Meet livestream Andy, formerly known as Andy Hardt, the commentator swim fans grew to love over the course of the Men’s NCAA Championships.
Andy commentated five of the seven sessions at NCAAs on the BTN live stream, and quickly become notorious in the SwimSwam comments for his hilarious quotes, such as claiming someone looking fresh to be “full of swimming!”, his energy and passion “here comes Painhas!”, and his ability to quickly apologize for a mistake or missing someone (“I just missed Shoults for most of his leg but..”).
Some were critical of livestream Andy and his commentary/delivery, especially early on, but the majority of swim fans really appreciated his work and energy on the broadcast. Even those who expressed criticism later would go on to say how they were wrong and really enjoyed him. Heck, the man even stuck around and commentated diving prelims. He clearly possesses a swim ‘nerdiness’ that many of us do, and we’ll just have to hope we find him commentating swimming again in the near future.
SwimSwam managed to get an interview with Andy at NCAAs, where he talks about his history in the sport, how this opportunity presented itself, and his thoughts on the future. Check out the interview below:
Last I checked, @LiveStreamAndy was available on Twitter. What are you waiting for?
This guy did an excellent job! He was on top of everything going on and made lots of interesting observations on the fly. Super impressed and I really enjoyed listening to the broadcast for a change. Much more like the real commentators other sports enjoy instead of the mostly repetitive, plaintiff voice nonsense we typically get from NBC.
Andy hardt has all the hearts
Petition to replace Rowdy? Sign me up.
Fangirling so hard right now. We love you Andy and Andrew!
Not looking for Rowdy to retire anytime soon, or the great San Kendricks for that matter, but Andy did a wonderful job both at Big 10s and at NCAAs. Nice to have a competent person at the mike!
glad to see the swim swam audience in general downvoted this comment severely. andy is great rowdy needs to go
He’s a snack and a great commenter; let’s replace rowdy