Bonjour, Paris!

The countdown can officially begin.

After spending Wednesday in Raleigh for a live Rob Has a Podcast event, I headed back to the Raleigh airport to catch a plane south to Orlando, where Kennett and Kingswood teams were heading for a little spring training baseball action.

As I ate some breakfast, I turned on my computer to check my e-mail and one popped up that caught my attention. From "Accreditation," it was indeed the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee e-mailing a confirmation that I had received a credential for the upcoming Paris Olympics next summer.

The USOPC e-mail said that they had granted accreditation to 135 different media outlets for Paris, compared to 77 outlets in Tokyo, 111 in Rio in 2016 and 119 in London in 2012. So, I guess I have to count myself lucky that I was able to nab a credential given the incredible interest in the 2024 Summer Olympics. I would like to think that my willingness to cover the last two Olympics during the middle of a pandemic might have helped my cause.

As previous posts here had noted, I was getting a little concerned about the credential process not going my way, as we had passed the 500-day mark until Paris and I had heard nothing from the USOPC. The e-mail did say that they were a bit later than normal, but had to make a lot of choices. 

I wasn't 100 percent sold on going to Paris, but over the last few months I've decided I might as well go for it while I have the chance. I don't know how long I will be able to continue doing these trips, but while I have the access to the credentials and can still scrape together the money (the new car payment is not helping in this regard), I might as well try to make it happen. 

The next step for me will be getting my passport renewed. After all, there's only 484 days until the Paris Olympics. The countdown is on.

The Eiffel Tower will be host to beach volleyball next summer.

500 days to go... and still no word

Yesterday, March 14, marked 500 days to go until the Paris Olympics next summer. And as of this writing, there has still been no word from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee as to whether or not I have been granted credentials for the Paris Games.

Back in mid-February I had reached out to the USOPC about when a decision might be made and was told at that time, that the decision would be made by the end of February. Obviously, the end of February has come and gone and there has still been no word, at least on my end.

For the most part, I am taking the lack of communication as an indication that I don't have credentials for Paris, which would not be a huge surprise to me, but would also be kind of disappointing given the fact that I covered two Olympics in the COVID pandemic while many larger outlets declined to send journalists to Tokyo and/or Beijing. I am well aware that weekly newspapers are pretty much at the bottom of the priority list for credentials, which was why it was such a huge surprise when I got credentials for Sochi, which came through more than 10 years ago.

After I attended Sochi, I was never contacted about my credential requests for PyeongChang and Beijing in the following years, those requests were just approved. I was told by a few people that once you go through the credential request process, you are basically in. I went through that process again for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, so I wasn't expecting to have to go through that process for Paris, and in some ways, expected to get credentials for Paris.

I haven't completely given up on having my credential request approved. I know the USOPC can be a bit behind on things at times and may still be making up their minds on how to disseminate the credentials that the are granted by the Paris Organizing Committee.

I will continue to wait and hope that the opportunity arises to start thinking about Paris next summer in a positive way. I've been there before, but am certainly looking forward to the opportunity to see the city in a much different way.

However, if it doesn't happen, I will be sitting in front of my television for a few weeks watching all the action go down. Either way, I remain a fan of the Olympics and love to watch.

The Olympics in Paris are still a question mark on this end, though they are less than 500 days away now.