Olympic rankings

The final weekend of my third Olympic journey is approaching, so I thought it would be a good time to tell you all how Tokyo has compared to Sochi and PyeongChang, not so much in how the US teams have done or how certain athletes are doing, but more in how it has been simply from a personal angle. I will put each experience in order, with the first being the best, the last being the worst in different categories.

 

Transportation

PyeongChang, Sochi, Tokyo

Tokyo ranks third on this list for one reason, and that is the simple distances we had to travel in order to get from one venue to another. In Russia and Korea, there were two places we could catch buses that would take us to other places. Here, there is just one place. If we are at a venue an hour from the Media Transport Mall, we have to ride back an hour, wait for the next bus and then ride to the next venue, however long that might take. Part of the original plan was for media to have public transportation cards (once we’ve been here 14 days, we get them), which would cut down on the time we spend on buses. But one transportation hub is a tough pill to swallow. PyeongChang wins this category for its very efficient system.

 

Food

PyeongChang, Tokyo, Sochi

Tokyo did a good job in incorporating food that just about everyone could eat. Even though we weren’t allowed out of the Olympic footprint, there were plenty of options. There was a restaurant that served pizza, burgers and salads, there was food court with more traditional Japanese fare in addition to a very good steak meal served on a skillet, the general store in the media facility had just about anything you could ask for, including salads, dinners, sandwiches and snacks and there were a couple of cafes that served quick meals and snacks as well. The venue media centers varied in their food offerings, but all of the venue media centers had some sort of free food for journalists, including fruit, packaged peanut butter sandwiches and water. My hotel’s breakfast was not bad, all things considered and when I didn’t have to leave the hotel by 6:30 a.m., I always found something to eat. Sochi’s one saving grace was the McDonald’s in the media center, while PyeongChang wins for its incredible media dining hall that featured just about anything you could want.

 

Lodging

Tokyo, Sochi, PyeongChang

Tokyo gets the slight edge here. The advantage of staying in existing hotels is that we get the amenities of those hotels. My hotel was not a five-star resort by any stretch of the imagination, but they served a solid breakfast (in comparison to what I heard about other hotels), I had a dedicated internet connection for just my room, they gave us a cleaning schedule so we knew when housekeeping would be in our rooms and the bed was comfortable. Sochi is second here because I had my own room and that is a plus for me. In PyeongChang, I shared an apartment (I went with the cheapest option available) and while my roommates were nice, I like having some place to myself.

 

Media Center

Sochi, Tokyo, PyeongChang

In this category, any of the three could have been first or could have been last. It’s really a toss-up. I put Sochi first because it was just a gorgeous building, built brand new and had just about everything we could need, including a gym, a post office, lots of food options and more. Tokyo and PyeongChang both put their media centers in existing facilities and they are nice and also contained everything we needed to do our jobs. I am pretty sure there are people that come to the Olympics and never leave the media center and it is possible to do your job here without leaving.

 

Press kits

PyeongChang, Tokyo, Sochi

The press kits are free “kits” handed out to media members on arrival. If you want to appeal to the media, the word “free” is just about the pinnacle of what you can do. These press kits are a backpack with stuff we can use. All three have contained the media handbook, and each one has included small tokens of the host country. PyeongChang takes the cake on the backpack alone. NorthFace was a sponsor of the Olympics that year and the media backpacks were NorthFace. This time around, our backpacks are Asics, so also solid quality. The advantage to PyeongChang is because their backpacks contain a lot of small pockets and space to store small things and the Tokyo one has just one pocket inside to store things, which isn’t ideal.

 

Wi-Fi

Tokyo, PyeongChang, Sochi

In 2014, I had a hard time connecting to the Internet while my laptop was plugged into an ethernet cord in the Sochi media center. In 2018, wireless access was prevalent just about everywhere and the experience was much better for me. In 2021, I haven’t found many places where internet is not available. All the buses we ride have free wi-fi, the media wi-fi network seems to cover the entire venue area when you’re out and about and the hotel room had dedicated wi-fi for my room. Connecting is not a problem this time around.

So, there you have it. My rankings, completely and utterly unscientific and not at all based in anything but opinion.

One drawback for Tokyo is the fact that there is just one transportation hub.