A different look at venues

If you're watching the Olympics on television, you see all the venues. If it's an indoor venue, they will often show it from the outside before heading inside, while the outdoor venues get the panning camera shots and the wide angle looks.

But, what you don't see is what it's like behind the scenes in a venue, so I thought maybe I would share a little bit about what we, as media members, experience when we are at a venue.

First, like everyone else, we have to go through security before we enter a venue. This traditionally includes a scanning of our credential, a look through our bags and a wanding by a security person to make sure we're not carrying anything illegal. Weirdly, we are not allowed to bring cans of soda into the venue, but plastic bottles are OK.

Once we are in a venue, often times, like the public, it is a walk to get where we need to get. Sometimes it's not. Each venue has a venue media center (VMC), which has a room with tables and chairs and power outlets where writers and photographers can work before an event or after an event, or even during an event if you want. Each VMC is a little bit different, but each one traditionally has a corner with coffee and tea available and sometimes a snack or two. There is usually a cafeteria of some sort where they serve meals (at a discounted rate). I will say Milan-Cortina's media center dining has been better than most. They offer a daily selection of "meals of the day" in addition to the normal sandwiches and pizza. Espresso is a big thing here in Italy and available at the cafeteria, though not my thing. Today's roasted pork and potatoes at the biathlon center was delicious. There are also help desks for technology, photo and general help and sometimes offices for different organizations.

In some cases, the venue media center is shared, which is the case in Cortina. The curling center and the sliding center are not far apart, so the VMC sits right between the two of them. This saves a bit of space and allows media to go from one venue to another without having to pass another security checkpoint.

Most of the venues also have a press tribune, or a spot where we can sit in the bleachers. Nobody, including the numerous employees/volunteers I asked at the Tofane Alpine Center knew where the press tribune was in that venue, so it may not exist there. Obviously, they want to sell all the seats, so I guess it doesn't take top priority to set some aside. 

There is also what is called a "mixed zone," which is the place where athletes will talk to media after the event. Traditionally, the television crews have the first mixed zone and the written press have the second. Most larger teams, like Team USA, have a press attache, who will walk the athletes through the mixed zone. I try to make it a habit to either e-mail beforehand or when I see him or her, to say I want to speak to a certain athlete, that way it's on their mind. This is where I watched the women's Super-G yesterday. There's no seats, but it was within sight of the finish line and you could see the big screen (there are also smaller screens in the mixed zone), so it's a convenient place to watch.

The venues are all set up with wifi for media that works basically anywhere in the venue, even the outdoor ones. And there are often press conference rooms, usually included somewhere in the VMC, where top finishers will come after the competition to address the media.

In most cases, the venue media center is a temporary structure, particularly at the outdoor venues. Some indoor venues may have a room set aside as the VMC, while others may have you take a few steps away to a separate tent. The one big exception I have found so far in Milan-Cortina for the outdoor venue media centers is at the Antholz Biathlon Center. Because they traditionally host these massive World Cup events, their media center is built right into one of the buildings and we just walk underground to get everywhere, which is kind of neat.

So, that's just a look at the venues and what we see in venues when we show up every day.

A bit of a look behind the scenes, literally. This is the back of the Antholz Biathlon Stadium building, where we enter to the venue media center, which is located a floor above the ground (but still underground compared to the competition zone on the other side).