tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68045265892516418732024-03-23T03:15:48.656-07:00The Olympics... and beyondSports Editor Joshua Spaulding of Salmon Press Newspapers covered the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang South Korea, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, is credentialed to cover the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and continues to cover local sports throughout the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. He also has a Survivor addiction and is hopeful someday he can come up with a catchy application video idea.Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.comBlogger199125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-26393832788669992482024-02-24T12:10:00.000-08:002024-02-24T12:10:08.812-08:00What lies ahead<p>The coming months are starting to look pretty busy and that's not even considering the busy spring schedule for the local high school teams, which will start in early April. There are a bunch of trips on the docket in the next few months leading up to the big one this coming summer.</p><p>The first trip on the schedule is one that has become a pretty regular tradition. At the end of March I will be flying to Orlando and traveling on to Vero Beach to cover one of our local teams getting in some spring training action. Most of the trips I've made to Florida with local teams have been with Kingswood baseball and last year, Kennett baseball was also there at the same time, which was perfectly convenient for me. This year, Kingswood softball is making its maiden voyage to the Jackie Robinson Training Complex for a few days. I am flying down the night before the team and leaving the day after they do. I am currently looking into something to do for the day on Friday before the team arrives and I am sure I will find something exciting.</p><p>The next trip is just a few weeks later and is a bit shorter of a journey. I registered for media credentials for the Team USA Media Summit ahead of the Paris Olympics and received notice yesterday that my credential request had been approved. This is the first in-person media summit Team USA has done since prior to the PyeongChang Olympics and this will be the first one that I have attended. It is timed to coincide with the 100 days to go countdown for the Paris Olympics. I booked a room at the hotel where the event is based, right in the middle of New York, which was probably the most expensive hotel room I have ever booked, even with our discount. I am taking the train from Boston to New York on that Sunday and returning on the Wednesday evening train. This is one I am definitely looking forward to.</p><p>In May, I will be making a return trip to Chicago for a Rob Has a Podcast Survivor event. For those that don't know, I am an avid listener to Rob Has a Podcast, hosted by former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino. I make it a point to try and make his live shows (last season I went to one in New York and another in New Orleans). This season the location is Chicago and while there, I am going to cross another baseball stadium off the bucket list and see a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. This will be a couple of days in early May.</p><p>Speaking of checking stadiums off the list, I will be driving to Toronto in early June to see the Red Sox play the Blue Jays at the stadium formerly known as SkyDome. I have been to the stadium before but have never seen a game, so it will be cool to check another MLB park off the list and see the Red Sox play as well.</p><p>Then of course, there's the big trip, the three-week journey to Paris at the end of July. There is still plenty of work to be done on that front, but there is evidently plenty to keep me busy between now and then.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAODfaBVUxLB21LgJe4JQhyphenhyphenv6H6VSkiaMLiBIRhWFwLRLiqRhs3nH2sy-tBkHApYatEq8iW4m8XwtrCeQhQmF_gwBAFKoXfXcAWgjXI5CmXBbUQ-5JW4NcnT5xgnFbkAnDEg5292s65nvijMKlM7fFmtHehlTav-IhJG_2kK5fHns1NCfB49WfuUB3TpA/s4496/DSC_9030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4496" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAODfaBVUxLB21LgJe4JQhyphenhyphenv6H6VSkiaMLiBIRhWFwLRLiqRhs3nH2sy-tBkHApYatEq8iW4m8XwtrCeQhQmF_gwBAFKoXfXcAWgjXI5CmXBbUQ-5JW4NcnT5xgnFbkAnDEg5292s65nvijMKlM7fFmtHehlTav-IhJG_2kK5fHns1NCfB49WfuUB3TpA/s320/DSC_9030.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Tokyo's Olympics were pretty quiet, given the COVID and all, but this summer promises to bring a little more excitement. And in the months leading up to that, there's still plenty to do too.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-156408167813688812024-02-07T09:07:00.000-08:002024-02-07T09:07:29.580-08:00Milestones looking back and forward<p>The last couple of days have provided some milestones in the road ahead and in the road that I have traveled over the years.</p><p>As I mentioned in the last blog post, at this time two years ago, I was in Beijing for the Winter Olympics, my third Winter Olympics experience and my fourth Olympics overall. Without a question, it was one of the most unique experiences of my life, covering another Olympics during the midst of the pandemic.</p><p>My Facebook memories informed me that two years ago on this day, I was at one of the most unusual venues I've ever covered an Olympics at, the Shougang Big Air facility in Beijing. This was the only outdoor venue in the city limits of Beijing, with the rest of the outdoor events in the mountain villages outside of the city. What made this venue unique was not just the fact that it was an outdoor venue in the city limits, but rather where it was built. It was built in an industrial area of the city that the government was working to revitalize. Driving to the venue we drove past numerous old factories and arriving at the venue we were greeted by four huge cooling towers, the kind of things usually seen at nuclear power plants. Without a question, this will be one of the most unique venues I ever see, though I'm excited to cover some beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower and equestrian at Versailles this summer.</p><p>My Facebook memories also reminded me that 10 years ago today I made my original foray into the Olympics, landing in Sochi, Russia. Without a question, that was one of the more nerve-wracking adventures of my life. I was so concerned about the ability to find my way through the airport in Moscow to get on my flight to Sochi and what I would do once I landed in the Olympic city. All my concerns were calmed and it turned out to be a great experience in a place that I would never have traveled to without the Olympics making an appearance there. Sochi was a unique location in that the indoor venues were located next to the Black Sea in a pretty temperate environment, complete with palm trees, which took me by surprise to say the least. The Media Center in Sochi remains one of the coolest places I've had the chance to work in. And I will forever remain grateful to all the people who helped me fundraise for that trip, making it possible for me to start on this incredible journey that has lasted close to a dozen years.</p><p>Looking back, yesterday marked two years to go until the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, which I have to admit, is one of the locations I am really excited to see. As I've mentioned before, one of the best things about the first four Olympic experiences was that they were all in places I had never been before. I have been to Paris and to Italy (including Milan), but I have never really had the chance to cover the Winter Olympics in a true winter environment and the Alps will definitely be that.</p><p>I also officially booked my flight to Paris for this summer. The plan is to fly out of Boston early on Tuesday, July 23, with a stop in New York City before traversing the Atlantic Ocean and arriving in Paris just before 10 p.m. local time. The return flight will be on Monday, Aug. 12, leaving in the afternoon and with the time change, arriving back in Boston on a direct flight at 6 p.m. Flying to Paris in the summer is not a cheap venture, but it's something else checked off the list in preparation for this summer.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8021G8mMuYsFsbgPyBdg5ughHjE4bOCzigfjusfBZGpeNm8wc7qjhYoUlHh9C7E_FS4UlY-3dVhHS5sKVqNT9IQmY8He6wZ7VUCGfkhTzizHulhFtvIhWLntU1eNUbZpOPixhW422eH4i9Uc5E9n-SSmahXVxwtTNJ144piLieHdW4tm3SZkqPqJjkTQ/s4496/DSC_7014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4496" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8021G8mMuYsFsbgPyBdg5ughHjE4bOCzigfjusfBZGpeNm8wc7qjhYoUlHh9C7E_FS4UlY-3dVhHS5sKVqNT9IQmY8He6wZ7VUCGfkhTzizHulhFtvIhWLntU1eNUbZpOPixhW422eH4i9Uc5E9n-SSmahXVxwtTNJ144piLieHdW4tm3SZkqPqJjkTQ/s320/DSC_7014.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The Shougang Big Air facility in Beijing will forever be one of the most unique venues I have covered an event at.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-65828711254577862402024-02-02T14:28:00.000-08:002024-02-02T14:28:37.355-08:00Going back in time<p>Facebook memories have become an easy way to look back on what you were doing a year ago, or three years ago, or 10-plus years ago. They might jog your memory and bring some things back to the forefront for a bit.</p><p>That happened today when I looked at some of my memories from two years ago. It was on this day, Feb. 2, back in 2022 that I landed in Beijing for my third Winter Olympics experience. That in and of itself is just another trip on the Olympic list, but that particular experience, that particular day, remains to this day one of the most surreal things I've ever been a part of and it made me want to retell the story.</p><p>With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full force, the Beijing Olympics used a number of different protocols to help keep everyone safe, including media members who were traveling to China to cover the Games. One of the protocols, which proved to be a giant pain in the butt due to airline travel problems, was having all games-related personnel arrive in Beijing on special flights, meaning we had to book certain flights from one of a select group of cities.</p><p>My flight came from Paris and for the most part was pretty normal, but when we landed, it was far from normal.</p><p>I remember walking down the jetway into the terminal to find a completely empty building. The terminal had been cleared of people and only Olympic-related persons were permitted in this one terminal. It was incredibly spooky, much like you were emerging from your bunker after the apocalypse (or I would suspect anyway). We moved through the terminal behind a couple of volunteers/employees who were dressed head to toe in hazmat suits. We got to one waiting area and we sat and waited as they processed our papers, one at a time. We moved on to another area, where again, hazmat suits greeted us as they went through more of our paperwork. And finally they led us all to a room where we had to sit and wait for our transportation to take us to the specific hotels where we were staying.</p><p>I know that the main reason for all of the precaution was to keep us, and thus, everyone else associated with the Olympics, safe, but looking back on that day, it's still weird to remember that empty airport terminal, the hazmat suits and the fact that I was on the other side of the world about to cover my second Olympics in a pandemic.</p><p>I'm glad I glanced at those Facebook memories this morning, it brought back an interesting time in my life and has me looking forward to July, when hopefully I will not be in an empty airport with people in hazmat suits leading us around.</p><p>Incidentally, in that short, weird voyage through the airport, I first left my passport at one counter and had to go back through a checkpoint to pick it up, then left my vaccine card at another checkpoint, which was eventually brought to the room where we were waiting for our buses. Maybe the surrealness of it all just got to me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPB5ocZUTEAS-FvLhFQKm3ef8gcHcne0P5hQIZg5b3Y28RuFUPXtXKG0HPJ8cruqixSiszEaOhxlut2oohrvHqkYDsGr19ohXFXAnvKZbErasixwZx1b4fm_uX9pgkgZp08_ZPc2ev8TC6uZZDEFSj8Tfzp_d0yu9ayf8B1XsKbZJCl2eeKj_weBEfcs/s1440/273155248_10159679196809834_3971101395699428180_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1081" data-original-width="1440" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPB5ocZUTEAS-FvLhFQKm3ef8gcHcne0P5hQIZg5b3Y28RuFUPXtXKG0HPJ8cruqixSiszEaOhxlut2oohrvHqkYDsGr19ohXFXAnvKZbErasixwZx1b4fm_uX9pgkgZp08_ZPc2ev8TC6uZZDEFSj8Tfzp_d0yu9ayf8B1XsKbZJCl2eeKj_weBEfcs/s320/273155248_10159679196809834_3971101395699428180_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Flying in to Beijing two years ago for the Winter Olympics, not yet aware of the surreal scene that was about to unfold in the airport.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-75620500668361234022024-01-09T09:54:00.000-08:002024-01-09T09:54:10.098-08:00200 days to go<p>The official countdown clock to the Paris Summer Olympics reached 200 days yesterday, Jan. 8. This means that in less than that amount of time I will be heading off to Paris for my fifth Olympic experience and my first Olympic experience in a city I have visited before.</p><p>Prior to covering the Olympics, my travels had never taken me to Sochi, Russia, PyeongChang, South Korea, Tokyo, Japan or Beijing, China. While I now can say I have visited all of those places, long before I made my first Olympic trip, I spent a short amount of time in Paris.</p><p>The year was 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. As a UNH graduate, I had gone back and played with the marching band for a few years as a post-grad and also continued to play in the pep band. The band director at the time, Tom Keck, announced that the UNH Marching Band was traveling to Europe and invited anyone who was playing in the band, so long as they paid their own way, to come along, opening up an opportunity to make my first trip abroad (other than Canada).</p><p>We landed in Zurich, Switzerland, then flew over the Alps to Milan, Italy, where we spent some time before making our way along the Italian coast toward the French city of Nice, which will be hosting some of the soccer tournament games this summer and will also serve as a city base for the 2030 Winter Olympics. We visited Nice and Monaco, playing a New Year's parade (going into 2002) in Cannes and played at the prince's palace in Monaco as well. From there, we hopped the bullet train and made our way to Paris. </p><p>While in the City of Light, I was part of a group that actually got to do quite a bit in a short period of time. One of the members of our friend group had been to Paris before and knew how to navigate the subway system pretty well, which allowed us to make great use of our day in the city. We went up the Arc de Triomphe, visited Notre Dame Cathedral and the catacombs, walked by the Louvre (the line was way too long) and went up the Eiffel Tower in the twilight. It was a whirlwind trip, but it is certainly a great city.</p><p>Of course, my most recent visits to Paris were on the way to and from the Beijing Olympics, where a COVID testing facility almost kept me from getting home. That's an experience I'd rather not relive this summer. You can read about that experience <a href="https://salmonsportsguy.blogspot.com/2022/02/just-another-fun-airport-experience.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>This time around, my time in Paris will be slightly longer and will include a bit more sports than the 2001-2002 trip and I am excited to get a chance to see more of the city. After not really getting the opportunity to see much of Tokyo and Beijing except what we could see out a bus window, it will be nice to get out into the city a little more.</p><p>The next step is booking a flight and filling out my paperwork for the USOPC, which will handles all our appplications and credential paperwork.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWPYHggN198KWxLebypT-Ep9qnH4jqJfSmpPXODoeX5iHM8e-LXRN3UI7YGfaMgWTubtMlW72TunZwqMnUyrhbRH9q_jljWlFj4d1q6J_uEj7MO_vGSPGdb-j4BqW2JqTsOWZtkrCsO-MBQNOwsh_wm6fQjY4mfTRdU3KI1JWueqLhwvQ6-i5PipXTUsg/s640/paris2-1704719651-1704719651.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="640" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWPYHggN198KWxLebypT-Ep9qnH4jqJfSmpPXODoeX5iHM8e-LXRN3UI7YGfaMgWTubtMlW72TunZwqMnUyrhbRH9q_jljWlFj4d1q6J_uEj7MO_vGSPGdb-j4BqW2JqTsOWZtkrCsO-MBQNOwsh_wm6fQjY4mfTRdU3KI1JWueqLhwvQ6-i5PipXTUsg/s320/paris2-1704719651-1704719651.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>In less than 200 days, the Paris Olympics officially kick off.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-66868572347949741392023-12-13T13:06:00.000-08:002023-12-13T13:06:41.567-08:00Developments in the road ahead<p>It's actually been a pretty newsworthy few weeks for the Olympics, despite the fact that we aren't in an Olympic year and the Paris Games are still more than seven months away.</p><p>The IOC announced in the last few weeks that it had entered into targeted dialogue with a pair of locations to host the Winter Olympics in 2030 and 2034.</p><p>It had long been rumored and reported that Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Olympics back in 2002, was interested in hosting again. The idea of a bid is seemingly popular with people in Utah and the locations used for those games are still in great shape and could be used again. In fact, many of them are used by the United States teams to do training throughout the year.</p><p>The big question was whether or not Salt Lake City would be in the mix for 2030 or for 2034. The preference of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee was for the later date, as the 2030 Games would come less than two years after the US hosted the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. While it was possible to make it happen, for the sake of sponsorships and other logistics, the 2034 date was preferable for most people involved on the US end.</p><p>And the IOC announced that indeed, Salt Lake City would be targeted for the 2034 Winter Olympics, with the 2030 Winter Olympics targeted dialogue going to the French Alps. This one surprised me a little bit, because of all the stuff I had read had pointed toward Sweden, Switzerland and Japan being possibilities for the Winter Olympics.</p><p>The French Alps bid is interesting to me in a few ways and I was interested to read the <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Future-Host/ioc-feasibility-assessment-future-olympic-winter-games-french-alps.pdf#_ga=2.250035457.6076732.1702414962-70852222.1702150100" target="_blank">feasibility assessment</a> provided by the IOC. First and foremost, it will be a little like Sochi in that there will be events taking place in the relatively warmer climate of Nice. I was in Nice in January of 2002 and it wasn't terribly cold (also wasn't as warm as Sochi), so it's interesting, but much like Sochi, the indoor venues for ice hockey, curling, figure skating and short track will all be located in the coastal area, along with the Main Press Center and the International Broadcast Center. There are plans to build the two hockey rinks in Nice, while the other venues are existing. A venue for speed skating is still to be determined.</p><p>There will be three other venue clusters, Meribel-Bozel, Montgenevre-Briancon-Serre Chevalier and Le Grand-Bornand. Montgenevre-Briancon-Serre Chevalier will be home to Big Air, Slopestyle, Aerials, Moguls and Halfpipe, with snowboard and ski cross in a location to be determined in the cluster. Meribel-Bozel will be the home to sliding sports, ski jumping and alpine skiing and Le Grand-Bornand will be hosting biathlon and cross country skiing.</p><p>In Salt Lake, like in 2002, the IBC and MPC will be located downtown, along with venues for hockey, figure skating, short track and speed skating. Curling will return to a venue in Ogden, while Snowbasin Resort will host alpine skiing. Utah Olympic Park has the venue for sliding sports, snowboard and ski cross and ski jumping, Park City will host halfpipe and Slopestyle, Deer Valley Resort will host aerials and moguls and Soldier Hollow will host cross country and biathlon. There's also plans to again use a hockey rink in Provo as well. Salt Lake's <a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Future-Host/ioc-feasibility-assessment-future-olympic-winter-games-salt-lake-city-utah.pdf#_ga=2.77600403.6076732.1702414962-70852222.1702150100">feasibility study</a> was also an interesting read.</p><p>While I can't expect that I will still be covering the Olympics in 2030 and 2034, it is pretty neat to see the next steps being taken toward Olympic sites. And Switzerland's bid was a non-edition-specific project, which the IOC liked and has decided to grant it a special status, 'privileged dialogue,' with an eye toward the 2038 Games.</p><p>Lots of development as we move closer to next summer's Games in Paris.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDaibE38XNbDAEi_ADXemc5MpiJ-uSYuRKZkP3fEIAF_EMY4oWUVyKGFm7wHHch2de6QToZmxPs-DotuI7oh4m3gUnDrRpzyE1I4564C8sjx7lqu_XT9FkAH4MWpMjQBlNO4Wy_RNWiRclyPpDafsw4mty5fz052boOKzEzcHLtyi0t7gZDLwzN0oUJLY/s2800/Frame%20(1).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1429" data-original-width="2800" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDaibE38XNbDAEi_ADXemc5MpiJ-uSYuRKZkP3fEIAF_EMY4oWUVyKGFm7wHHch2de6QToZmxPs-DotuI7oh4m3gUnDrRpzyE1I4564C8sjx7lqu_XT9FkAH4MWpMjQBlNO4Wy_RNWiRclyPpDafsw4mty5fz052boOKzEzcHLtyi0t7gZDLwzN0oUJLY/s320/Frame%20(1).jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The US Ski and Snowboard Team posted this on its website when it was announced that Salt Lake City was entering targeted dialogue for hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics. (USSA)</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-45837884375782673522023-10-19T11:09:00.000-07:002023-10-19T11:09:34.489-07:00Money in the bank<p>As anyone who has read this blog for any period of time knows, the Olympic adventures I go on every few years come with a price tag. In the year leading up to my first Olympic experience in Sochi back in 2014, I had fundraisers and got great support from the community as I looked to have what I viewed as a once in a lifetime experience.</p><p>My company matched all the money I raised and because of that, the trip four years later to PyeongChang was essentially all paid for. Since then, I've been to Tokyo and Beijing and I have basically funded those trips on my own dime. The company pays me for the work I do while I am there, but because they are not forcing me to cover the Olympics (or even asking me to), it's not their responsibility to pay for my trip. And since these are no longer once in a lifetime opportunities, I also don't believe I can be going around asking people for money. The expenses associated with the Olympic trips prior to departure are mainly the accommodations and the flight, while food is the main expense once I am on the ground in an Olympic city. Our transportation, admission to events, wireless Internet and media center access is all free of charge.</p><p>So, what I've done, ever since I came back to the papers after the pandemic layoff, is work as much as I can at my second job at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro. During the summer I work at least 40 hours a week and during the school year, I work at least 30 hours a week. I pick up extra shifts when I can and much of the money I make at that job goes into my Olympic account to pay for these trips. And I make wire transfers from that account to the various Olympic committees around the world.</p><p>The wire transfer process for the Beijing Olympics in February of 2022 was by far the hardest and most complicated process I had been through regarding sending money for these trips. First, the bank where I have my account, didn't deal in the Chinese currency and Beijing wouldn't accept US dollars. So, I had to create another account at another bank and go from there. It took me and the very understanding and patient woman at Citizen's Bank in Wolfeboro three different tries to get the money through to Beijing. The first time we were missing a code (that was never provided to us), the second time the code was the wrong one and the third time it finally went through. It was a long and annoying process, much like the leadup to Beijing with flights and COVID tests was a few months after making those payments.</p><p>Within the last two weeks, I received my invoice for the first half of my accommodation payment for Paris next summer. The Paris Organizing Committee breaks our accommodation payments up into two invoices, with the chance to get some of our money back if we have to cancel at certain points. My bill this time was for close to 1,000 euros and the second one will be bigger (they add the city tax to the second invoice).</p><p>I visited Tammy at TD Bank in Wolfeboro and we set to work on getting a wire transfer going to Paris. The first roadblock that we ran into was there was no bank address on the invoice and the wire transfer needed one. I did a google search on the bank name and got an address that Tammy put on the invoice with the hope that it was correct. We got all the paperwork done and I left hoping that we had hit every nail on the head.</p><p>Early the next week, I checked in on the accommodation management web site and it read my invoice as "paid," so everything we had done had gone through and now, Paris 2024 officially has some of my money (I guess it's their money now).</p><p>If the worse case scenario comes along and the trip has to be cancelled for whatever reason, there are opportunities to get some of my money back, but I am now officially invested in this trip. The next step will be booking a flight and then I will have to make the second accommodation payment in the first few months of next year. </p><p>As of right now, there are 281 days until the Opening Ceremonies in Paris next summer. That means there's about 276-77 days until I likely will leave for Paris. In the meantime, there's plenty of baking to be done at the Yum Yum Shop because Milan-Cortina is only two and a half years away.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRtGL4mZVF06sEoz0nCrO3SZrDQbd1ROS81HISRMeX5jntchhnhnaxibOqPFVE-YcpRdw7RBaN0GX9b4cjXqABU4G0jzRpCyjbNdCa2KTFI0BzEMkI5iiRNEOGX2lrHLoBjgw9kyuhbU45IAP__23qReaw73aD_IGiVpWzxGiSQojDnY-Ahqze3jZeZ9o/s4000/Paris%202024%20-%20J-365%20.jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2669" data-original-width="4000" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRtGL4mZVF06sEoz0nCrO3SZrDQbd1ROS81HISRMeX5jntchhnhnaxibOqPFVE-YcpRdw7RBaN0GX9b4cjXqABU4G0jzRpCyjbNdCa2KTFI0BzEMkI5iiRNEOGX2lrHLoBjgw9kyuhbU45IAP__23qReaw73aD_IGiVpWzxGiSQojDnY-Ahqze3jZeZ9o/s320/Paris%202024%20-%20J-365%20.jpg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>French residents celebrated one year to go earlier this summer in Paris. They also may have recently celebrated me sending them a bunch of money. Photo from Paris 2024.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-74348868477674908212023-09-05T11:09:00.004-07:002023-09-05T11:09:43.962-07:00On the road to Paris<p>Over the course of the last month, there has been one main development in the road to Paris for the 2024 Olympics and that was in the area of accommodations.</p><p>I received an e-mail from the accommodation team in Paris stating that they had assigned me a room at F1 Paris Saint-Ouen Marche aux Puces, which is located in the Seine-St. Denis area of Paris, where the only new venue for these games, the new Aquatics Center, is being built. It is within five kilometers of the stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies and less than 10 kilometers from the Eiffel Tower and Roland Garros Stadium. The Main Press Center is about 11.5 kilometers away.</p><p>This will be the third Olympics in a row that I have stayed in an existing hotel after staying in dedicated media villages in both Sochi and PyeongChang. The initiative to cut back on costs of hosting the Olympics has likely been a factor in not really having traditional media villages, but rather putting media members up in hotels. Also, the fact that Tokyo, Beijing and Paris are major cities with thousands upon thousands of hotel rooms also is probably a factor. In both Tokyo and Beijing, I chose the hotels basically based on price and that was pretty much my deciding factor in this choice as well. I don't anticipate spending much time in my room other than sleeping, so it doesn't have to be anything special. </p><p>My hotel in Tokyo had a pretty small room and limited food options, which became a problem when I had to spend my first three days in the hotel for my COVID quarantine. The Beijing hotel had a bigger room and much more in the food options, particularly in the breakfast that comes as part of our media package. It appears this Paris hotel will have more on the limited side of the food options. One of the best parts of Beijing was being able to eat a pretty large breakfast, which usually carried me through lunch so that I didn't have to spend money on two full meals a day, rather just one. That being said, I doubt Paris will have any shortage of places to eat.</p><p>This morning when I got to work, I signed what is called the Accommodation Management Agreement, which basically locks me into the rooms that they have assigned me. The bill is more than $2,000, a bit more than I paid in Beijing and Tokyo for similar hotel accommodations, but that is not terribly surprising for 20 nights. I did book especially early before the Olympics to maybe get there a bit ahead of time. I feel like it would be a nice change of pace to settle in to the whole situation instead of jumping right in. But, who knows.</p><p>Next up will be paying the first half of the invoice for the hotel, which will be due this month. The time spent making donuts full-time over the summer and close to full-time throughout the winter allowed me to put some money into my Olympic account to make sure I can cover this bill. The other big expense will be the flight, which I still have to work out. The Arrival and Departure System, or ADS, is expected to be live by the end of the year, at which time I can input my flight information and set up a way to get from the airport to my hotel.</p><p>It's less than a year until the Olympics and things are starting to get more and more official. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXIXyYdru7SdpFdckNupvT151VHrwiVcoUGF_YX6Oh6ldZEZuSBPnDFWG-HceMkv1Uy8NQ0htAH-zaQ61paGIML7WY8wYZpAwfIgRPU_psczAgQ9h-3Q7NxcHvGK3uZ6ClqYu4nz4gpFHXEp77zd7XK5BtTMtnp7E9E-XYpZsEuSl2Zs2Nuzb9DGNJZ8/s6000/Usain%20Bolt%20Tony%20Estanguet%20et%20les%20sportifs%20tricolores(4).jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXIXyYdru7SdpFdckNupvT151VHrwiVcoUGF_YX6Oh6ldZEZuSBPnDFWG-HceMkv1Uy8NQ0htAH-zaQ61paGIML7WY8wYZpAwfIgRPU_psczAgQ9h-3Q7NxcHvGK3uZ6ClqYu4nz4gpFHXEp77zd7XK5BtTMtnp7E9E-XYpZsEuSl2Zs2Nuzb9DGNJZ8/s320/Usain%20Bolt%20Tony%20Estanguet%20et%20les%20sportifs%20tricolores(4).jpg.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>At the one year to go celebration, dignitaries and others road on boats to replicate the opening ceremony planned for Paris next summer. Photo courtesy of Paris 2024.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-26671811261109005092023-07-26T05:58:00.001-07:002023-07-26T05:58:08.372-07:00One year out: Looking ahead to Paris<p> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-indent: 9pt;">Two years ago right around this time I was embarking on my first Summer Olympic experience.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Tokyo Games, postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were a unique experience. We, as media members, were subject to regular COVID testing, there were no fans in the stands and masks were required everywhere we went. After two previous Winter Olympics, the heat of the summer was a new experience for me as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The next winter, the Beijing Winter Olympics experience was much the same, with even more COVID testing, limited fans in the stands and masks required everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For those reasons, those Olympic experiences were definitely some of the most memorable things I have done in this job.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As this goes to press, we are one year out from the Paris Olympics, opening on July 26, 2024 in the French capital. In preparation for that, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach spoke to the media in a Zoom call last Tuesday afternoon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“My expectations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 are the expectations of millions around the globe,” Bach said in welcoming media members to the call. “We want to get together again after the pandemic.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Paris 2024 will serve as a blueprint that will help shape future editions of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and inspire other major events,” Bach continued. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He went on to mention that the Paris Games will be the first Olympics and Paralympics to be planned and delivered in line with the reforms of the Olympic Agenda. This includes being the first ever Olympics with gender parity, with the IOC allocating the same number of quota to male and female athletes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Paris 2024 organizers have also committed to 100 percent renewable energy in delivering the games and are using almost all existing venues. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“These will be urban games in the heart of Paris,” Bach said, touting the use of the River Seine for the floating opening ceremonies welcoming athletes to the city. “I have goosebumps already thinking about that.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Marathon Pour Tous, or Marathon For All, will give 40,000 runners the experience to run their race on the same day and same course that the Olympic runners will be running on. Champions Park will see athletes, medalists and fans celebrating the Olympic spirit together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The world will come together in Paris 2024 one year from now for a peaceful competition,” Bach stated. “We all will enjoy the rich culture of France and the warm hospitality of the sports-loving French people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“At Paris 2024, we all will be inspired by the vision of our founder, Pierre de Coubertin, in his city, the city of light, Paris,” Bach added.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Most of the early portion of the question and answer session that followed focused on the inclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“We are determined to do everything to accomplish our mission, which is uniting athletes from around the world in peaceful competition,” Bach said. “We are focused on our mission right now, building bridges not erecting more walls.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">No official decision has been made on how athletes from those two countries will be handled in Paris. In previous Olympics, athletes were allowed to compete, just not under their country’s flag, with the Olympic Anthem played when athletes from those countries won a gold medal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Our position is to not punish athletes for acts of their government,” Bach said. “We can’t discriminate against anyone just because of their passport.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Recent social unrest in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, which is slated to be a major hub for Olympic action, including the site of the only new venue, the Aquatics Center, was also brought up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“These riots were not related to the Olympic Games in any respect,” Bach said. “We can feel great support of the French people for these Olympic Games and we’re confident that the Games can and will happen in a peaceful environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Paris and the rest of Europe is currently experiencing a heat wave and one question asked how the IOC was preparing in case of that happening again next summer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Olympic Committee has plans and we’re contributing to this,” Bach said. “We have good experience with heat mitigation measures in Tokyo. The heat mitigation measures worked very well and they will be available in Paris next year.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Paris Olympics run from July 26 to Aug. 11, 2024. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeDXGGIbtVog74CC8fpxwU9nKhEfXP5nmCk1rWvho_4zGjnPT0J71D9UvA9OnxcKrOrnJJ55l2uAK_R_W6HHfPgR1gb5HyJt2cFbyMrA8bQDJilZ471e-du0zBvSd6goApnIGxWH6f7tlG0wBpC812vSdqwPAIec_sdlkACSzvp6whvuDV2blSokYrPcQ/s4496/SOlympics1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4496" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeDXGGIbtVog74CC8fpxwU9nKhEfXP5nmCk1rWvho_4zGjnPT0J71D9UvA9OnxcKrOrnJJ55l2uAK_R_W6HHfPgR1gb5HyJt2cFbyMrA8bQDJilZ471e-du0zBvSd6goApnIGxWH6f7tlG0wBpC812vSdqwPAIec_sdlkACSzvp6whvuDV2blSokYrPcQ/s320/SOlympics1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 9pt;"><i>My first day out of quarantine at the Tokyo Olympics started with a trip to see the triathlon. One year from today is the Opening Ceremony for the Paris Olympics.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-60731592971114764092023-07-12T07:13:00.000-07:002023-07-12T07:13:18.959-07:00Back on the track, still not breaking any records<p> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-indent: 9pt;">By nature of the job, I spend a lot of time in my car, driving to and from the office or around the state to cover games, meets and events of all kinds. It’s safe to say, I drive a lot.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And I always kind of thought I was a pretty good driver. But, after a couple of experiences behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car, I can say without a doubt that I was in no way meant to be a professional driver.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Last year I attended my first Media Racing Challenge, sponsored by the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It is an annual event where members of the media get the chance to get behind the wheel of a stock car and take some laps on the Magic Mile. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As I wrote at the <a href="https://salmonsportsguy.blogspot.com/2022/07/full-throttle-or-maybe-not-quite-full.html" target="_blank">time</a>, I had been around the track on a couple of different occasions in the pace car, once in an SUV and the other time in a sedan, where I found myself sitting on the passenger seat riding incredibly close to the wall as the professional driver maneuvered the car around the track.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I was excited to get the chance last year and when the opportunity arose this year to do it again, I took up the NHMS media relations staff on their invitation and after making a bunch of donuts on Friday morning, June 23, I headed south to Loudon and signed all the appropriate paperwork in the media center. They had the fire suits we needed to wear right there and I stepped into the suit and sat down for the orientation video.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This year the event was run by a different company. Last year it was a company associated with Rusty Wallace, while this year it was a company associated with The King, Richard Petty. Last year’s presentation was mostly done in person by a member of the racing experience company, but this year it was all done on video.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">After the video we made our way out to Victory Lane, where we got a couple of welcome speeches and then were introduced by NHMS staff member Scott Spradling. I was not alone in returning to the track, but there were also a good number of rookies getting behind the wheel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">After getting a helmet and the HANS safety device attached, every participant took a ride-along before getting behind the wheel and the driver showed us how to handle the car as we made our way around the track. Once we had the ride-along in the books, it was time for us to give it a try.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Last year, as a fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr., I was excited to drive the number eight Budweiser car. This year there were two options, including an 88 Dale Junior car and an 18 Kyle Busch car. We didn’t get a choice, but rather took the car that came in when it was our turn to climb behind the wheel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The window entrance to the NASCAR vehicles is not meant for people with, shall we say, larger stomachs. However, I was able to squeeze in the passenger side of the ride-along vehicle and then into the 18 car for my turn. After staff members made sure all the safety devices were secured and the steering wheel was on, my spotter came into the radio and told me I was good to go.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I made my way down pit road, shifting up to fourth gear as I got to the apron in turn one. They had us stay in the apron around the first two turns before getting up to speed on the backstretch. There were cones on the side of the track that told us when we should be letting up on the gas and then hammering it to the floor again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like last year, I felt like I was going a lot faster than I actually did, which was incredibly frustrating. I did feel like I was moving faster this year than last year, but the way that they measured us was different this year. Last year it was our average speed, which saw me fall near the bottom with a rather disappointing time. This year, it was our top speed, which again saw me near the bottom of the pack. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">According to the official stats, my top speed was 127.88 miles per hour. The top recorded speed for the day was just a bit over 140 mph. I felt that I did better than my average speed last year, but there was no way to tell for sure. Most of the participants who were there this year agreed that the cars this year seemed to be a bit slower than the ones we raced in last year, but with a year under my belt, I felt a little more confident.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That being said, the results certainly don’t bear that out. It’s safe to say I will not be subbing in for Chase Elliott any time soon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">However, it was still a blast to get another chance to sit in the driver’s seat and I am looking forward to NASCAR returning to New Hampshire in July. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">New England’s only NASCAR weekend is July 14-16 at NHMS. On-track action kicks off Friday with practice and qualifying sessions for the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) and Whelen Modified Tour (NWMT) plus Friday Night Dirt Duels at The Flat Track. The action continues with NCS qualifying, the Ambetter Health 200 NXS race and Mohegan Sun 100 NWMT race on Doubleheader Saturday and culminates with the NCS taking on “The Magic Mile” Sunday for the Crayon 301. Don’t miss all of the exciting off-track action including Race Day Live with Kenny Wallace and John Roberts, The Groove fan hangout, concerts from Dirty Deeds and Shot of Poison, family movie night featuring “Top Gun: Maverick,” driver appearances, a variety of live performances, fireworks and much more.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For a NASCAR weekend schedule, visit NHMS.com/Events/NASCAR-Cup-Series/Schedule/.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Log on to NHMS.com for tickets and more information on the weekend’s lineup of action-packed racing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVkV62iKAv9p6bjCKWx9Sq_zaNCDMbGDuAwlGBnpxpXUwJtgC_L4djFAulYW40PLjyiiAQXR0e1CVXVuSGbB2g7P0LGCamB7y54RtKri6LeO486FQZCugz3EE5wfqUGXeOyIJ6ssptxPnl8NtjQAWbxPt6TzfaOHJckzmPTJgRL4F08dIaUbxIMgEzej8/s2400/SNHMS1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1822" data-original-width="2400" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVkV62iKAv9p6bjCKWx9Sq_zaNCDMbGDuAwlGBnpxpXUwJtgC_L4djFAulYW40PLjyiiAQXR0e1CVXVuSGbB2g7P0LGCamB7y54RtKri6LeO486FQZCugz3EE5wfqUGXeOyIJ6ssptxPnl8NtjQAWbxPt6TzfaOHJckzmPTJgRL4F08dIaUbxIMgEzej8/s320/SNHMS1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Thumbs up for the camera before the steering wheel is attached and I make my way out on to the track during the Media Racing Challenge last week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (RC Greenwood)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKKjPnkKtV0FAEo0CAD-m-8QZrrX425bA0W69918UJvzZpikpQ9ZlyyzjyVuHKNI9hK2TPM8cFAPQFcp43_t77uXaMwDmgKBga2-ZUBxqYJ4bxMbRtKxgQ32wSIMWpsTg76BdBkBvur43pDydrYd1AQfvw2dTNhwWyWvlGAPd7hsI5HBEoJNmgm__PuM/s1997/SNHMS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1498" data-original-width="1997" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKKjPnkKtV0FAEo0CAD-m-8QZrrX425bA0W69918UJvzZpikpQ9ZlyyzjyVuHKNI9hK2TPM8cFAPQFcp43_t77uXaMwDmgKBga2-ZUBxqYJ4bxMbRtKxgQ32wSIMWpsTg76BdBkBvur43pDydrYd1AQfvw2dTNhwWyWvlGAPd7hsI5HBEoJNmgm__PuM/s320/SNHMS2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><br /></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Getting in and out of the cars is not meant for people with larger stomachs, but I didn’t get stuck, so there’s that. (RC Greenwood)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRgO12lMpX_YbORfFHGOrwrlKx5JZFhRHvr80FI_qX-i_b-QG-gSWqbUvGM1oqTa9jYbWnhy_UUEG0tkPurmnTc12jAnM93CVqN8LmQuU7yVKm9ES3_IGQar1fj1PsUwL1n7FUW5TVT6E-kiG4svx1Aw4ul6vLXRLlns11IVVR6v1Lu8wYGNc9blxF7s/s2400/SNHMS3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1642" data-original-width="2400" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRgO12lMpX_YbORfFHGOrwrlKx5JZFhRHvr80FI_qX-i_b-QG-gSWqbUvGM1oqTa9jYbWnhy_UUEG0tkPurmnTc12jAnM93CVqN8LmQuU7yVKm9ES3_IGQar1fj1PsUwL1n7FUW5TVT6E-kiG4svx1Aw4ul6vLXRLlns11IVVR6v1Lu8wYGNc9blxF7s/s320/SNHMS3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><br /></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Waving to the adoring crowd, or something like that, during pre-race introductions last Friday. (RC Greenwood)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ERtqaTUt-waQrymBfA-2g7Z7lpGZLYUgrvQcR_dFi-Y1qIBkE3kMmvdS7IbghxbEyWuBan1a0AXGYpnJ_13YjXRTd8Ko9j2g-o6hMEgbXPN4-ilDwHaCdICPa4pFyJ5449NEX2JhOkIMudIE67UnaUYG6EhU-MMKNA9GNgNY2pxJA9NGrKMTtLewcps/s3667/SNHMS4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1621" data-original-width="3667" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ERtqaTUt-waQrymBfA-2g7Z7lpGZLYUgrvQcR_dFi-Y1qIBkE3kMmvdS7IbghxbEyWuBan1a0AXGYpnJ_13YjXRTd8Ko9j2g-o6hMEgbXPN4-ilDwHaCdICPa4pFyJ5449NEX2JhOkIMudIE67UnaUYG6EhU-MMKNA9GNgNY2pxJA9NGrKMTtLewcps/s320/SNHMS4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Members of the media listen to the pre-race speeches before taking to the track in the Media Racing Challenge. (RC Greenwood)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHgRZYdnOPZrNIQQ2UhPyOdlf7CoSqNWR62ycm_15_sMAptG9M_g0zWVxMle4eIvPAcb3V4ClIHizW0m1c9XTGKPcjpfA4l5ifL8QEq4q_XetAZ69sAyXZEndn1xx_nB3Ably3COGHEJHbGYOUVrxlrTLJKnnN3GbikSK-BaT15MIM8BC8DNvqJmWtZrM/s2400/SNHMS5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2055" data-original-width="2400" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHgRZYdnOPZrNIQQ2UhPyOdlf7CoSqNWR62ycm_15_sMAptG9M_g0zWVxMle4eIvPAcb3V4ClIHizW0m1c9XTGKPcjpfA4l5ifL8QEq4q_XetAZ69sAyXZEndn1xx_nB3Ably3COGHEJHbGYOUVrxlrTLJKnnN3GbikSK-BaT15MIM8BC8DNvqJmWtZrM/s320/SNHMS5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Thumbs up means I survived my laps around New Hampshire Motor Speedway last Friday afternoon. (RC Greenwood)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-76447986905660356682023-06-14T10:16:00.000-07:002023-06-14T10:16:00.626-07:00Back in an Olympic frame of mind<p>I must admit, the Olympics have taken a bit of a back seat the last few months, as the busy spring season took over my work life, keeping me on the road every day covering games all over the state. </p><p>With Saturday's baseball and softball championship games, the spring season officially came to an end and with it, my busy season drew to a close. I use the summer months to take a bit of a writing break, though I still cover things and write stories to keep the papers full of content. However, my output in the summer months pales in comparison to the school year. I feel like I earn a bit of a break.</p><p>Obviously next summer will be pretty busy, with the Paris Summer Olympics scheduled for the end of July and beginning of August, meaning I'll be spending June and early July gearing up for that trip.</p><p>Over the course of the last few months, I was able to make my accommodation requests to the Paris 2024 team. As has been my case in the previous Olympics, I went with the least expensive options I could find. One of the key things to look for in Paris, which is different than in previous iterations of the Olympics, is the access to the public transportation system. It appears that media will be advised to use the transport system in Paris as an easy option to get to and from their hotels, in particular. The hotels I chose and submitted were close to the public transport stations on the line that leads to the press center.</p><p>Beyond that, I hadn't really done much when it comes to planning out this trip over the course of the last few months. On Friday, I did go to TD Bank in Wolfeboro and got the proper information together so I could fill out a form that Paris 2024 needs in order to set up my account to make payments. As always, Donna at TD Bank in Wolfeboro was incredibly helpful and I filled out the form as requested and sent it on its way yesterday afternoon. I received a notice this morning that my form had been received.</p><p>I will say, on that regard, Paris has been far superior to many of my Olympic trips, as the press operations team seems to be right on top of things in regards to responding to e-mails and questions to the best of their knowledge. I was always skeptical as to whether my e-mails to Russia, South Korea, China or Japan were going through.</p><p>I've also spent a little time going through the Paris 2024 press information, looking at venues and schedules and thinking about things I want to see. That being said, it's far too early to set any plans in place. Right now, I think the next step will be securing the housing and then looking for flights.</p><p>I anticipate a summer full of making donuts in order to help pay for the trip, but I also anticipate a summer of making preparations for what is sure to be another exciting experience.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbmOgUdEG142ESjTkkrPB3J9O3ZbQFksEBkoLwydi1SKF-pw4a2-NWk83IMH7JJdk61RIpzk_u_-Bg9WDcygIndyu2d_ynWs52bl9WdMPu1LDoZjQtAz-JisVqqzDfiQkeuOS-RCtxkzEyqLcza3moC0YMF1ReUt2uEK9_hWE3S94xG_dv1VWzWK1e/s1024/IMG_2674.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbmOgUdEG142ESjTkkrPB3J9O3ZbQFksEBkoLwydi1SKF-pw4a2-NWk83IMH7JJdk61RIpzk_u_-Bg9WDcygIndyu2d_ynWs52bl9WdMPu1LDoZjQtAz-JisVqqzDfiQkeuOS-RCtxkzEyqLcza3moC0YMF1ReUt2uEK9_hWE3S94xG_dv1VWzWK1e/s320/IMG_2674.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>A map of the venue locations for the Paris 2024 Olympics, at least for the venues located in and around Paris.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-70216685942521872132023-05-03T08:48:00.000-07:002023-05-03T08:48:04.578-07:00Another cool location in the booksOver the last 20 years doing this job, I have been lucky enough to cover some events in some pretty cool places. The first place on that list was probably New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where I have had the chance to cover multiple NASCAR weekends and even got in a car and did some laps. <div><br /></div><div>As time has continued, I have made a few different trips to Florida to cover the Kingswood baseball team in its spring training trips to both Bradenton and Vero Beach, and this year added the Kennett baseball team to the Florida coverage. I traveled to Nashville, Tenn. a few years back to cover a couple of local anglers competing in the high school national championships on Kentucky Lake. I've also followed local Cal Ripken teams to regional tournaments around New England and covered high school championship contests in numerous cool collegiate locations. Another highlight was watching the Brewster Academy basketball team play on the historic parquet floor at the TD Garden</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, this blog is mostly focused on my Olympic travels, which have encompassed a 2014 trip to Sochi, Russia, a 2018 trip to PyeongChang, South Korea, a 2021 (delayed by a year) trip to Tokyo, Japan and a 2022 trip to Beijing, China. These have truly been some of the highlights of my journalism career and I count myself lucky to have had the opportunity and am looking forward to traveling to Paris next summer for the next version of the Olympics.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the April vacation week that just concluded, I had another chance to cover something pretty cool, as five of my local baseball teams were scheduled to play at Doubleday Field in downtown Cooperstown, N.Y., the home of baseball. </div><div><br /></div><div>Since most of the teams across the local area were off for vacation week, I thought I'd give it a go to try and cover the three games scheduled for the historic field. I made the plan to travel to upstate New York on Saturday night for a Sunday morning game between Gorham and Woodsville, then return home to work on Monday and Tuesday morning. I then planned to travel back to New York on Tuesday night for a Wednesday morning game between Littleton and Colebrook and then stay there through Friday morning's game between Gilford and Winnisquam.</div><div><br /></div><div>My aunt, uncle and cousins and their families run a farm in upstate New York, so I made plans to stay there during my trips. I arrived on Saturday night and was pretty sure there was going to be no game on Sunday morning, as the rain poured down throughout the night. While the sun was shining on Sunday afternoon when the Gorham-Woodsville game was scheduled to be played, the field was not playable and the game was cancelled. So, back in the car I went and headed home for a few days of work.</div><div><br /></div><div>I returned to Fultonville on Tuesday evening and set out for the hour drive to Cooperstown on Wednesday morning and got the chance to see Littleton pull out a 9-7 win over Colebrook on Doubleday Field. This marked Littleton's first trip, but Colebrook's fourth visit to Cooperstown. I spent Thursday relaxing a bit, watching Survivor, taking a seven-mile walk, writing the game story from the previous day and enjoying a bite to eat with my cousin, Justin and his girlfriend, Sandy. Friday morning I traveled back to Cooperstown and got to see an instant classic, as the Winnisquam baseball team scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to walk off with a 4-3 win over Gilford. Then, it was back to New Hampshire for work the next day, with a quick stop to see my brother, Jared and his girlfriend, Andi, along the way in Marlboro, Vt.</div><div><br /></div><div>All told, it was about 1,100 miles of travel between the two trips to New York. But, it was certainly cool to cover a couple of games in another great location. Here's hoping there is some more unique locations in store before Paris next summer.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMCuJP2XEYWyz4XzjwGmFcqMy6BEMxlIDsestrx_De3BFBKGoNoFPwYATN3RTd0ywjVx0cxq-QZPvE2lVasQkRXy6gsPA6ddUt2GMozdV_VnuW5q_56SeoHwr85XDxyEjgwlixH8h-AfMZDPzYW30uJvfW1o7HbplsqX4hNKedR7EyVFPJN_hxFf4/s2048/SGorhamWoodsvillebaseball.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMCuJP2XEYWyz4XzjwGmFcqMy6BEMxlIDsestrx_De3BFBKGoNoFPwYATN3RTd0ywjVx0cxq-QZPvE2lVasQkRXy6gsPA6ddUt2GMozdV_VnuW5q_56SeoHwr85XDxyEjgwlixH8h-AfMZDPzYW30uJvfW1o7HbplsqX4hNKedR7EyVFPJN_hxFf4/s320/SGorhamWoodsvillebaseball.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y. played host to a few New Hampshire teams over the April vacation week.</i></div>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-26661785062062219342023-03-30T19:35:00.001-07:002023-03-30T19:35:13.298-07:00Bonjour, Paris!<p>The countdown can officially begin.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaavUP-AcHC0hYj-eP7vxtYMlnyuQSk7qe0JNxPTNGKjBpJMoKVtkasFc81OrA5x9Zkk17iO3u31bGLNhNodUP2kANuIi1f_AhCl-NgvIUowOhvjWBh175OqR-VMi6tBuxTWSnthqqbxtTJQXq_uQZuqoOExLPcwo_mOjulsZA4daxzCD-RMwd-LO/s720/eiffel-tower-3349075__480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="720" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaavUP-AcHC0hYj-eP7vxtYMlnyuQSk7qe0JNxPTNGKjBpJMoKVtkasFc81OrA5x9Zkk17iO3u31bGLNhNodUP2kANuIi1f_AhCl-NgvIUowOhvjWBh175OqR-VMi6tBuxTWSnthqqbxtTJQXq_uQZuqoOExLPcwo_mOjulsZA4daxzCD-RMwd-LO/s320/eiffel-tower-3349075__480.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The Eiffel Tower will be host to beach volleyball next summer.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-17211648970322497372023-03-15T11:56:00.003-07:002023-03-15T11:56:15.456-07:00500 days to go... and still no word<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoknhQnJHfMNDRHGWlHE6EsCrh6zYVRx5jK24Qm7QXh2OsKu_ES00V8tMH_gBIOZrmTwY57zlFRPQvMZO3Kr8aY2FLy_OH646EyLDzzK-sGAVaZx49bS6tndYnGCBavHoeozoQpqZAp7xBpMOLQ15ERN4dUdgm0HKqZ-2DncgP0RZ0jBKYK1wxs-gO/s980/w980-p16x9-2023-02-10T211953Z_1777429612_RC2K8Z9XAW8X_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-RUSSIA-ATHLETICS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="980" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoknhQnJHfMNDRHGWlHE6EsCrh6zYVRx5jK24Qm7QXh2OsKu_ES00V8tMH_gBIOZrmTwY57zlFRPQvMZO3Kr8aY2FLy_OH646EyLDzzK-sGAVaZx49bS6tndYnGCBavHoeozoQpqZAp7xBpMOLQ15ERN4dUdgm0HKqZ-2DncgP0RZ0jBKYK1wxs-gO/s320/w980-p16x9-2023-02-10T211953Z_1777429612_RC2K8Z9XAW8X_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-RUSSIA-ATHLETICS.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The Olympics in Paris are still a question mark on this end, though they are less than 500 days away now.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-37896101479687113562023-02-28T08:20:00.000-08:002023-02-28T08:20:38.060-08:00The realities of the playoffs<p>If you follow me on social media, specifically Twitter, I was pretty worked up on Monday night as I tried to get into the Division IV boys' basketball semifinals at Merrimack Valley High School.</p><p>I arrived approximately midway through the first of two semifinal games, hoping to see the end of the first game before the Littleton-Woodsville game as the nightcap. However, when I got there, there was a large crowd outside the locked doors and nobody was being allowed in, since the gym was at capacity.</p><p>It was a bit frustrating on my part. I understood the reasons, but there was a person standing next to me in the lobby at MVHS with a ticket for the first game who couldn't get in either. And my biggest issue was that there was nobody coming out to tell people what was going on inside. The first game went to double-overtime, meaning the folks with tickets to the second game were left standing around (many outside) for longer than expected, with no access to bathrooms after a two-hour drive from the North Country. To me, this was a problem.</p><p>However, I also understand the situation the NHIAA and the tournament hosts, Merrimack Valley, were in. By rule, they couldn't let anyone else into the gym and the only way to control that was to keep the doors locked. Better communication would've helped, but I do understand that they had to wait until the first game crowd was cleared out to let the second game crowd in.</p><p>Of course, a lot of people wondered why the game was held at Merrimack Valley to begin with. It's not a huge gym and the crowds for these games tend to be pretty large. The answer to the question is not as simple as one would think.</p><p>First and foremost, Merrimack Valley, like Newfound, which hosted the girls' semifinals, is a fairly central location, easily accessed off of Interstate 93 for teams coming from both the north and the south. That part makes perfect sense. They stepped up when other venues said they wouldn't host. They should be commended for that.</p><p>The bigger problem lies in that the NHIAA has not been able to get gym space from one of the best spots in the state to host such games, Plymouth State University. PSU is located right in the middle of the state, right off of Interstate 93, with a big gym, plenty of parking and a great atmosphere for the kids to play in. Before COVID, Plymouth State and Southern New Hampshire University were great spots to host tournaments, but since the pandemic, neither school has been willing to welcome the high school athletes back to their gyms. The University of New Hampshire, the biggest gym in the state, has given the NHIAA a single date so that the Division I and II championships can take place there, but they have also been reluctant to let the high school kids use the space. This includes for the swimming championships, which would have no home in the state with space for spectators if not for UNH.</p><p>The only one of the three state schools that has been happy to have the high school championships is Keene State, which hosted the D3 boys and girls last weekend. While it is a bit out of the way for much of the state, it is a great gym, with plenty of seating and parking and a pretty good atmosphere. And Colby-Sawyer came through with a gym to host the D4 championships this coming weekend.</p><p>From speaking to numerous people associated with the NHIAA, I know they want to be in Plymouth and they want to stay at UNH. In fact, they need to stay at UNH, as it is the only gym in the state able to hold all spectators that are expected at the DI boys' basketball finals. But for whatever reason, these schools seem reluctant to host the big high school events.</p><p>I don't understand the reasons why. These events are a great chance to showcase your school to hundreds of high school athletes in a short period of time. They get to see what the school has to offer and when it comes time for them to choose a school to attend, they might remember their time in the playoffs at your school. There's also a good chance to raise money through running concession stands and also to give students a chance to help manage events as part of their education. I see a ton of benefits for the colleges to host these events. And it would be great for the high school kids as well.</p><p>There are some great high school facilities throughout the state. Laconia High School has a fantastic stadium for hosting soccer or field hockey or football or lacrosse. Same thing for Bedford High School. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats offer their fantastic venue for the high school baseball championships every year. Pinkerton has a great gym for gymnastics, cheer and volleyball championships. But gyms that can handle such large events are few and far between and colleges not opening up their gyms to the high school championships is hurting the tournaments. </p><p>Sure, I was upset when I couldn't get into the gym on Monday night, but I also understood the situation the NHIAA was in. There was no perfect answer and everyone involved was doing the best that they could to manage the tough situation. Wouldn't it be great if PSU would allow the NHIAA tournament back to its gym so these problems can become a thing of the past? </p><p>Here's hoping it can happen. For everyone's benefit.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Cv9ntJUSJS8aQTOAHDOH8VGwWVsBXqvG-IPrIZtGx0GoZgOz5m23LE2v2pX8yDNFozW9gNqlf7_GWvxjlKeixYKmasJU9z8axAkttWTE2W3WrkPT2-NRzQZFtNBm53jG7aG7tHN4U-GKPTvgA5pJ9lebXjokB9monjRTwSBjZYTVfB2yAAsiu7pP/s1024/IMG_2172.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Cv9ntJUSJS8aQTOAHDOH8VGwWVsBXqvG-IPrIZtGx0GoZgOz5m23LE2v2pX8yDNFozW9gNqlf7_GWvxjlKeixYKmasJU9z8axAkttWTE2W3WrkPT2-NRzQZFtNBm53jG7aG7tHN4U-GKPTvgA5pJ9lebXjokB9monjRTwSBjZYTVfB2yAAsiu7pP/s320/IMG_2172.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The Merrimack Valley gym was packed for both semifinal games on Monday night.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-87897294147613557382023-02-08T10:14:00.002-08:002023-02-08T10:14:10.528-08:00A few updates on the road to Paris<p>I have to admit, I was getting a bit nervous.</p><p>I've had the honor of covering four of the last five Olympic Games, including winter stops in Sochi, Russia, PyeongChang, South Korea and Beijing, China and a summer stop in Tokyo, Japan. Ahead of each of those Olympics, I have traditionally heard early on whether I've been granted credentials.</p><p>I remember prior to my first Olympics, I actually got the confirmation e-mail during high school football season (I was in the parking lot of the Burger King in North Conway after a Kennett football game, checking my e-mail since coverage is not great at the high school). That would have been in the fall of 2012, a year and a half ahead of the Olympics, which took place in February of 2014 (I was there, nine years ago at this time). The PyeongChang and Beijing timelines were pretty close to the same. </p><p>The only Summer Olympics I have been to was in Tokyo, originally scheduled for 2020. I received my confirmation of credentials for those Games in December of 2018, again, about a year and a half out from the Olympics. Obviously, those Olympics were postponed by a year, but that's neither here nor there.</p><p>So, as the calendar turned to January, I was expecting to hear from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee regarding my application for credentials for Paris in the summer of 2024. When the calendar turned to February, I began to think that maybe my application wasn't accepted. Truthfully, I would be understanding of such a situation, but figured they would at least notify people who applied if they were accepted or not.</p><p>I dropped an e-mail to the accreditation team at the USOPC inquiring as such. For those that don't know, the Paris 2024 folks will allocate a certain number of credentials to each country that is attending the Olympics and the country's Olympic committee makes the decisions on who to give those credentials to. After I applied for credentials for Sochi, I was interviewed by a journalist on behalf of the USOPC as to what my plans were, etc. I did not have an interview prior to PyeongChang and Beijing, but I am now under the impression that those interviews are for first-time applicants. I did have an interview for Tokyo, which I assume was because it was my first Summer Games application, so I wasn't expecting one for Paris.</p><p>The e-mail came back from the USOPC yesterday noting that they were still going through the applications and would be letting everyone know their status by the end of February. That put my mind at ease a little.</p><p>From talking to other journalists over the years, I have come to understand that, unofficially, if you are approved for credentials once, you are usually in the pipeline and accepted on your next applications. With Tokyo in my back pocket, it would stand that I should be approved for Paris, but I also have an understanding as to where weekly newspapers rank on the list of priorities for credential approval and that is near the bottom. I was truly surprised when I received Sochi credentials and I believe my Tokyo credential application was helped along by the fact that the guy who did my interview was someone I spent a lot of time with in PyeongChang and he saw the work that I put in.</p><p>I am hopeful that the application process will turn out the way I am hoping. After all, I did cover two Olympics during a pandemic, when many larger outlets chose to not make in-person coverage a priority. </p><p>On a related note, Paris 2024 announced today the "look of the Games" along with the new pictograms, which depict each sport and are all over merchandise and signage art the Olympics. <a href="https://olympics.com/en/news/paris-2024-reveals-look-of-games-62-pictograms" target="_blank">Read that article here</a> if you would like.</p><p>Paris is still not a guarantee for me, but if the credential application is accepted, I am leaning closer and closer to going, if for no other reason than to see the incredible opening ceremony they have planned.</p><p>Hopefully I'll know for sure in a few weeks.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz_HgtQS8njYK9TyosC7mF8WS8EjEPtzYvSr76Uvpw_pn-rYTf0IoFpqsTVFzbODYWOlaotSPJL_nGgTTJxOyYvwgLC7Yu4kgwQZFCAROBG24saZ-9Yg-f1bBImxusloPJOi8-FrEvpxvN94gvzHlqZvLJlVrotHlj3UyHNuH6Yy9M8OZjHTGu7vrX/s3008/DSC_0044%20copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="3008" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz_HgtQS8njYK9TyosC7mF8WS8EjEPtzYvSr76Uvpw_pn-rYTf0IoFpqsTVFzbODYWOlaotSPJL_nGgTTJxOyYvwgLC7Yu4kgwQZFCAROBG24saZ-9Yg-f1bBImxusloPJOi8-FrEvpxvN94gvzHlqZvLJlVrotHlj3UyHNuH6Yy9M8OZjHTGu7vrX/s320/DSC_0044%20copy.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Nine years ago today I was spending my first day at the Sochi Olympics. This is a shot from the bus window as I made my way up to the freestyle park.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-11707987900160758942023-02-02T13:44:00.001-08:002023-02-02T13:44:03.491-08:00The loss of a legend<p>One thing that I will always remember about Tom Underwood is his handshake. </p><p>Sure, he won more than 500 games as a baseball coach at Plymouth Regional High School, coached thousands of kids from their debuts in organized baseball up through their high school careers, built successful feeder programs for the dominating Plymouth football and wrestling programs, was one of the first people enshrined into the New Hampshire Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, was a heck of a math teacher, raised three kids with his wonderful wife and had a hand in seemingly just about anything that went on in the Plymouth community over the last few decades.</p><p>But man, I can never forget that handshake. It felt like your hand was going to be crushed.</p><p>Coach Underwood passed away last week at the age of 72. Even though he had stepped down as the varsity baseball coach at Plymouth, he was still very active in the school and the community, keeping the books at basketball games, coaching junior high softball, helping with the local youth leagues. He wanted to do what he could to help the kids of the community and that he did. For more than four decades.</p><p>I look at the current crop of coaches at Plymouth and realize he had a hand in educating or coaching many of them, whether they played baseball for him like current baseball coach Mike Boyle or golf coach Gavin Brickley or football coach Chris Sanborn, or had him as a middle school math teacher or worked on the sidelines with him, like all three of the people mentioned above and then some. He left a legacy that continues to give and give to the community of Plymouth.</p><p>But still, that handshake, I can't stop thinking about it.</p><p>Coach Underwood also had a booming voice that you could hear any time he was near. He'd greet you with that firm handshake (there it is again) and ask a question about something you had in common. As Gavin told me last week when I talked to him about coach Underwood, "he knew not every kid was the same, he had to deal with kids differently and coach different to see them succeed in their role." It was the same when he had a conversation with you, he always seemed to have something that could apply to your life.</p><p>He was also the most knowledgeable baseball person I knew. He could give you stats and information from his teams from 30 years ago, but also could talk about how Mike Greenwell contributed to the 1986 Red Sox or the impact of a player like Shohei Ohtani on the sport he loved. Baseball is my favorite sport and I always enjoyed a conversation with coach Underwood because you came away learning something new.</p><p>Baseball was a passion for coach Underwood, but so was being there for the kids of the community, doing what he could to help make their lives better. </p><p>Even though I knew he might crush my weakling hand, I always made it a point to shake coach's hand before or after I spoke to him following a game. I considered it an honor.</p><p>Coach Underwood was indeed a legend and he will be greatly missed by the Plymouth community, the New Hampshire baseball community and this simple sports reporter. </p><p>The good news is, I can still feel that handshake.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMGNfOGk0avoHaYGsFMwfhpDJlhpNmSIxt20QBIp39bv7vp4wRtXfvFyaRv01DLuxrVJ7vueGhTCRA0__vRDtSrLMfKWIy-TdXlZkJpCM8sM-avrCvtLPqCjycx5qeWd2nS4eTPvJthPanBe7UA3Dd9bA6GQnD6AWUIEaZNbZ4aHJy8PusOWMRx_7o/s4496/SUnderwood1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4496" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMGNfOGk0avoHaYGsFMwfhpDJlhpNmSIxt20QBIp39bv7vp4wRtXfvFyaRv01DLuxrVJ7vueGhTCRA0__vRDtSrLMfKWIy-TdXlZkJpCM8sM-avrCvtLPqCjycx5qeWd2nS4eTPvJthPanBe7UA3Dd9bA6GQnD6AWUIEaZNbZ4aHJy8PusOWMRx_7o/s320/SUnderwood1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Coach Tom Underwood stands with the captains from the 2015 season, his final season at the helm of the Plymouth baseball team.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-51461904127033876122023-01-24T09:28:00.003-08:002023-01-24T09:28:40.708-08:00Following the chase of history<p>As last year came to an end and 2023 kicked off, I made a move from the place that I have called home for the past 20+ years to a new apartment in Wolfeboro. There was really no reason for it other than it was time for a change.</p><p>I attempted to bring my DirecTV package with me to the new location, but after a discussion on the phone with a DirecTV representative, it became obvious that I couldn't do that, since the new apartment would not get satellite service because of the many, many trees that surround the house where I am living. As a devoted television addict, I had to look for another option to get my fix.</p><p>My only experience with streaming services before the move was my subscription to Paramount-Plus, which I did during Survivor season 40 in order to get the awesome behind the scenes videos that came out during that season, which aired during the height of COVID in the spring of 2020. Beyond watching those videos, I didn't really watch much else online, but I knew that I would have access to Survivor and The Amazing Race, two of my favorite shows, no matter what I chose.</p><p>On the recommendation of a friend, I went with YouTubeTV and so far, despite a few internet-related issues at the new apartment, I have been pleased with what they have offered. I am able to watch and/or record the network and non-network shows that I traditionally watch right on my television like I could with DirecTV, at a price that is basically a fraction of what I was paying. The one drawback is that NESN is currently not available on YouTubeTV, but my SiriusXM radio package for my car allows me to listen to all the Red Sox games no matter where I am, so I know I have access to those games.</p><p>One of the other things that I was working on trying to figure out was how to watch FIS World Cup alpine races and other snow sports. NBC Sports Network used to run tons of these races on weekends, but when that network went away a while back, they were spread out on a few different networks, but were less frequently on the air. With the DirecTV subscription off the bill, I decided to subscribe to Peacock, which is NBC's streaming service, but also has the rights to some of the alpine races (randomly enough, including all the ones in Austria). So, I was able to watch those races on my computer and on my television.</p><p>I also subscribed to skiandsnowboardlive.com, which basically airs all of the races for cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding and ski jumping in addition to the alpine races not on Peacock. Between the two services, I have been able to watch Mikaela Shiffrin chase down Lindsey Vonn's record for most World Cup wins by a female skier and as I sit here on Tuesday, Jan. 24, I am in my office in Meredith watching as she (spoiler alert) picks up her 83rd World Cup victory in Italy, breaking Lindsey's record and putting her one win closer to the all-time record.</p><p>I am really enjoying the broadcasts with different commentators so far and am glad I was able to see some history being made. And as I start thinking about the 2026 Winter Olympics, it was great to see the women race in Cortina D'Ampezzo, which will be the site of the alpine events in those Olympics. For the first time, it looks like I could be enjoying a Winter Olympics in a site that looks like winter (sorry, Sochi, PyeongChang and Beijing) and that in and of itself is exciting.</p><p>Congratulations to Mikaela Shiffrin on becoming the winningest female alpine skier of all time. It's been a pleasure watching you race in person and on my screens. Hopefully, I will see you in Italy in a few years.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhqmvS9iNtEh7s6qiQx7VZJunO__6PykTPIYWbHtMegA2B1tnRSEZvT5ESx7zQfuLWbE71SJG3fmixyg1H8PiQDESkxfifFJhpO8kRVA7XMKDCIOwEy4bNKGDSZLLDUFd0lJyNKQqfBHydj7cxZqaT0TVSS00f1O3xa7LdSfeHGtQBEcVP08S1bMi/s2048/IMG_1891.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhqmvS9iNtEh7s6qiQx7VZJunO__6PykTPIYWbHtMegA2B1tnRSEZvT5ESx7zQfuLWbE71SJG3fmixyg1H8PiQDESkxfifFJhpO8kRVA7XMKDCIOwEy4bNKGDSZLLDUFd0lJyNKQqfBHydj7cxZqaT0TVSS00f1O3xa7LdSfeHGtQBEcVP08S1bMi/s320/IMG_1891.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Been enjoying watching Mikaela Shiffrin chase history on my computer in the office the last few weeks.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-61639626929294855362022-12-31T13:28:00.000-08:002022-12-31T13:28:10.482-08:00Out with 2022, in with 2023<p>Eight short months ago, I was on a mountain top two hours outside of downtown Beijing, China, watching as the woman regarded as one of the world's best alpine skiers, had what can only be described as the worst few days of her competition career.</p><p>It was tough watching Mikaela Shiffrin go through what she went through following disappointing non-finishes in the Beijing Winter Olympics and it led to my most read <a href="https://salmonsportsguy.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-agony-of-defeat.html" target="_blank">blog post by far </a>and stoked many discussions both in Beijing and back at home in the United States.</p><p>What made me think of this was the week that Mikaela just had, which can only be described as possibly one of the best weeks of her competition career, with three wins in a row, which pushes her closer to Lindsey Vonn's record for World Cup wins for a woman and closer to Ingemar Stenmark's record for World Cup wins for anyone and made her only the third person in history to record 80 World Cup wins.</p><p>It was truly remarkable to follow the races while I was covering the numerous high school holiday tournaments in Conway, Gilford, Farmington and Laconia. To see how different things can be in less than a year is amazing. Of course, most everyone who follows alpine skiing had to know that Mikaela would be just fine, even after the unusual performances in Beijing. After all, she's insanely talented and a true leader in the sport. People like that don't stay down for long.</p><p>Looking back, it has been a long year since those three weeks in China covering the world's elite athletes as they took to the ice and snow. There's been a few championships won along the way (and while I was in China), there's been spring and fall sports seasons and now we're back to the winter again. There's been a summer full of all sorts of sporting events, from the return of the Granite Man and Granite Kid Triathlons in Wolfeboro to Cal Ripken tournaments around the Lakes Region. I got the chance to drive a NASCAR car prior to the series returning to New Hampshire Motor Speedway and I made a ton of donuts, pies and gingerbread men in my side gig at the Yum Yum Shop (which pays for those trips to the Olympics every few years).</p><p>As we turn to a new year, I have moved from the apartment I have lived in for more than 20 years to a new place in Wolfeboro, a process that has not been fun and involved moving most of my big furniture in the rain, thanks to the help from my brother, Jared, and the use of the truck from Bob Tuttle. I am still trying to get settled in the new place, but five days in a row of holiday tournament action has left me little time, so for now, I wander between boxes and furniture to get from the bed to the bathroom and back.</p><p>And 2022 also brought another Olympic credential application process getting under way, as the road to Paris 2024 is officially under way, with expected announcements of credential approvals coming in the new year. While there are no Olympics in 2023, if I decide I'm going to Paris, the process will all unfold this coming year.</p><p>It should be interesting, one way or the other.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVW5W7BL9Q5j9HCOO_YDzK1m5xQo_1L2bt1kGbei7b8FkjYmYiCNOioA6_qTypDfJwc44BDfxv3LbSQ6VNtaaklN5ZBZjEsOsQhwa0b3PTTfe6U3O-3hLIsqottj2VlfBguPOPPVHQxesfhFVWE5_J9vMj-O1hrVWSVJE_YL0Eq6SwY9xVcM5zq_Ox/s4496/DSC_7039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4496" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVW5W7BL9Q5j9HCOO_YDzK1m5xQo_1L2bt1kGbei7b8FkjYmYiCNOioA6_qTypDfJwc44BDfxv3LbSQ6VNtaaklN5ZBZjEsOsQhwa0b3PTTfe6U3O-3hLIsqottj2VlfBguPOPPVHQxesfhFVWE5_J9vMj-O1hrVWSVJE_YL0Eq6SwY9xVcM5zq_Ox/s320/DSC_7039.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Climbing high into the mountains to see the women's slalom at the Beijing Olympics involved riding a few gondolas.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-24869487552971209152022-12-20T13:46:00.000-08:002022-12-20T13:46:02.234-08:00A flashback to a different time<p>Those Facebook memories struck again.</p><p>This time, it was Sunday when I happened to be on the laptop and took a quick break from work and the memory popped up. It was four years ago that day (December 18) that I received the e-mail from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee that I had been granted credentials for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.</p><p>What a ride that turned out to be.</p><p>That e-mail came a scant 10 months after I had returned from PyeongChang, South Korea and the 2018 Winter Olympics. On a whim, wanting to see how a Summer Olympics experience would differ from the two Winter Olympics that I had been to, I had applied for credentials for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. I was excited to get the chance to see something different, to see the Olympics without having to don a winter coat at any point.</p><p>The next year proved to be much the same type of processes that I had gone leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and the aforementioned PyeongChang Games four years later. There was the necessary paperwork getting filled out, lodging being secured with a deposit put down on a hotel room in Tokyo and general preparedness. Things were looking good as 2019 turned in to 2020 and the year of my first Summer Olympics dawned.</p><p>Of course, we all know how 2020 turned out.</p><p>Like millions of others, my life came to a grinding halt thanks to the pandemic. At first there was optimism that the Olympics would go on as planned, but as it got to the end of March, organizers realized that there was no way that the pandemic would be cleared up by August and the decision was made to postpone the Olympics by one year, the first time that had ever happened. A few weeks later, I was laid off from the newspaper as the business struggled to get through COVID. With no sports going on, it was a logical decision and one that I completely understood.</p><p>While I anticipated that I would get my job back, my concerns about the Olympics were many. I had no idea whether it would be possible to move such a massive event. Would all the money that I had paid for hotels and other related amenities carry over? We were assured by Tokyo 2020 organizers that we would have the lodging that we booked and any money and reservations that we made would be honored.</p><p>Of course, I also saw trips to Florida with local baseball teams and New York City and Atlanta for Survivor events go by the wayside, as did a trip to Ireland with the UNH Marching Band to perform on St. Patrick's Day. But the Olympics were the big one.</p><p>As it turned out, you are able to move a massive event like the Olympics. Kudos to the Tokyo 2020 people and the International Olympic Committee for doing the seemingly impossible in moving the Summer Olympics ahead one year. However, even that one year wasn't enough to get ahead of the pandemic, as the amount of paperwork and medical testing that had to be done prior to leaving for Tokyo added a lot more fun to the experience.</p><p>That being said, I got to experience a pretty unique event, an Olympics with almost no spectators in a pandemic world. I traveled halfway around the world to be part of an historic event. And seven months later, I got on a plane and did it all again, this time in China for the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Covering two Olympics all while dealing with a pandemic was an interesting and unique situation and one that I won't soon forget.</p><p>As I sit here now, we are anticipating hearing from the USOPC about our credential requests for Paris 2024 at some point in the next month. I'm excited to hear how that process went, though I am still on the fence as to whether Paris is in the offing.</p><p>It's amazing how one small memory on Facebook can take you back in time to a world that really doesn't exist anymore. A time when nobody knew what COVID was and Corona was just a Mexican beer.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgftielYO5KmOLWpkXFCnEtQJ-qp423k0xXT6VJnngbxjwjMXiXl-QKqYukA2_BQaAge93FgvbDHZb0hABTVeYAGTs1k3ImlFX43CFkplG8V9QhCKmn45yTuqEhZxT9qviwscSND7y30rd471rvuFOF199hJK79ZPUF0HS0w8koGHJSXJhkysgVmnss/s4496/DSC_9233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4496" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgftielYO5KmOLWpkXFCnEtQJ-qp423k0xXT6VJnngbxjwjMXiXl-QKqYukA2_BQaAge93FgvbDHZb0hABTVeYAGTs1k3ImlFX43CFkplG8V9QhCKmn45yTuqEhZxT9qviwscSND7y30rd471rvuFOF199hJK79ZPUF0HS0w8koGHJSXJhkysgVmnss/s320/DSC_9233.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Tokyo Big Sight, which was the site of the media center for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the summer of 2021.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-25855568463755369902022-09-14T08:06:00.005-07:002022-09-14T08:06:46.556-07:00The concerns on the road to Paris<p>The road to Paris has officially begun. However, I am still unsure just exactly how far down that road I am going to go.</p><p>The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee sent out the e-mail for press to apply for credentials earlier this week. On Tuesday I completed the form and sent in my application for the Paris Olympics, but did so knowing that if I choose to, I can pass on the opportunity and allow them to go to another journalist.</p><p>My concerns leading up to Paris have nothing to do with the fact that it's the Summer Olympics or even that it will be less than two years since my most recent Olympic trip. My concerns are almost completely financial.</p><p>As some people may know, I work part time at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro. While I started doing this during the pandemic when I got laid off from my writing job, I've kept doing it as a way to pay for the trips that I enjoy taking, be it to the Olympics or Survivor events around the country.</p><p>Sure, it leads to me being tired a lot, but I chalk that up as being part of the experience. If I want the chance to go to great places, there might be a small price to pay for that. However, it's the monetary price of things that is causing me concern as I think about Paris and Milan in the next few years.</p><p>The price of everything has been going up and it's no different in my life. My grocery bill continues to skyrocket and with the amount of driving I do to cover games, the price of gas, even if it has gone down a bit the last month or so, is still a lot to take (we do get a mileage stipend, which helps). And to top it all off, earlier this week my landlords let me know that my rent will be going up again. I have lived in the same apartment for 20 years and my rent is pretty manageable, particularly given the sky-high prices I see on other rentals in the area. But, my rent increase is just another bill to add to the pile. It's a pile that seems to keep growing.</p><p>Of course once the details come out about the Paris experience for journalists, I will get the chance to see how expensive the media lodging is and then there is the price of the flight to take into account. I am sure most of the costs associated with Paris 2024 will likely be more expensive than previous Olympics (not counting the expensive flight to Beijing) for the same reasons that my bills keep going up, as the cost of everything is increasing.</p><p>There's a lot to think about over the course of the next few months when they start to send out approval e-mails and I am sure it will all be in my head. The concerns are there on my part and I will need to alleviate those concerns before I make the official decision for Paris.</p><p>The goal is to be there in the summer of 2024. Let's see if things work out the way they need to.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNCO-otSTKAQ58jlXnHk8BqzoVg65OAosx-BJHk5RKefFasta2yz7uSj56wYQLAsUDL8a3MWNhd9HKVx1k0m84uIL7N0BmP3kiEpe90YDWbIpiAd-LCJjvo34yEWfaBRq5uH5OKqXExw_TrCvb_Pyidi0x95F46T4b6jFFUi4j9H33PXrYqCXqf0Bm/s2880/2022-09-08-paris-featured.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1620" data-original-width="2880" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNCO-otSTKAQ58jlXnHk8BqzoVg65OAosx-BJHk5RKefFasta2yz7uSj56wYQLAsUDL8a3MWNhd9HKVx1k0m84uIL7N0BmP3kiEpe90YDWbIpiAd-LCJjvo34yEWfaBRq5uH5OKqXExw_TrCvb_Pyidi0x95F46T4b6jFFUi4j9H33PXrYqCXqf0Bm/s320/2022-09-08-paris-featured.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Paris will take center stage for the 2024 Summer Olympics. (photo from Olympics.com)</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-26087461584353874042022-07-23T12:10:00.001-07:002022-07-23T12:10:35.071-07:00Looking back, one year ago<p>Facebook memories are always reminding you where you were in previous years. Most of my summer memories are from baseball fields and race courses around New Hampshire.</p><p>But, the one-year-ago memories this week have started coming from the other side of the world, as at this time last year I was in Tokyo, preparing for my first summer Olympics experience, a year later than planned and a few days later than planned thanks to a three-day required quarantine.</p><p>As I write this on Saturday, July 23, it was exactly one year since the Opening Ceremonies, which I watched from my hotel room, as my quarantine had yet to be completed. I had originally hoped to make the Tokyo Opening Ceremonies my first-ever Olympic ceremony, but that had to wait a few weeks until the Tokyo Closing Ceremony.</p><p>Over the past six or seven years, I have really enjoyed when Facebook provides me with memories from my Olympic experiences. Most of those have come in the middle of February when the Sochi and PyeongChang Olympics took place. However, Tokyo is the first time those memories are popping up in the summer and it's fun to see it in another time of the year.</p><p>Tokyo was a unique experience, particularly at the time. It was the first Olympics ever postponed and the first held during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead-up to Tokyo was a lot of paperwork and a lot of meetings determining just what the process would be for us as we prepared to make a trip around the world in the middle of a pandemic. It was frustrating at times and not the easiest of situations, but what it did was prepare me better for what we had to go through to go to Beijing earlier this year for the Winter Olympics.</p><p>When I look back, Tokyo was quite the unique experience in so many ways, mainly because of the pandemic. The venues around the city were completely empty, save for media, staff and volunteers. It was an eerie situation in so many ways. It was incredibly hot (perfect timing as the heat wave hits the northeast this week) and there was a lot of sweating going on. But it was my first time seeing the Summer Olympics and I came away with a new appreciation for the Summer Games. The Winter Olympics have always been my favorite, but I really enjoyed the athletic accomplishments I saw in Tokyo and am seriously considering another trip to the Summer Games. I got to see the great Katie Ledecky compete in person and I got to see the final Olympic performances for Allyson Felix, one of the greatest track athletes of all time. I saw a UNH alum and a former competitor on the courses at Kennett, Kingswood and Plymouth run for Team USA. I missed out on Simone Biles, but got to see a gold medal performance from Jade Carey. I saw the US win gold medals in women's and men's basketball, women's beach volleyball and women's water polo in the final days of my time in Tokyo.</p><p>And of course, I got to be part of my first Olympic ceremony when I attended the Closing Ceremonies and got to see the pomp and circumstance for the first time. Since then, I have seen the Opening Ceremonies and Closing Ceremonies in Beijing, but that ceremony in Tokyo will always be the first one for me.</p><p>I know that I can look back at any time (thanks to the iPhone photo gallery), but it is still cool to see just what I was doing one year ago on the other side of the world.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8uJJ0yR608PWSByUy38BoXpG3V8HuM6HnLxca8xQEKd76dh9PLLcG50qX4a4c6vG10-y2nyXaR5N-9MZhEv8F7LgAiz2b4Y4fF8ivQFlzvZHHRDJvX6h-8aLeNgATfChtzTmNnmk9AhkoICPU93MLaYZ5dcb58fdGwo8CG3yYnKaHyblW3zLNG5r/s4496/DSC_8970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4496" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8uJJ0yR608PWSByUy38BoXpG3V8HuM6HnLxca8xQEKd76dh9PLLcG50qX4a4c6vG10-y2nyXaR5N-9MZhEv8F7LgAiz2b4Y4fF8ivQFlzvZHHRDJvX6h-8aLeNgATfChtzTmNnmk9AhkoICPU93MLaYZ5dcb58fdGwo8CG3yYnKaHyblW3zLNG5r/s320/DSC_8970.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo was a great setting for what ended up being my first event at the Summer Olympics last year.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-46479782604081486762022-07-11T11:43:00.000-07:002022-07-11T11:43:04.144-07:00Full throttle … or maybe not quite full throttle<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This piece previously appeared in Salmon Press Newspapers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I’m putting my foot to the floor, riding inches from the ground as I get up to speed and enter the race track, my heart pounding and a voice in my ear telling me to move up and get between the lines. The number eight Budweiser Monte Carlo, long a fixture of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., is now carrying a guy who barely fit through the window and is super happy he took his blood pressure medication earlier in the day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That being said, as the car circled the track, with my foot hammering down coming out of turns two and four looking to pick up speed on the straightaways, the thrill was real. It felt like I was flying. In reality, I was probably going about the speed I do on Interstate 93 when I’m heading to Littleton to cover a basketball game.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">A little backstory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">A few years ago, I was in the media center at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when someone came in and asked if anyone wanted to take a ride in the pace car. It seemed like a great opportunity and I took advantage. I did it again the next year as well and it was a blast, riding inches from the wall at speeds over 100 miles per hour. As a fan of NASCAR, it was great to see just how the cars hit the track and how hard it is to drive at those speeds, never mind with three-dozen-plus others banging alongside you trying to get ahead. It was one of the coolest moments of my journalism career.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This year, I decided to take it to another level and spend my time behind the wheel of a NASCAR car as the NHMS Media Challenge made its annual stop at the speedway ahead of next month’s NASCAR weekend. The Rusty Wallace Racing Challenge brings stock cars to the track and lets people get behind the wheel and see how they fare. The media relations department at NHMS invites the media to come out and give it a try and this was my first attempt at getting behind the wheel (and hopefully not my last).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My goal going in was to not wreck the car and not be the slowest person out there. Much to my surprise, I succeeded in both goals, though when the official results were announced, I was a bit disappointed in my overall effort.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The group of media members gathered in them media center as we were given lessons in what to do (stay between the lines on the track) and what not to do (don’t downshift). The guy giving the presentation made it sound pretty simple, but deep inside, I was thinking to myself that was not going to be the case. He went over all the necessary safety information, told us what to do if we felt the car getting away from us (don’t try to correct it, just turn left) and when and where to hit the gas and let off the throttle.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They then led us to the garage area, where we had to don our firesuits. As a short guy with a larger stomach, the XXL worked in the stomach area but was a bit long in the legs, but it would have to do the trick. We got to choose helmets and they led us to Victory Lane, where we had our pictures taken and got driver introductions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then we got to do a ride-along, with the professional drivers showing us what we needed to do. My driver punched the gas right out of pit road and we were off. It was like the pace car ride a few years earlier, but even faster. We did a few quick laps and then it was time to get in my own car.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I brought along photographer RC Greenwood, who does a great job helping us cover sports in the Lakes Region. The photos accompanying this story are his, as he followed me around and got some great shots. As we walked toward the row of cars lined up, I said to him I was kind of hoping for one of the Dale Jr. cars (there was an 88 and the old Budweiser 8 car). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As luck would have it, I got the 8 car. Once the staffer helped me squeeze through the window and got me all buckled in, they did a test of the ear piece (we had a spotter watching us the entire way). He then fired up the engine and told me to move down pit road and wait for the go-ahead from the spotter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Now, going in, I thought we would be on the track by ourselves, but this was not the case. As I got on the speedway, there were a couple of other media members driving and also the professionals still giving the ride-alongs. As I pulled out onto the track coming out of turn two, my spotter said “ride-along car coming on your right, stay in your lane,” and sure enough, the car went flying by seconds later.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I put in my laps, getting a little more comfortable each time around the track before the spotter told me the checkered flag was out and it was time to bring it in. While I was well aware I was not the fastest person out there, I felt like I was moving right along and had done pretty well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I was definitely mistaken. While I had achieved my goals of not crashing and not being the slowest, I was way down the list. My best lap time was 57.671 seconds, which translates to an average speed of just over 66 mph. I was certainly going faster on the straightaways, but need to punch the gas a little more next time. Kudos to the great Justin McIsaac for his top-10 finish and Jon Decker from the Laconia Daily Sun for beating my times.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">While I was a little disappointed, this was an amazing experience and I’m hopeful to do it again in the coming years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">If you want to see the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series in action in person (they will be driving faster than I did), visit NHMS.com for ticket information for the NASCAR weekend, coming July 15-17. And check out some of the cool exclusive food offerings (the cheeseburger poutine and frozen hot chocolate shake were delicious) NHMS is offering for the NASCAR weekend.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And remember, race weekend is bound to be more exciting than me putting around the track for a few laps.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in; text-indent: 9pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE8mb-QBjIpoRZgGPUt88uSc34XhbvrBGwd5BVwHblDuNif0B4_vDMhRhTnGdHI38NRfdEp63zaaTqDEfH6R-pZoiX7GWVk6dB2H55dsPswybDYBsJg8LRZ5UXcrrFSHAH9Cpj0kP-T5ofA5O_s__NEpvl8w2FLUSHshYzw5skH53nY3AupwWXBFen/s2160/SNHMS1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1620" data-original-width="2160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE8mb-QBjIpoRZgGPUt88uSc34XhbvrBGwd5BVwHblDuNif0B4_vDMhRhTnGdHI38NRfdEp63zaaTqDEfH6R-pZoiX7GWVk6dB2H55dsPswybDYBsJg8LRZ5UXcrrFSHAH9Cpj0kP-T5ofA5O_s__NEpvl8w2FLUSHshYzw5skH53nY3AupwWXBFen/s320/SNHMS1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjENdTMrcYFyrFpMnN893OUrqAyru66p6kCwCbfuBIxm0Rb8xicHgYPcZ9MMa9bl6YRTO-BIdLNWJ1qmmuXrPUTwqsGapL2ipYOJgNFTpogq_oUciyZxYDJSLCnjJXm048Qiv256m6mFF8xgfu-kmhzKLyTaWqovoiA4KVwYK-GAFrxRgXI0dv4ewwB/s2640/SNHMS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1980" data-original-width="2640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjENdTMrcYFyrFpMnN893OUrqAyru66p6kCwCbfuBIxm0Rb8xicHgYPcZ9MMa9bl6YRTO-BIdLNWJ1qmmuXrPUTwqsGapL2ipYOJgNFTpogq_oUciyZxYDJSLCnjJXm048Qiv256m6mFF8xgfu-kmhzKLyTaWqovoiA4KVwYK-GAFrxRgXI0dv4ewwB/s320/SNHMS2.jpg" width="320" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikw10xHuCrmfK99HBR6Lx7iX-blnm0q1zFA5h91YU95bzXfeQ_UokwZYRtJOKpfxoHggh0_t6dpTrl3VSDuN19QZ16iTq6y2tIWo327UcFDv3JRYPf6p4krZjEjrKIkHVmievcnv0UOlxA-CSDiWEGpK2moNf9zgZeGYLdZAshnHFxbIV47V0Yiuf2/s2160/SNHMS3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1437" data-original-width="2160" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikw10xHuCrmfK99HBR6Lx7iX-blnm0q1zFA5h91YU95bzXfeQ_UokwZYRtJOKpfxoHggh0_t6dpTrl3VSDuN19QZ16iTq6y2tIWo327UcFDv3JRYPf6p4krZjEjrKIkHVmievcnv0UOlxA-CSDiWEGpK2moNf9zgZeGYLdZAshnHFxbIV47V0Yiuf2/s320/SNHMS3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>A few photos from my driving experience at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, thanks to photographer RC Greenwood.</i></span><p></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-12149585423194438022022-05-24T10:54:00.003-07:002022-05-24T10:54:29.040-07:00Time for an update<p>It's been more than two months since my last blog post. Obviously, this blog focuses on the Olympics and my experiences covering the Games as a local sports reporter. During the time between the Olympics, most of my life is devoted to covering high school sports across the Lakes Region of New Hampshire and north through Franconia Notch.</p><p>That job keeps me more than busy, with games just about every day and tons of stories to be written. The past few months have been filled with trips to baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis and track competitions all around the state. While there has been nothing that is comparable to the Olympics, in many ways, my normal life is much busier than the two or three weeks that I spend in foreign countries every couple of years.</p><p>However, this week there were a couple of noteworthy Olympic announcements and I found them both to be interesting in a few ways.</p><p>The first announcement was the 800-day mark to the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024. I have yet to make a decision as to whether I want to apply for credentials for the next Summer Olympics. If I had never been to Paris, I think it would have been a no-brainer for me to take this chance to go to these Olympics just to see the city. However, back in 2001-2002, I spent a few days in the city and saw many of the famous sights. That being said, the city has changed a lot and I am sure it would still be pretty cool to see it again.</p><p>Adding to that was the announcement made last year that the Paris opening ceremonies were going to take place on the river in the middle of the city, making it the most unique opening ceremonies in Olympic history. How can you not see that if you have the chance? I have to say I am intrigued and all the hype put out there by Paris 2024 has me leaning toward applying for those credentials when that opportunity comes around next year.</p><p>The other announcement was an article I read on the Olympic web site about the usage of former Olympic venues. I have always been interested in what happens to many of the venues that are used in the Olympics. Perhaps the most famous photos of former facilities is that of the sliding center in Sarajevo, which was badly damaged in the Bosnian war in the years following those 1984 Olympics. </p><p>The report, commissioned by the IOC, found that 85 percent of all permanent venues used in the Olympics since 1896 and 92 percent of the permanent venues used for the Olympics in the 21st century still remain in use. A couple key points from the report state that, the percentage of new permanent venues (those built for the Games) and existing permanent venues (those which already existed when the host city/territory was selected to host the Games) that are still in use is similar (87 and 83 percent respectively), 87 percent of the complex venues, such as stadiums, Olympic Villages, swimming pools, velodromes, ski jumping hills, sliding centers and ice hockey stadiums, are still in use and the proportion of temporary venues has evolved over time. These account for 16 (early 20th century), nine (mid-20th century), seven (late 20th century), and 14 percent (21st century) of venues respectively. Of the 15 percent of permanent venues not in use, the majority were unbuilt or demolished for a variety of reasons: some reached their end of life, some were destroyed during a period of war or in accidents, while others gave way to new urban development projects. Only 35 venues – or four percent of all 817 permanent venues – are closed, inactive or abandoned.</p><p>That is pretty impressive and the number is much higher than I expected. Obviously, many of the venues that are used for the Olympics are temporary venues, constructed for the Olympics with the anticipation of being returned to their former use. The most prominent one for me was the Jeongseon Alpine Center in Korea, which was carved out of the mountains outside PyeongChang, but was dismantled and returned to its forested state when the Olympics ended.</p><p>The story is available here: <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/new-report-shows-85-per-cent-of-all-permanent-olympic-venues-still-in-use?fbclid=IwAR1MnIssMoR73qvqxLKE6ANi9TuV3Hrv-UFAQVltMq1VdRsLNN9mPESeuok" target="_blank">https://olympics.com/ioc/news/new-report-shows-85-per-cent-of-all-permanent-olympic-venues-still-in-use?fbclid=IwAR1MnIssMoR73qvqxLKE6ANi9TuV3Hrv-UFAQVltMq1VdRsLNN9mPESeuok</a></p><p>So, there's an update on things, both Olympic-wise and otherwise. Soon enough it will be time to start thinking about those Paris Olympics.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH_5pUHO0QPbPpyTwsStevvXNuvUBL3V0gW5-v6Z9FfAl6b_-KVdVrWwdmOVGhSv2enjeXY1m3W_-uH1bUyzmRtg15TJgfaf_73rYLUuHA7xM6PRYpefBc9Mn6S9wWJ2yqJYKOWNEvdhPNSzJOtDMFALAnVLrf2T0trNONFKA6x4qz3Pn7TD0qaFI5/s2880/2022-05-20-legacy-featured.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1620" data-original-width="2880" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH_5pUHO0QPbPpyTwsStevvXNuvUBL3V0gW5-v6Z9FfAl6b_-KVdVrWwdmOVGhSv2enjeXY1m3W_-uH1bUyzmRtg15TJgfaf_73rYLUuHA7xM6PRYpefBc9Mn6S9wWJ2yqJYKOWNEvdhPNSzJOtDMFALAnVLrf2T0trNONFKA6x4qz3Pn7TD0qaFI5/s320/2022-05-20-legacy-featured.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The Olympic web site has an interesting report about the post-Olympic usage of Olympic venues. (IOC photo)</i></div></i><p><br /></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-62658367937466663982022-03-08T12:54:00.002-08:002022-03-08T12:58:27.990-08:00Olympic rankings ... Part two<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Near the end of the Tokyo Olympics last summer, I offered up my rankings for the three Olympic experiences I had under my belt at that point. With Beijing officially in the rearview, I have added Beijing into the rankings, which are below.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Transportation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">PyeongChang, Sochi, Beijing, Tokyo<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Tokyo was last on this list because of the one hub to get anywhere. Beijing also had the one hub within the city, but there was another hub located near the alpine venue and there were buses operating between venues in certain places, which was convenient. Beijing touted the high speed train as a plus, and to get to the Zhangjiakou (biathlon, freestyle skiing, XC skiing, ski jumping), it was great, but to get to Yanqing (alpine, sliding) it wasn't as efficient. The long distances between the venue clusters was also not conducive to people trying to see many things. PyeongChang wins this category for its very efficient system.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Food<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Beijing, PyeongChang, Tokyo, Sochi<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Tokyo did a good job in incorporating food that just about everyone could eat and the same could be said for Beijing. The Main Media Center dining hall featured a lot of choices (including the now infamous robot-delivered entrees) with something for everyone. In the mountain media center, there was a restaurant with a great buffet and a Pizza Hut. And the venue media centers featured a couple of decent options. Obviously, we couldn't venture outside the Olympic zone to try other places, there was plenty of chances to find food that was palatable, even to me. Sochi’s one saving grace was the McDonald’s in the media center, while PyeongChang pulled in second for its incredible media dining hall that featured just about anything you could want.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Lodging<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Tokyo, Beijing, Sochi, PyeongChang<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Tokyo got 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, 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. Beijing was much the same. My hotel was an upgrade in many regards, with a bigger room, more breakfast options and room service and restaurant options. The downfall was the internet, as my room's internet didn't allow access to social media and many other sites and almost nobody spoke English. Sochi is third 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Media Center<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Sochi, Tokyo, Beijing, PyeongChang<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">In this category, any of the four 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, Beijing and PyeongChang all 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. Beijing's facility was quite nice on four different floors, the downside being that the general store and Beijing 2022 stores were routinely out of products.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Press kits<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">PyeongChang, Beijing, Tokyo, Sochi<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">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 four 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. In Tokyo, our backpacks were 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. Beijing edged out Tokyo for that reason, as it also has the necessary pockets and areas to store things.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Wi-Fi<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Tokyo, PyeongChang, Beijing, Sochi<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">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 didn't find many places where internet was not available. All the buses we rode had free wi-fi, the media wi-fi network seemed to cover the entire venue area when you’re out and about and the hotel room had dedicated wi-fi for my room. Beijing was probably pretty even with PyeongChang, with access available in all of the venues, the media centers and the buses. The reason Beijing falls just below PyeongChang is because the hotel internet was so restrictive (as noted above). Beijing 2022 did provide a spot in the lobby where we could use the same internet we had in the media center.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">So, there you have it. My rankings, completely and utterly unscientific and not at all based in anything but opinion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeTykuyP1A9v64ndXwSbMK91ZV8kJy8KUBOISga1jqhWS1LcLp5aD5QlTRe4f9VaX_gBHr2Hb2Tunx9z1f60R_qP-VXJCnOhcw3Q2YO45a089PnNDDbWqUWqnnLXcBD5PGpojstrBZ7WwhirFLhTxbbn3psnC46H-x-EZTdRPoQ64zDEcKChSJtcL4=s1600" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeTykuyP1A9v64ndXwSbMK91ZV8kJy8KUBOISga1jqhWS1LcLp5aD5QlTRe4f9VaX_gBHr2Hb2Tunx9z1f60R_qP-VXJCnOhcw3Q2YO45a089PnNDDbWqUWqnnLXcBD5PGpojstrBZ7WwhirFLhTxbbn3psnC46H-x-EZTdRPoQ64zDEcKChSJtcL4=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>The Main Media Center in Beijing.</i></span></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6804526589251641873.post-54910075615677806342022-02-28T07:50:00.004-08:002022-02-28T07:50:44.403-08:00Reflecting on Beijing, a week later<p>It's been a week since my third Winter Olympic experience came to a close and I began the trip home from Beijing. </p><p>Since I've been back, I've had a lot of people asking what the experience was like and I think the word I've used to describe it has been 'different.' For the most part, while this was my third Winter Olympics, it's more comparable to my first Summer Olympics, which took place last summer in Tokyo. The main reason is obviously the COVID precautions that enveloped both of these Olympic experiences. </p><p>Like in Tokyo, Beijing was restricted on where we could go as media. We were allowed to go to our hotels, the media centers in both Beijing and Zhangjiakou and the numerous venues where the events took place. This means that we were unable to venture out into the city that we were visiting and see the many sights that are to be seen. I saw a lot of the city and the outlying area through the windows of the many buses I traveled on and the high speed train that traveled between the Olympic zones, but the incredibly beauty that lies throughout the city of Beijing and around was not really available to us, which was disappointed. </p><p>However, the biggest difference between the two different experiences in regards to the COVID restrictions was that we did not need to have the three-day quarantine in Beijing as we did in Tokyo upon arrival. As soon as my airport COVID test came back negative, I was free to move about the closed loop system and leave the hotel.</p><p>This time around, there was also a lot more security involved. Just to leave the hotel, we passed through a security gate inside the hotel and the bus had to go through two different gates just to get into the hotel parking lot and out again. The bus took us directly to the Main Media Center, where the bus passed through another security screening. This process took place every time we left the Media Center area to go to venues, we'd pass through security and then pass through again at the venue.</p><p>When it comes to comparing Beijing to the other Winter Olympics I've experienced, there was one definite obvious comparison and that was the lack of snow. For the most part, the events that took place on snow were surrounded by areas not covered in snow. We did get a nice snowstorm in the first week that helped to coat the area in white, from Beijing all the way up to the mountains, giving the area the feel of the Winter Olympics. But, for the most part, there were plenty of places where there was no snow.</p><p>All being told, I am most certainly glad I went and had this experience. It's a bummer that the flight to Beijing was so expensive, making this the most expensive Olympic experience I've had, but overall, I can't complain. I got the chance to see a country that I likely never will get to see again. I got to see some athletes with local connections compete on the largest stage in the world. And I got to experience my first opening ceremonies after three Olympics where I missed my chance to do that.</p><p>This past summer I ranked my Olympic experiences in a number of different areas and now that I've wrapped up Beijing and am back to the real world, I'll probably take some time and add Beijing to those rankings.</p><p>Beijing was different. It was an unusual Olympic experience in many ways. But, overall, it was an experience I am glad I got the chance to have. Two COVID Olympics in the course of eight months is nothing to shake a head at.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzfMjuranYJV1rJvX60YGM6Wed0hOa0RKu4fKs9gtKzj8xkieAYwyohAg2ZhLUYDYpHUoDnkzPiR57JCN7YVMd--8Z4BHw8mx7xjU1L18JGJNQQvfL7BroPhO6eFusXtH5_Hb4NczXsZ_rbB-qF8Ow0gBLxVsFqC3kP3u0wzXlsKuq4ww7vGjJDo30=s3000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2252" data-original-width="3000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzfMjuranYJV1rJvX60YGM6Wed0hOa0RKu4fKs9gtKzj8xkieAYwyohAg2ZhLUYDYpHUoDnkzPiR57JCN7YVMd--8Z4BHw8mx7xjU1L18JGJNQQvfL7BroPhO6eFusXtH5_Hb4NczXsZ_rbB-qF8Ow0gBLxVsFqC3kP3u0wzXlsKuq4ww7vGjJDo30=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>The Beijing Winter Olympics officially wrapped up for me a week ago. Without a doubt it was a different experience, but one I am glad I had.</i></p>Joshua Spauldinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14603029506650970825noreply@blogger.com0