Busy times

The holidays are always a busy time of the year and this year is no exception. As this is written on the Friday prior to Christmas, the local holiday high school tournaments are on the horizon, meaning a few days of many, many games.

This year's local schedule includes hockey tournaments in Wolfeboro, Conway and Laconia and basketball tournaments in Gilford and Farmington involving 26 different teams in our coverage area. Obviously, there's no way to get to every game or even to get to every tournament and see every team. Making it even more frustrating is that the early holiday deadlines mean that none of the tournament action is going to see the newspapers until well after the turning of the calendar.

However, on we go toward the big week of games between Christmas and New Year's.

The new year should also bring some more information when it comes to the credential process for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in 2026. I filled out the application for the credentials earlier this year, with a deadline of early December. We were told we would hear more on the process in the beginning of the new year, but obviously there's no guarantee when we will get more information. The process for Paris was way behind as the USOPC dealt with a large number of credential applications and I have no doubt that after the COVD Winter Games of Beijing in 2022, the numbers will be up for Milan-Cortina as well.

Milan-Cortina, from what I can see from early schedules and venue maps, will be a bit of a challenge for someone like me who likes to see many different events over the course of my Olympic experience. The Games are spread out across the Alps and then the indoor events are mostly in Milan, which is many hours away from the Alps. And, there is also pretty large distances between the mountain venues as well, making seeing more than one sport in a day a bit of a challenge.

Given that I know I will likely have a biathlete or two on Team USA, I may be forced to get a hotel somewhere near the biathlon venue, but I will also be looking at what the travel options are for media between venues before I determine where I stay and what I will see.

Something tells me that my fourth Winter Olympics will be much different than my first three, but on the positive side of things, it will be my first Winter Olympics in a traditional winter environment and I am thrilled for that.

Trying to work out the schedule for the upcoming holiday tournament season is an Olympic sport in and of itself.

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