The Olympics... and beyond

This week marked two years until the start of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics. There was plenty of information floating out there about plans and ideas that Los Angeles has put forward as the time gets nearer.  Obviously no credentials have been issued yet, in fact the process to apply for credentials has yet to begin, but with two years to go, Los Angeles 2028 has scheduled the World Press Briefing for next week and for the first time in my Olympic history, I am going to attend. The World Press Briefing is traditionally held in the years leading up to an Olympics, but obviously previous WPB's have been held in foreign countries, which made attending a bit tough. With travel to Los Angeles a little cheaper than say Beijing or Paris, I applied to go to this year's WPB and I was approved. The hotel was still a bit expensive, but I still have no idea if I will be able to get credentials for Los Angeles, so I thought it would be worth spending the money to get some of the Olympic e...

Milan-Cortina is less than two months in the rearview mirror, but things move pretty quickly in the world of the Olympics and yesterday I got an e-mail from Los Angeles 2028 offering access to the media extranet, which is a portal that media use to prepare for the Olympics. I registered this morning and was approved this afternoon, so I did a little look around the extranet, checking out the venues and the information that's out there so far. Well there wasn't a ton of new information, it was cool to see everything gathered in one place. The extranet also offered media the chance to register for the World Press Briefing, which is a gathering of media that takes place in the years prior to the Olympics where you can tour some of the venues, meet some of the important people and get a sense of the Games. I have never been to a World Press Briefing in the past, in large part because all of them would've involved traveling around the world in the years leading up to the Olympic...

Near the end of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, I offered up my rankings for the three Olympic experiences I had under my belt at that point. I updated the rankings after my fourth experience in Beijing and again after Paris in 2024. Now it's time to add Milan-Cortina to that mix. Transportation Paris PyeongChang, Sochi, Beijing, Tokyo, Milan-Cortina I am putting Paris first in this category because of the very efficient, clean and manageable public transport system that we used. There were fewer shuttle buses, but they were needed less with the option of using the stellar Metro system. Tokyo was originally 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 ...

It has been a busy few weeks since I got back from Milan and my sixth Olympic experience. As much as I wanted to stay in the mountains of Italy, reality beckoned and I had to reluctantly get back to real life.  As I've mentioned, I went straight from the airport (after a stop for dinner) to the Division III boys' basketball semifinals in Bedford, the next night I was in Bow for the Division III girls' basketball semifinals and the next two nights I hit the road north for quarterfinal games in Littleton. Saturday started with a quick trip to Derry for the wrestling Meet of Champions and then across the state to Keene for the Division III hoop championships. The next week started with a trip to Manchester on Monday for the Division IV boys' basketball semifinals, Tuesday was a trip to Hanover for the Nordic championships, Wednesday was a drive north to Whitefield for the Division IV girls' basketball semifinals and after a break on Thursday, Friday was another trip no...

It was not a perfect trip, but it was a trip that ended when it was supposed to, as my flight landed in Boston yesterday afternoon. I was slated to take off from Milan at 11:35 a.m. yesterday and then transfer in Paris with about an hour and a half between flights. However, we were late taking off in Milan, as the plane arrived there late, so we landed in Paris about 15 minutes before we were supposed to start boarding the other plane. If you know anything about the Paris airport, you know it is huge and there's trains and shuttles to get you from one terminal to another. We landed in one terminal and had to get to another and I don't think I have walked as fast as I did through that airport in a long time. Luckily, there was a line for "short connection" at the passport control center and we did not have to go through security. I made the connection and we left Paris a little bit later than we planned, but not much. The seven-hour flight from Paris to Boston was pret...

I am sitting in the gate area at Milan-Malpensa Airport awaiting my gate assignment for my flight from Milan to Paris, which will hopefully lead me home today. Thought it would be a good time to say thank you to Italy. Thank you for finding the perfect hotel for me in the mountains. It was a bit out of the way, but everything else about it was great. The small local hotel was the perfect counterpoint to the large chain hotels you often find yourself in. With gracious and kind hosts, fellow guests who were interesting and varied (as best I could tell I was the only US guest there) and absolutely spectacular scenery. It allowed me to take it easy when I needed to and work when I needed to. Thank you to my hotel in Milan for the absolutely massive breakfast buffet choices. There was absolutely no shortage of food every morning and it allowed me to "stock up" for the day and not get hungry early on. From eggs, bacon and mini pancakes to croissants, fruit and everything in between...