second for him," he said.

Rainnie said predicting sport is tough, but if the Gushue team plays well this time, they have a good chance of winding up on the podium. 

On the men's side of competition, there are three or four who could win gold, but on the women's side there are seven or eight top contenders, he