The Olympics... and beyond

The final day of the Team USA Media Summit started in a unique way, as the media was invited to attend the lighting ceremony at the Empire State Building. This event had a number of Olympians and Paralympians flip a switch that ceremoniously lit the Empire State Building in red, white and blue in honor of reaching the 100-day countdown to the Paris Olympics. The official ceremony took place in the lobby and then the athletes and the media journeyed up to the observation deck for more photo opportunities. This was a cool way to start the final day of the media summit. Back at the hotel, the first panel of the day was the Outdoor Water Panel, which featured  Evy Leibfarth (canoe), Blake Haxton (para canoe), Michelle Sechser (rowing), Ben Washburne (para rowing) and Carissa Moore (surfing). "My first Olympics, I didn’t really have too much experience, I had a hard time dealing with mental side of it," Leibfarth said. "The mindset has evolved to more of the journey than the ...

The second day of the Team USA Media Summit at the Marriott Marquis in New York City was much the same as the first, with plenty of inspirational stories and looks ahead to the Paris Olympics this summer. The opening panel of the day was a wrestling panel, which was done partially virtually, as the wrestlers are preparing for the Olympic Trials at Penn State University. Women's coach Terry Steiner appeared in person while wrestlers Sarah Hildebrandt, David Taylor and Alan Vera all appeared via Zoom to answer questions. Steiner is excited about Team USA's chances at the upcoming Olympics, noting that the team has quotas in all six weight classes, making things a little more relaxed heading into the trials.  "This is a big week for our women’s team. If you win this week, you're on the US Olympic Team," he said. "It's important for the US to have a full team. We feel we have a team that can compete with anyone and that’s exactly what we want to do. We feel T...

 The first day of the Team USA Media Summit in New York City featured eight different panels of press conferences, with roundtable discussions available after each session. The first session was a great discussion with the leadership of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee to talk about the arrival of Paris in the coming months. The panel included Sarah Hirshland - USOPC CEO, Rocky Harris – chief of sport and athlete services, Nicole Deal – chief of security and athlete services, Dr. Jonathan Finnoff – chief medical officer. "You can feel the energy and excitement building," Hirshland said. "We're excited to bring the whole country along on this journey." Harris noted he was excited about the athletes being able to perform in front of their friends and families after two Olympics with no families. Deal said she was excited to see the backdrop of Paris for the Olympics and Finnoff was excited about the decade ahead for the United States, with Los An...

Usually I make the train trip to New York City more than once a year, and it is usually to come to a live Rob Has a Podcast event based around an episode of Survivor. When I boarded the bus in Dover on Sunday morning with a destination of South Station in Boston and then on to New York City, it wasn't Survivor related. This week marks my first foray into the Team USA Media Summit, hosted by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. This is the first time the summit has been in person since the 2018 PyeongChang Games, thanks to COVID, and it also marks the first time that I have decided to take part in the festivities. It certainly wasn't a cheap venture, though I decided to stay right in the hotel where the summit is taking place, the Marriott Marquis right in Times Square, so that was a pretty big expense, despite the discount we got for being part of the Media Summit. The list of press conferences and round tables for Monday through Wednesday is pretty extensive and...

With the start of the spring season slowed a bit by Mother Nature's snowfalls, things have been relatively quiet on the local sports scene since the return from the trip to Florida to see the Kingswood softball team and Kennett baseball team do a little spring training at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex. As fields and courts slowly clear and get back to being playable, the spring season promises to be a busy one, though I will spend a few days next week preparing for my big summer adventure, which means missing a few days of local sports action. On Sunday I will be heading to South Station in Boston to catch the train to New York City for the Team USA Media Summit ahead of the Paris Summer Olympics. Last week the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced the schedule for the media summit and provided a list of athletes who would be in attendance, including some big names such as Suni Lee, Breanna Stewart, Bobby Finke and Carissa Moore. The summit runs from Monday through W...