The Olympics... and beyond

It's been a tough week in the Olympic world, with the announcement that the 2020 Summer Games have been postponed, with the July start pushed ahead into the next calendar year. With the social distancing still in place and working from home a thing, I've had a lot of time to think about all this stuff, which probably isn't good. I should probably be focusing on something else, something on the positive side. As I sit here now in my apartment, NBC Sports Network is airing a special Olympic event with interviews with lots of different athletes who are impacted by the postponement and with an opening interview with Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee discussing the situation.  As I've spent hours being bummed out about not being able to go to Tokyo (never mind the three other trips I had planned between now and then), I've been seeing lots of social media posts from athletes who have been impacted by this and it got me thinking that t...

The word is out that yes, the Summer Olympics are going to be postponed. Scheduled to start on July 24, it became increasingly obvious over the last few weeks that the coronavirus pandemic was going to be an issue when it comes to the Olympics. The IOC held firm for a few weeks, stating they were hopeful that they wouldn't have to change things, but as more and more countries and/or athletes spoke up, it became obvious that a change was going to be needed. First and foremost, bringing together thousands of people from around the world into one location certainly was not the ideal move. Secondly, with the virus forcing the causing many places to close and events to be cancelled, the chance that athletes had to qualify for the Olympics were being called off, meaning they would have to be rescheduled before the Olympics and that was looking less and less likely to happen. It just wasn't going to work out and that became pretty obvious to everyone on Sunday. While I was not com...

As I write this on Thursday, Feb. 20, it’s been almost six years to the day since my first Olympic experience drew to a close. That was in Sochi in February of 2014 and it was an experience that I will always remember. It was my first time covering such a huge event and in many ways, it was overwhelming. However, I learned a lot in that first time out and when it came time to head to PyeongChang four years later, I had a much better idea of what to expect and it made the great experience I had the first time even better. Now, as I prepare for my first Summer Olympics experience, I am concerned a bit about the sheer massiveness of the summer games compared to the winter games. However, that’s a story for another day. What has been on my mind lately has been the whole threat of the coronavirus and how it might impact my Olympic trip. Going back to 2014 before I traveled to Russia, there was a lot of talk about security concerns and what Russia was doing to prepare. There wer...