Putting things in perspective
The Olympics have a way of
putting things in perspective.
My original trip to the
biggest sporting event in the world really opened my eyes to how much
organization, planning and hard work goes into pulling off an event of that
magnitude.
But it also made me a little
jaded against other events, chief in that are the NASCAR weekends at New
Hampshire Motor Speedway.
When I first started covering
the NASCAR weekends (I believe it was 2004 or 2005), the events always
impressed me. There was more than one hundred thousand people cramming into the
stands and infields. I was up close with the drivers, working alongside writers
and television and radio personalities that I read, watch or listen to on a
regular basis. I wrote in my weekly newspaper column after each race how cool
it would be to cover the circuit on a full-time basis, traveling around the
country from track to track.
While I still think that
would be a cool job, this year I look at the NASCAR weekend with a different
set of eyes, eyes that have seen the magnitude of an event like the Olympics.
As I was eating lunch at the
media table, colleague RC Greenwood asked me about my Olympic experience. I
told him it was a lot like the NASCAR weekend, just times 1,000. There are no
words to describe just how much organization goes into putting on an event like
that. The people at NHMS do a fantastic job of keeping things running smoothly.
I’ve been a fan watching the race and I’ve been a media member covering the
race and I have always come away impressed with what they do.
But, like I said, the
Olympics push that up a notch, or two, or a thousand. While I was in Sochi, I
learned that time is of the utmost importance. If an event was scheduled for
9:33, it started at 9:33, not 9:32 or 9:34, but 9:33. Same for the buses. They
had a schedule to keep and if you were late, you had to wait for the next one,
which in fairness, probably wasn’t that far away. NHMS NASCAR weekends do the
same thing, with events planned for certain times and they are all expected to
go off at those times.
And like the events at NHMS,
the media access to the athletes competing at the Olympics is fantastic. I was
able to meet up with local athletes with relative ease at the Olympics and I
participated in interviews with some of the most famous athletes winter sports
have to offer, including Bode Miller, Julia Mancuso and Ted Ligety.
There are some times when I
really like my job, and getting to cover events like the Olympics and NASCAR
weekends are certainly the high points in those times. But, I also enjoy doing
what I did all week leading up to Sunday’s NASCAR race, which is covering youth
baseball, from Cal Ripken to Babe Ruth.
Because in fairness, every
event is a big event to someone, whether it’s a local youth baseball game or
the Sprint Cup Series or the Olympics. It’s fun covering all of them.
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