The Olympics... and beyond

One of the coolest things about coming to the Olympics is getting the chance to experience sports that I don't always get the chance to see. I wrote about this early on in this Olympic trip when I took a trip to the handball venue. That's a sport I had never seen before (except a little on Olympic television) and it was an absolute blast. On this trip, I've also seen the whitewater kayaking, which is a bit more intense than the Smith River race that I cover every year and rugby, which I've seen a little before, but doesn't really show up on the high school level. And since I don't live in California, there's also no high school water polo in the area, so that's always fun to see. Badminton is something I've played numerous times in my backyard as a kid, but never something I've got to see up close at such a high level. Same with table tennis. Locally we have a few swimmers and gymnasts that compete at the high school level, so those are sports I ...

In the grand scheme of things, today was a pretty relaxed day, as far as heading to different events. I got up on time and made my way to the triathlon course for the 8 a.m. start, only to find once I got there that the event had just been cancelled due to the water quality in the Seine. So, I packed up my stuff and went back to the media center for a few hours, wrote a couple of stories and got a great sandwich from the cafe in the basement of the Palais de Congres before making my way to the urban sports park, where I planned to see a little BMX park competition and some 3v3 basketball. By the time I got to La Concorde, the site of the urban skate park, my iPhone had already recorded more than 10,000 steps at 11 a.m. That's what today's blog post is about. During the pandemic, when I was unemployed for a month and then only had one job for a few more months, I walked all the time, just to get out of my apartment. There were days when I logged more than 10 miles, mostly on por...

It's been almost a full week that I've been in Paris and I have a few observations. Driving in Paris is crazier than driving in Boston. The bus drivers here are aggressive and are not afraid to stick their buses in the smallest hole in traffic. They move right along no matter where they're going and it's rather impressive how they get through some of the heavier traffic. The Japan bus drivers three years ago weren't quite as aggressive in that rush hour traffic and it is definitely a plus. And that's not even counting what they do in that circle around the Arc de Triomphe. That's absolutely insane. People in Paris smoke. A lot. And it's not just in separate smoking areas. It's in restaurants and other public areas. Now, I grew up with a father who smoked, so it is not something that I am not used to, though my father passed away more than 25 years ago. I also have friends who smoke and I am not really bothered by it. However, I just didn't realiz...

At the first two Olympics that I attended, Sochi and PyeongChang, the media buses took us everywhere. They were all over the place, zooming up and down the roads to the mountains of Russia and South Korea, going places I was shocked to see buses go. When we got the information regarding the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, it stated that it would likely be easier for us to use public transportation, as traffic is tough in Tokyo and the buses would likely be stuck in traffic, even with dedicated Olympic lanes. Connecting the many different venues to hubs was easier with public transportation. Of course, COVID put a bit of a screw into that master plan. We weren't allowed to use the public transportation until we had been in Japan for 14 days, which for most people, brought them pretty near the end of their Olympic experience. So we were basically forced to ride the buses. However, they didn't really adjust the schedule to accommodate for that, as we had to leave one venue and go all the way...

The idea was impressive. The thinking was outside of the box. The work that was put in was impressive. And the final result surely looked amazing on television. But the execution? That left a lot to be desired, at least on the part of members of the media that were there to cover the unique Opening Ceremony that the Paris organizers planned. As most people probably know, the Paris 2024 organizers decided to bring the Opening Ceremony out of the stadium and have the athletes float along the River Seine through the center of Paris, with various performances happening along the banks and a final ceremony at the Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower. The plan was fantastic. First and foremost, the organizers did not have any transportation planned for the media who were not at the Trocadero. Those who were there had buses leaving from the Main Press Center and International Broadcasting Center to deliver them to that location amidst all of the security closures. The rest of the press was asked t...

Well, after more than an hour of walking, I reached the location where my ticket said I could be for the Opening Ceremony.  Yes, I walked an hour. There was the option of taking the subway, but I thought I might see more if I took the walking tour of Paris. From the media center, the walk brought me down past the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs Elysees and eventually to the Louvre, where my entrance is supposed to be. I saw all those places when I was here in 2002, but it had been a long time. I am pretty sure there was no Five Guys on the Champs Elysees when I was here back then. However, once I got to the gate location, there was no gate. My guess is it will be opening up shortly, but right now there is just a lot of barricades and guys with guns. For now, I am sitting along the Seine waiting for the chance to get in... And of course it is starting to rain. More updates to come.  The Opening Ceremony is coming.

Yesterday's blog post from the rugby venue in Paris started with the expectation that I had not received a ticket for the opening ceremonies, which are coming up on Friday. However, not long after I got back to the Main Press Center from the Stade de France, there was an e-mail from Bill Hancock at the USOPC stating he had sent out the digital tickets for the opening ceremony and sure enough, when I checked my online account, there was a ticket there for the ceremonies. I am incredibly grateful to Bill and Team USA for getting me this ticket, as I know there are limited tickets available to the press and in the grand scheme of things, I am a small-time journalist and the ticket could've gone to someone else. Maybe my continued coverage of the Olympics over the course of COVID helped, as could my stopping by in person and thanking Bill for the tickets in China and Tokyo. Whatever the case may be, assuming I navigate the public transport correctly tomorrow, I will be along the Se...

While the Opening Ceremonies (don't think I got a ticket, but that's another story) haven't happened yet, the first official games of Paris 2024 took place today (Wednesday), with soccer taking place at stadiums around the country (including the US in Marseilles) and rugby at the Stade de France. With the US playing host France in the first match in both sports, I decided against the two-hour high-speed train ride to Marseille and made my first bus trip of the Games, heading to the Stade de France for a bunch of matches across the afternoon. I spent the morning getting a little more familiar with the Main Press Center, which is located across numerous floors of the Palais de Congres, a multi-storied convention center. The ground floor and the floor below ground are both filled with different stores and restaurants, along with a movie theater. The first floor has many of the Olympic help desks and a few food stands (that don't have much of anything terribly good), the se...

Well, there was bound to be a problem. Too much smooth sailing through the airports in Boston and Amsterdam led me to believe something was coming. And it certainly showed up in a big way in Paris. We landed a little late from Amsterdam, right around 1 p.m. After we were able to get off the plane, we went down a set of outside stairs to a packed bus, which took us to the baggage claim area. There I found the accreditation desk, where I was able to get my accreditation verified without a line and then walked a bit further and found the baggage check and my suitcase was there. I passed through a set of doors and found the transportation desk and it was there that my good luck ran out. At the desk, the young woman found my name on the list and said I had to take a car from the airport, but at the moment, there were no cars available. I figured that the wait wouldn't be too long. After about an hour, the same young woman came over very apologetic saying they were still waiting.  I fina...

Where I am in the world at this moment (Amsterdam airport) it is Tuesday morning, July 23, just after 9 a.m. I left Boston at 7 p.m. last night and made the flight here without a single issue. My plan, since I had been up since 2:30 a.m. Monday morning to do the baking shift, was to fall asleep on the plane and sleep for much of the flight. The first hour I listened to a podcast and ate the dinner that the flight crew provided and then fell asleep for a little bit. My old age need to go to the bathroom woke me up a few hours later and it was a struggle to get back to sleep as my allergies seemed to take over. That being said, I traditionally run on very little sleep, so I am not terribly worried about that at the moment.  I got off the plane in Amsterdam and was able to work my way through the passport line (the first stamp on my new passport) and found my way to my connecting gate. A little food and a water later and I took a few minutes at the gate to write up a little update for...

The last two Olympic trips did not start out too well. Heading to Tokyo I found out when I got to Logan that the economy parking lot was closed and had to scramble to find a place to park my car for two and a half weeks. Thanks to some helpful airport employees, I found a spot and still made my flight. Heading to Beijing, I found out a week before my scheduled flight that it had been cancelled and I had to rebook another flight, which meant rescheduling all of my required COVID tests and then booking a hotel at the Paris airport for the night. This time around, I am sitting in the terminal at Logan Airport awaiting my 7 p.m. flight to Amsterdam, which will land me in Europe tomorrow morning and then after a layover, I head to Paris, arriving there shortly after noon tomorrow (6 a.m. East Coast Time).  And so far, not a single snafu, knock on wood. I left my house around 1 p.m., building in a little time to make a stop for gas and another stop at Walmart in Rochester to purchase a s...

The last image from the first Summer Olympics I attended, three years ago at Tokyo's Closing Ceremonies. Last night marked one week until I head to Boston for the flight to Amsterdam and on to Paris for my fifth Olympics experience, my second time covering the Summer Olympics after the COVID-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the summer of 2021. The leadup to this Olympics seems to pale in comparison to what I had to go through for the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics over the last four years or so. With both of them held during COVID, the amount of paperwork, testing and more was overwhelming in so many ways. There were times within a week leading up to the Games that I didn't even know if I was going to be able to leave the airport when I arrived in Tokyo. There were major problems transferring money. It was a pretty stressful time in all honesty. Thankfully, this time around things have gone relatively smoothly and one week out from flying to Paris, I feel like the ducks are all in a ...

Last night, Monday, July 8, marked two weeks until my journey to Paris kicks off with a flight from Logan Airport to Amsterdam and then on to Paris for my fifth Olympic experience. While there has been plenty of work that goes into every Olympic trip, this one actually seems like it's been a little easier than many of the others. Of course, probably the main reason for this is the fact that the last two Olympics took place during COVID, which made everything much more work than normal. There were numerous piles of paperwork to fill out regarding the testing we had to go through. We had to book tests before we left, get testing locations approved, pour over pages and pages of "playbooks," which contained all of the protocols we had to follow once we got to Tokyo and/or Beijing. I distinctly remember just a week before I was set to travel to Tokyo, I still had no idea if I was going to be able to go. My "game plan" had yet to be approved by the organizers and with...