The Olympics... and beyond

The countdown can officially begin. 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. 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. 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 pand...

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. 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. 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...