I promised a look back at Tokyo and after a few days at home, two early mornings of baking, three late nights of rehearsals for Laughing Stock (opening tonight) and a great in-studio interview with the Morning Buzz, it is time to look back and reflect on what was certainly a unique experience.
I am going to take the whole return trip out of the discussion here. That was a miserable experience (my suitcase arrived on Thursday) that had nothing to do with the Olympics. As highlighted in my previous post, that is all on Air Canada and can't reflect on the Tokyo experience.
All in all, this was definitely a unique situation. It started with a three-day quarantine in a tiny hotel room and ended with my first ever Olympic ceremony. In between, there were countless long bus rides, plenty of great Olympic action and plenty of heat and humidity.
In my previous Olympics, I had the chance to cover athletes that I covered while they were in high school or athletes that had other local connections. I knew going into these Summer Games that the local connections were not going to be as strong, but I wanted to at least offer up coverage of some people with relatively local connections. Diver Jessica Parratto of Dover and runner Elle Purrier St. Pierre of UNH weren't really in my coverage area, but they were New Hampshire folks. Rower Gevvie Stone had a nice connection to a camp on Newfound Lake and shared with me some great memories of her time there. Wolfeboro's Hilary Gehman shared with me what it was like to be an Olympic coach for the first time after competing herself in two previous Olympics. And, I talked to Dr. Tamara Lovelace of Alton about her first Olympics serving with the US Cycling team in Tokyo.
Beyond that, I wanted to see a lot of things that I don't get to usually see. Things like the equestrian competition, rugby sevens, the whitewater kayaking course, the shotgun trap shooting, judo at the Nippon Budokan and gold medal games in basketball (men and women), women's beach volleyball and women's water polo, with the US winning all four of those. These were all great events to see and tons of fun to be a part of.
I got to see Katie Ledecky and Allyson Felix, legends of their sports, compete on the Olympic stage and watch dominant teams like the US men's and women's basketball and women's water polo teams continue their absolute dominance over the opposition.
With the COVID pandemic, I made the strategic choice to not go into the mixed zones this time around. Traditionally, this is where we get the athlete quotes, but it is usually an area that is compact and packed with athletes and media and I didn't feel like it was the safest space to be in, particularly for someone who had to work closely with actors in a play within days of returning to the US. Instead, I used the "flash quotes" provided by the Olympic Information System on their online portal.
There were plenty of great moments to look back on, with one of my favorites being Parratto and her diving partner win an unexpected silver medal early on in my Olympic experience. It was cool seeing Allyson Felix win her final individual Olympic medal in her fifth Olympic Games. Seeing a local doctor spring into action when one of her cyclists goes down on the course was interesting and talking to a former Olympian about her debut as a coach was a truly intriguing conversation.
And sitting through the Closing Ceremonies, the first ceremonies that I ever got to attend in my three Olympics, was a blast, even if it was a bit warm while waiting for them to begin.
I finished up my time in Tokyo unsure if I would be applying for credentials for the next Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024. I am already approved for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, but with everything that went on, Paris was not a priority. However, as I sat and watched the video that Paris 2024 showed at the Closing Ceremonies, I started thinking that a return trip to Paris (I was there in January 2002) would be kind of cool.
I guess we'll wait and see.
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