Almost Over

It is really hitting me that my time here at the Olympics is rapidly coming to an end. I find myself trying to savor and remember as much as I can about what I'm doing, what I'm seeing, and just about the experience in general.  I hope this won't be my only time at the Olympics, but if it is, I just want to feel like I've gotten everything out of it I possibly can.  I also feel a responsibility to blog about my days and to be able to come back to Charlotte with lots of stories about the behind the scenes action.

The first two weeks I slept on the double decker bus ride into work.  I learned to pick up bits of extra sleep anywhere anytime I could.  This last week I've gone to the top deck of the bus and sat alone in the back to soak in the ride and the sights.  My favorite drive is at night when we go along the Thames and see all the buildings along the waterfront colorfully lit up, and pass the awesome Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings on it.  That is when I wish I could stop the bus and take a ton of pictures of everything.  I'm trying hard to just be present for every experience and moment, but lack of sleep and fighting sickness makes that difficult.  NBC has started to pack up the Nightly News workspace next to us and day by day people and equipment make the trip back home.

It's sad every time I hear someone say they're glad its almost over, or counting down the days to departure.  I understand all of us have lives and people back across the pond, but we've all come together in this amazing experience to share the sights, sounds, and images of the greatest athletic competition in the world.  This is my first Olympic Games and my favorite sporting event in the world and I sort of wish it could last forever.  I'm taking more pictures everyday, and trying to meet more people from media outlets across the world, and trade some pins.  Soon this will be just a good memory and I don't want to have any regrets!

Soccer Behind the Scenes

I came to the Olympics excited about seeing many sports but I had only a few on my must see list and getting to a soccer game was one of those.   I didn't really dare to dream that it would be the gold medal game and the US would be in it, in a rematch of last year's World Cup loss.  I have to say that seeing the women's gold medal football (soccer) game of USA vs. Japan was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Wembley Stadium

Soccer is one of the sports that has not been played anywhere close to the Olympic park, also tennis, sailing, and rowing.  We haven't really had the resources to send people on a two hour drive to camp out somewhere for the day when there has been so many other events to get to, and only three field crews.  I had a feeling that if the USA got to the gold medal game at Wembley Stadium, that would be my only chance to see them, and also it was only about a 90 minute drive, compared to them playing in Scotland.  My next challenge was actually getting the soccer assignment.  The are three field crews that consist of a producer and a photographer, and we go to all the different events and shoot interviews and stories.  All of us have differing interests and I think I was the only one that really wanted soccer, but I knew I should still ask for the assignment.  I went to my boss and let her know how my I love soccer and watch it and that I'm knowledgeable and could help the coverage, but that most of all it would really mean a lot to me.  When I found out Wednesday night that I would be covering the game on Thursday, I'm not too embarrassed to admit I did a little happy dance in the newsroom and told my boss that she was the best!

I did have a hard time managing my excitement leading up to the game, but I had to because we did have a full day of covering taekwondo, wrestling, and boxing before soccer.  The whole variable in covering Olympic events is that you never know when a events like a boxing match could go short because of a knockout or other events could go into an extra round to break a tie.  In our case, boxing ran long because there were three gold medal matches, then the three resulting medal ceremonies, and then the post fight interviews.  We did finally make it out of boxing and hit the road to soccer, but we were more than an hour later than we had planned to be. 

The strategy is to always get to a marquis event the earlier the better.  Each venue is a little bit different and we knew there would be a ton of media at Wembley Stadium, not to mention spectators, and it was a location we had not been to before so we didn't know exactly how everything was set up.  The rules also change when there is a medal at stake, particularly a gold, but also the rules change because this was a large team event not an individual one.  We eventually made it there, late, and the US already had a 1-0 lead.  Before we could watch the game, we have to find the post game press conference room and leave our tripod and mic cable, figure out where we were supposed to be post game for interviews, and coordinate with all the affiliates to make sure we knew what interviews they needed us to get for them.  To add to the pressure and excitement, NBC Nightly News had already let us know that they wanted to use some of the post game I would shoot for the national news that night, so they sent a runner to meet us and take the card from my camera post game to drive it back to the International Broadcast Centre and the Nightly studios.

The parts of the game I was able to watch were awesome and I got goose bumps because I knew how fortunate I was.  The crowd was huge and loud, all 80,203 of my closest friends and I saw a great game.  We saw about a third of the game live from inside the stadium.  We were lucky enough to have pretty good seats and saw the 2nd US goal and the Japan goal before we headed down to the bowels of the stadium to line up and wait for the post game festivities.  We were the first crew in line to wait to go out for interviews and thankfully the security guards had a little tv set up behind a fence so I could watch the last third of the game.  I didn't need the tv to find out the result of the game though, because the roar of the crowd above us was deafening.  I was so excited for the 2-1 victory and the USA gold medal, but I was not excited for what I realized would be like a stampede of cattle to get out to the field for interviews after the medal ceremony.  More and more media from all over the world showed up and we were all packed tightly together and we were breathing on each other and knocking people with our cameras and backpacks while we were stuffed in the hall.  I passed the time by talking to some very nice Kiwi guys from Sky Sports New Zealand.  

Once we could move to the field, we didn't actually move the far and we never made it on to the field.  We made it just outside the tunnel and were held back with a barrier rope on one side of the tunnel.  I did hear the National Anthem being played for our soccer stars even though I couldn't see the team on the field.  We were lined up right across from where the players families were seated in the stands and head coach Pia Sundhage was over there celebrating too.  I shot come cool video of her dancing and playing air guitar to Born in the USA!  It became a bit of pandemonium once the players got off the medal stand because some headed straight for their families and friends in the stands and some were dancing around and hugging on the field while all the tv crews in the mixed zone were all yelling and trying to get players' attention to come over for interviews.  Usually the order of importance for interviews in each venue and each mixed zone goes to the BBC first, NBC Sports second, and OBS ( Olympic Broadcast Services) third, then all the rest of us.  There were a lot of things going on at once that we were trying to manage, all while we were packed together like sardines.  We were about three people deep but I literally couldn't move sideways at all without taking someone down with my camera, so we had to hope that the players would be right in front of us at a good angle and also close enough so my producer JoEllen could get the mic in close enough to them.  We were trying to spot particular players that we needed to interview for affiliate requests but also to get a big name player over quickly because Nightly News was waiting on our sound and their deadline was quickly approaching.  To add to the challenge, was the fact that the players were no longer wearing their jerseys with numbers on them, they were wearing their Nike medal ceremony jackets.  I watch soccer and am a big fan of the women's national team and can recognize a lot of players, but it's tough when a mob of them come by and we were supposed to snag one that I only knew by name not by face and a lot of players didn't want to stop and talk anyway.  I was pretty sure we could count on vet Abby Wambach to talk and we also got young star Alex Morgan before we sent the P2 card off to Nightly News.  We ended up with about 6 player interviews total and I was able to sneak a few pics of players with their medals as we interviewed them, so all in all that was a success.

On the way to the post game press conference, we stopped by the edge of the field and took a couple of pictures.  Then we hurried up about four flights of stairs, and I had a back pack on and was carrying my rather large tv camera.  As a side note, this trip has definitely been a physical workout!  We headed to the press conference room, thinking we would get the coach and a player or two, but we had to sit through the entire Japanese press conference first, and ended up only getting the US coach Pia Sundhage.  None of the press was thrilled because we were promised a player, but we rolled with the punches and headed out to catch the bus back to the International Broadcast Centre in Olympic Park.  On the way we passed a large group of American fans cheering the Tesm USA bus as it pulled away late into the night.  By the time we got back to the I-B-C,  we rushed to catch the 1:40 am bus back to the hotel.  I found myself exhausted and eating dinner at 2:30 in the morning, but I was really happy and amazed that somehow the stars had aligned for me to be able to have that Olympic experience.

I don't know if my sound made it on Nightly News that night, since I wasn't back to see it, but the icing on the cake was walking into the dining hall the next day and seeing my Alex Morgan interview on the Today Show, amazing!

Things You Don't See (or smell) on TV

I have definitely looked at the 2012 London Olympics in a new way, not only because it is the first Olympics I have ever been to in person, but also because it's the first one that I really haven't seen American NBC television coverage for.  I really find myself missing hearing familiar commentators and seeing the awesome feature stories.  I have discovered that there are so many facets to the Olympics that you just don't see in tv coverage, so I decided to share my observations with you.

Bolt!

My producer JoEllen and I have been lucky enough to cover track and field for the first two days of competition, and that was definitely on my list of must see events.  I love track and have a special place in my heart for the throwers, so I was ecstatic to see Reese Hoffa get a bronze medal on the men's shotput, especially after hearing his hard luck story.  There are so many athletes that are household names because of their big dollar contracts and seeing their faces in Nike campaigns, but Hoffa probably wasn't one of those guys.  Seeing this mountain of a man wrapped in the American flag smiling ear to ear after having scratched all his throws in Beijing was really awesome.  I'm not sure if he was featured on the tv coverage or not, because as Americans we tend to focus on gold medals and winners, and not so much on the other places.  He is one of the athletes who struggles to make ends meet without a giant sponsorship, just to make his dreams come true.  Another athlete you probably didn't see on tv was discus thrower Aretha Thurman.  She didn't make the final but was so happy and proud to be an American Olympian and be able to perform in front of her 5 year old child. After all athletes finish their competition, they walk off the track and must pass through the mixed zone where the media awaits.  They don't have to give any interviews but they must zig zag through the media stations.  When Aretha finished her throws, she zig zagged and no one gave her a second look except us, and she was shocked to see that we wanted to interview her.  Her face lit up with the brightest most genuine smile and she talked to us for at least 5 minutes and remembered that we had interviewed her two days before at practice.  Her attitude was that she had done her best and was just proud to be a member of Team USA and compete in a sport she loves.  Those people don't often make it on tv, but they have the true Olympic spirit.

Remote Control Mini Coopers

Another thing that fascinated me and that you probably didn't see in tv coverage, we're the remote controlled mini cooper cars that were used in discus, hammer throw, and javelin.  The cars were used to return the implements from the field back to the cage and to the athletes. Olympic volunteers sat near the cage, and drive the cars out in the field and once competitors threw the implements,
volunteers retrieved them and put them in the remote controlled car, and the cars were guided back to the cage.  I thought that was so random, but also effective and a good sponsorship opportunity for Mini Cooper.  Back in my days of high school track meets, somebody's younger sibling or another member of the track team would jog out and retrieve the implement.  Times have definitely changed! It seemed like the remote control cars were definitely a hot topic of conversation at Olympic Stadium.

Can you find the flame?

I loved covering track and one thing I was so excited to see was the Olympic flame.  I'm sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but in person, I thought the flame was thoroughly underwhelming!  You can't see it from outside the stadium, it is pretty short and the flame burns very low.  From what it looked like on tv and from past Olympics, I thought it would be a roaring flame set high above the stadium, not so much.  I took a picture of it and showed it to people back in the office, and many said it was like Where's Waldo to find the flame.  

Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius

Track and field was one of the sports that were on my list of must see Olympic sports.  I was lucky enough to see history when Oscar Pistorius took the track as the first double amputee to run in the Olympic Games.  I saw him take 2nd in his first heat and I'm sure you all saw it on the highlights too.  What you probably didn't know was that he stopped at every single tv and radio spot in the mixed zone, at least 50 interviews.  The Olympic spirit was all over his face in the most awesome smile you've ever seen, and he was truly happy to do each and every interview.  I was so proud to see his accomplishment and shoot that interview, what an amazing person.  It really makes you think about the challenges we face everyday, compared to what he faces.

The Mix Zone

Sometimes the mixed zones at the different venues are a little smaller and you end up in really close quarters with crews from all over the world.  With the hot tv lights and everyone pressed together, I've definitely noticed that personal hygiene and changing clothes everyday is not a priority for everyone around the world in the media!  It is also very noticeable on the busses we take to get from all the venues to the International Broadcast Centre and to the hotel.  It s agood things the stuff we shoot isn't on smellavison!

The Olympics have been an unbelievable experience and I can't wait to see what the last week of the games has in store for me!

You Just Never Know

I've learned over these last few weeks to always keep my eyes peeled in London because you never know who or what you'll see. Several times this week, I didn't have to look any farther than across the hall from the News Channel office in the NBC commissary to see interesting people. I've eaten near Olympians such as former gymnast Shawn Johnson and speed skater Apollo Ohno. I passed new Today Show host Savannah Guthrie in the hall today and E! Olympics host Guiliana Rancic. Yesterday we were working away in the office and heard what sounded like a party across the hall in the dining room. We wondered what party was going on without us, and it turned out that the entire women's gymnastics team stopped by for dinner and to do a story with the Today Show.  Former gold medal decathlete champ Bruce Jenner sat directly behind me in the commissary and I was able to overhear him telling '76 Olympic stories, priceless.  It is also worth mentioning that there weren't  any Kardashians in tow. My first evening at dinner in the NBC dining hall, I sat three seats down from Matt Lauer and the Meredith Viera walked by.  I've also seen Bob Costas and Dan Patrick a few times.  It's a little hard not to be fans of people we see on tv and respect for the stories they tell, but also to realize that we're all here in London for the same reason, and we're all sort of on the same team.  We are always sort of on "Royals Watch", as in Will and Kate.  We hear after the fact that they were in a venue we were at or in the InternationL Broadcasting Centre, where our NBC compound is.  It was a political powerhouse last week at judo as Russian leader Vladimir Putin was sitting with British Prime Minister David Camerson.



Big Ben

London Eye

 Because we have had to take a car as alternate transportation to the Olympic bus sometimes, we have had a chance to see different parts of London that we wouldn't otherwise. One of the three drivers we have used has a tendency to get lost and take the scenic traffic filled routes to get us places. On the good side, I've gotten to see touristy things from the car window. But on the bad side, I haven't actually gotten to visit any of those things outside of the car.  For a stretch of five days, we did the same three events.  It was judo, fencing, boxing and it felt a little like Groundhog Day.  We've passed Big Ben many days on the way to get to where we are going, and it feels a bit like National Lampoon's European Vacation where they are stuck in the roundabout.  We have found ourselves saying, "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament..Big Ben, Parliament...Big Ben, Parliament.". I've also seen Westminster Abbey and the London eye from the window of an NBC transport car.

Westminster Abbey

Christian Cantwell

In a bizarre coincidence, I've had to come all the way to London to meet so many people from either Missouri or Kansas.  A couple days ago I met five people from Kansas City!  It was awesome to shoot an interviews with shot putter Christian Cantwell because he is from K.C. And he threw at a high school in the same conference as mine and I have followed his progress all along. I met two distance runners , one from Leavenworth, Kansas and one from Lee's Summit, Missouri.  It is amazing how random it is, but also how good it feels to meet someone so far away from the states and know they are from the same city you are and have been to the same BBQ joints you have!