The Olympics... and beyond

I've made a few trips from my hotel in the Valle di Casies over to Cortina over the course of the last week and each time I make one of those trips, we stop in the small town of Dobbiaco. And every time we do, I feel like I want to get out and walk around because it just looks like a cool place. So, today, that's what I did. There was nothing on the Olympic schedule that I needed to see or at least nothing that I needed to see that I was able to get to in an hour or two. My original plan was to walk up to the ski area up the hill from my hotel and rent some skis. One of the photographers staying at my hotel said he went up there and it was very inexpensive. Despite not having gloves or ski pants, I walked up with the intention of spending a few hours skiing, but there was a pretty big race going on and the race course was taking up most of the trail and there were lots of kids and parents racing and watching, so I thought it might be a good idea to wait for a day when there was...

If you're watching the Olympics on television, you see all the venues. If it's an indoor venue, they will often show it from the outside before heading inside, while the outdoor venues get the panning camera shots and the wide angle looks. But, what you don't see is what it's like behind the scenes in a venue, so I thought maybe I would share a little bit about what we, as media members, experience when we are at a venue. First, like everyone else, we have to go through security before we enter a venue. This traditionally includes a scanning of our credential, a look through our bags and a wanding by a security person to make sure we're not carrying anything illegal. Weirdly, we are not allowed to bring cans of soda into the venue, but plastic bottles are OK. Once we are in a venue, often times, like the public, it is a walk to get where we need to get. Sometimes it's not. Each venue has a venue media center (VMC), which has a room with tables and chairs and pow...

If you happened to hear me this morning on Greg and the Morning Buzz (who I should note have been so great with letting me talk Olympics the last 12 years), you heard me tell the story of the bus issue last night. I hopped on the bus in Cortina, which was running a few minutes late, heading over the mountains toward Anterselva, where I had to walk to another bus stop to get the bus to my hotel, which is about a 40-minute drive without traffic. I walked to the other bus stop, just missing the bus that was scheduled for just before 8:30 p.m., so I waited about 45 minutes for the 9:30 bus. And I waited. And I waited some more. Eventually, I waited all the way to the 10:30 p.m. bus, the final one back up to my valley hotel. The one other person waiting with me said that an earlier night the same thing had happened to him and they had to put him up in a hotel because he had no way of getting back to his hotel. It seems that this is kind of an Italian thing. You just don't know. I expect...

There are some things about covering the Winter Olympics that are always tough to deal with and one of those things is not getting to see the teams I covered throughout the season until that point continue on with their seasons or in some cases finish out those seasons. The Winter Olympics have, at least for the last 12 years, fallen right in the middle of the high school ski championships. That week has traditionally been one of my favorite weeks of the year, getting the chance to see ski races all over the state in quick succession. But when I'm away, I don't get to see that. So, I am grateful to all of the coaches and parents who have sent me either results or pictures from the alpine State Meets. So far, I've gotten results for everything but the Division IV girls, so we're most of the way there. I've written up stories on the Division II and Division III boys and girls and the Division IV boys for each of my schools. I know there are four team championships amo...

I learned some things today. I learned that the buses here don't always run on schedule. I learned that the bus drivers don't always stop at every stop. And I learned that the app we use to get to and from different places is not always accurate. And all of those things I learned today, led to me spending a lot of time on a bus without actually going anywhere. I headed out to Antholz/Anterselva to catch Kennett graduate Sean Doherty in the biathlon. That was the good part of my day. It was great to see Sean for the fourth Olympics after covering him in high school at Kennett. While it wasn't his best day, we talked about how how he's been dealing as he has gone from the newbie on the team to the veteran. And that's when the good stuff ended. I wanted to catch the curling gold medal match in Cortina and checked the transportation app and it said if I got on the bus out of Antholz by 3:30 p.m. I should be able to catch another bus at the end of the valley and get to t...

For the first time in my six Olympics, with the exception of the time I spent in the COVID quarantine upon my arrival in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, today was a day with Olympic action and I didn't see any of it. At least not in person. That's because I spent the majority of my day on one mode of transportation or another as I moved out of my hotel in Milan and up to my hotel outside Anterselva. This is something I have never done before at any of my previous five Olympics. I have always stayed in the same location for the duration of my stay. Sometimes they've been really convenient (PyeongChang, Beijing), sometimes they're not (Tokyo, Paris) and sometimes they're perfectly fine, one way or the other (Sochi). But with the spread out nature of these Olympics, it would be impossible to stay in one place and see more than just a couple of sports.  I made the decision to stay in Milan for a few days, seeing the Opening Ceremony, some hockey, figure skating and speedsk...