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.