The Olympics... and beyond

Today is the final day for me here in Italy. My flight to Paris leaves Milan tomorrow morning and weather permitting, on to Boston from there. I spent today wandering around Milan for a bit. I took the subway to Milano Centrale train station and then took another train to Piazza Duomo for one final time then walked around, had some lunch and did some work in the media center, which is slowly being converted back into the convention center. From there, it was back to the hotel where I did some more writing and got things situated for tomorrow. One of the big things I did was book an Uber for tomorrow morning so that getting from the hotel to Milano Centrale will not be a difficult process. Otherwise, the process was going to involve me dragging my suitcases to one of the local train stations and onto a subway to get to Milano Centrale. That was not something I was looking forward to. But a little more on last night's Closing Ceremony. I wrote last night's blog post on the train ...

What a day. I am writing this on the train from Verona back to Milan after the Closing Ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, my sixth Olympics, my fourth Winter Olympics and my fourth Closing Ceremony. It was no doubt an exciting day, as I am sure it was for many people in America, waking up to watch some hockey over the morning coffee. Even my brother, who doesn't watch TV, got a free trial of DirecTV so that he could watch the game out in Wyoming. I think this was something that captivated the entire country, much like the women did earlier in the week.  And that turned out to be one heck of a battle, as you should have when you're battling for the gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Team USA pulling out the overtime win to earn their first men's hockey gold medal since the Miracle on Ice team of the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics was a fitting ending. But man, I did not need that overtime. Earlier in the day I stopped at the Milano-Centrale train station to make sure ...

My times in the mountains of Italy is officially over. As I write this I am sitting high above the ice of the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, just a few minutes from my hotel. It was a bit of a chore to get here today, but it went much smoother than the trip to the mountains less than two weeks ago, The trip back was easier because I had an idea of what it entailed. I knew which bus I needed to get on, when I needed to get on it, where the games connection desk was in the Venice train station so I could leave my luggage while I got something to eat before the train came, where the train let off in Milano Centrale Station and how to get to the train to my hotel. All those things are things I did not know when I went the other way, so today went much smoother on my end. I caught the local bus from Santa Maddalena at 7:45 a.m. and then caught the bus to Venice in the Monguelfo, the village at the bottom of the valley where my hotel was, at about 8:40 a.m. We made it to the Venice t...

Today marked my final day in the mountains of Italy. Tomorrow morning I get on the bus, then another bus, then a train to get back to Milan for the final few days of my Olympic journey. The mountains have been both amazing and amazingly frustrating. First and foremost, this area has to be the most beautiful place I have ever been. With the previous three Winter Olympics that I have been a part of, I never really felt like it was winter, even though the mountains outside Sochi, PyeongChang and Beijing provided snow. There is no question that there is snow here, particularly at the venues, which are some of the most historic places in World Cup action, as biathlon in Antholz and alpine in Cortina are regular occurrences.  But as for the amazingly frustrating, I am obviously referring to the transportation and the long distances between venues. Riding five hours on a bus for a cross-country race is a bit much, but so is riding two hours to cover an alpine race or a curling match. But ...

I have been to four Winter Olympics and today may have been the most winter weather I have seen in all that time. And that made the already unreliable mountain transportation even more difficult to predict and deal with and made for one heck of a weird (and wet) day. It was snowing when I woke up this morning and I debated about whether I wanted to head to Cortina or not. We got a notice on the transportation app that some buses may be running late in the Cortina area due to the snow. It wasn't snowing too badly, so I boarded the local bus and headed into the village at the end of the valley, where I got on the TC (for credentialed folks) bus to Cortina. The ride was fine, albeit a little slower than usual, as the snow continued to come down harder and harder.  By the time I got to Cortina it was snowing really hard and I walked from the bus stop to the venue media center between the curling center and the sliding center where I wanted to do a little writing and then catch a little...

I've lamented a few times here and in interviews I've done on the radio about the transportation issues I've had here in Italy. Whether it's late buses (understandable given Olympic traffic) or no-show buses or packed buses, it's pretty much always something. But today's incident may take the cake. I should start by saying that all eight buses that I rode today were either on time or within five minutes of their scheduled time, so there is no complaining there. However, riding eight buses was a lot, but the only way I was going to get to the Tesero Cross Country Stadium to see the men's and women's sprint relays today.  I had planned it out that today would be the day I went in that direction, crossing clusters from the Cortina cluster to the Val di Fieme cluster. I got up pretty early and caught the 5:15 a.m. local bus near my hotel. There was not a ton of people on the bus as I rode down out of the valley and all the way to Dobbiaco, where I transferre...

Those who follow along on my Olympic journey online or listen to me on the radio when I get the chance to talk Olympics, may notice that I spend a lot of time at biathlon. This is by design, despite the fact that biathlon is one of the lesser-known and lesser-appreciated sports in the United States.  The reason for my consistent appearance at biathlon is Sean Doherty. He may not be a household name in the United States like Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn, Chloe Kim or Hillary Knight, but to many of the people who read the papers I write for, particularly those papers where I started my journalism journey, they are well aware of Sean. Sean went to Kennett High School where he was a standout cross-country skier during the heyday of Kennett Nordic. During that time he started working at biathlon and it wasn't long after he graduated from high school that he was named to the Olympic team for the Sochi 2014 Games. As many know, Sochi was my first Olympics. I originally applied for crede...

Back in PyeongChang in 2018, the media were offered a chance to take a tour of the DMZ, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. We visited the DMZ museum, journeyed out to a lookout on the edge of the DMZ where we looked directly into North Korea and also stopped at a Buddhist temple. To this day, it remains one of the coolest things I've ever had the chance to experience. In the next two Olympics, the chances to do things out in the cities that I was visiting was completely limited by COVID. In Tokyo, once we cleared 14 days in the city, we were free to move about the city if we wanted, but COVID was in a major spike in Tokyo at the time and it was advised that if you do go out, be careful. I chose not to, for a number of reasons. Then in Beijing, once we were in the bubble, we were not allowed out until it was time for us to go. It would've been great to visit the Great Wall or see numerous other things, but it just wasn't possible. Then came Paris when all ...

They say it's not good to have favorites. And maybe that's true, but I most certainly have a favorite when it comes to the Winter Olympics and that favorite is alpine skiing. Truthfully, it's one of my favorite sports to cover at the high school level as well, as sometimes the pictures come out great and I also usually get a chance to ski too, so that's a bonus. But when it comes to the Olympics, there is no doubt that I love alpine skiing. But alpine skiing can also be weird when you watch in person. At the Tofane Alpine Center, where the women's alpine skiing is taking place at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, I was standing in what is called the mixed zone, an area just beside the finish area where press gather to wait for athletes to come through and talk following the conclusion of their day. I was standing there with many other American journalists (the corrals are divided by country to make it easier for everyone involved) just watching the action unfold. Like any...

I've made a few trips from my hotel in the Valle di Casies over to Cortina over the course of the last week and each time I make one of those trips, we stop in the small town of Dobbiaco. And every time we do, I feel like I want to get out and walk around because it just looks like a cool place. So, today, that's what I did. There was nothing on the Olympic schedule that I needed to see or at least nothing that I needed to see that I was able to get to in an hour or two. My original plan was to walk up to the ski area up the hill from my hotel and rent some skis. One of the photographers staying at my hotel said he went up there and it was very inexpensive. Despite not having gloves or ski pants, I walked up with the intention of spending a few hours skiing, but there was a pretty big race going on and the race course was taking up most of the trail and there were lots of kids and parents racing and watching, so I thought it might be a good idea to wait for a day when there was...

If you're watching the Olympics on television, you see all the venues. If it's an indoor venue, they will often show it from the outside before heading inside, while the outdoor venues get the panning camera shots and the wide angle looks. But, what you don't see is what it's like behind the scenes in a venue, so I thought maybe I would share a little bit about what we, as media members, experience when we are at a venue. First, like everyone else, we have to go through security before we enter a venue. This traditionally includes a scanning of our credential, a look through our bags and a wanding by a security person to make sure we're not carrying anything illegal. Weirdly, we are not allowed to bring cans of soda into the venue, but plastic bottles are OK. Once we are in a venue, often times, like the public, it is a walk to get where we need to get. Sometimes it's not. Each venue has a venue media center (VMC), which has a room with tables and chairs and pow...

If you happened to hear me this morning on Greg and the Morning Buzz (who I should note have been so great with letting me talk Olympics the last 12 years), you heard me tell the story of the bus issue last night. I hopped on the bus in Cortina, which was running a few minutes late, heading over the mountains toward Anterselva, where I had to walk to another bus stop to get the bus to my hotel, which is about a 40-minute drive without traffic. I walked to the other bus stop, just missing the bus that was scheduled for just before 8:30 p.m., so I waited about 45 minutes for the 9:30 bus. And I waited. And I waited some more. Eventually, I waited all the way to the 10:30 p.m. bus, the final one back up to my valley hotel. The one other person waiting with me said that an earlier night the same thing had happened to him and they had to put him up in a hotel because he had no way of getting back to his hotel. It seems that this is kind of an Italian thing. You just don't know. I expect...

There are some things about covering the Winter Olympics that are always tough to deal with and one of those things is not getting to see the teams I covered throughout the season until that point continue on with their seasons or in some cases finish out those seasons. The Winter Olympics have, at least for the last 12 years, fallen right in the middle of the high school ski championships. That week has traditionally been one of my favorite weeks of the year, getting the chance to see ski races all over the state in quick succession. But when I'm away, I don't get to see that. So, I am grateful to all of the coaches and parents who have sent me either results or pictures from the alpine State Meets. So far, I've gotten results for everything but the Division IV girls, so we're most of the way there. I've written up stories on the Division II and Division III boys and girls and the Division IV boys for each of my schools. I know there are four team championships amo...

I learned some things today. I learned that the buses here don't always run on schedule. I learned that the bus drivers don't always stop at every stop. And I learned that the app we use to get to and from different places is not always accurate. And all of those things I learned today, led to me spending a lot of time on a bus without actually going anywhere. I headed out to Antholz/Anterselva to catch Kennett graduate Sean Doherty in the biathlon. That was the good part of my day. It was great to see Sean for the fourth Olympics after covering him in high school at Kennett. While it wasn't his best day, we talked about how how he's been dealing as he has gone from the newbie on the team to the veteran. And that's when the good stuff ended. I wanted to catch the curling gold medal match in Cortina and checked the transportation app and it said if I got on the bus out of Antholz by 3:30 p.m. I should be able to catch another bus at the end of the valley and get to t...

For the first time in my six Olympics, with the exception of the time I spent in the COVID quarantine upon my arrival in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, today was a day with Olympic action and I didn't see any of it. At least not in person. That's because I spent the majority of my day on one mode of transportation or another as I moved out of my hotel in Milan and up to my hotel outside Anterselva. This is something I have never done before at any of my previous five Olympics. I have always stayed in the same location for the duration of my stay. Sometimes they've been really convenient (PyeongChang, Beijing), sometimes they're not (Tokyo, Paris) and sometimes they're perfectly fine, one way or the other (Sochi). But with the spread out nature of these Olympics, it would be impossible to stay in one place and see more than just a couple of sports.  I made the decision to stay in Milan for a few days, seeing the Opening Ceremony, some hockey, figure skating and speedsk...

I slept in an extra half-hour this morning (I forgot to set the alarm and woke up just after 6:30 a.m.), but that was fine, as I had nowhere to specifically be first thing this morning. The only Olympic action going on in the morning was up in the mountains and I am not there yet. So, after breakfast at the hotel (their breakfast buffet is absolutely incredible and included in my room rate), I went to take the usual train that I take from the hotel, but as it turns out, that train doesn't run on Sundays. So rather than take the bus to the other train station, I decided to walk there and realized it's not a bad walk at all (for future reference, it's good to know). It does seem that Italians take Sundays off, or at least start later. The streets, with the exception of the large flea market going on outside my hotel, were pretty empty, as were the trains, making the commute into the Main Press Center a little easier than normal. I had some stories to write on the New Hampshir...

Milano-Cortina marked my third Olympic Opening Ceremony, following Beijing back in 2022 and Paris in 2024. Out of all of that, I am not sure I thought that Beijing would still rank at the top of the list all these years later, but after last night, it still does. The biggest issue with Beijing was that it was very cold. Credit to the organizers, they left gloves and hats for all the media members in the press seats, which was a great touch and greatly appreciated, even if I had a hat and gloves already. But we got in and out of there relatively easily (there were really no spectators, so that helped). Paris had a grand idea of having the parade on the river and in many ways that was great. It allowed more people to see the athletes as they floated down the river. The problem, at least from the media standpoint, was that they had us in certain zones and there was absolutely no protection from the rain and there was no place to plug in any laptops or phones. When the ceremony ended, we w...

It's officially Opening Ceremony time (or will be in two and a half hours) and I am sitting in a seat that is not all that comfortable waiting for the action. I got here early because I know it was a tough ticket to get, even for the media, so as soon as I finished up at this morning's figure skating, I got the train back to the Main Press Center for a few minutes and then caught the special media bus to take us to the Opening Ceremony. The trip was a short one and the process to get into the stadium was not that bad, though they did make me dump my water so I had to buy some once I got inside. And the old guy that I am didn't like the stairs, but waiting for the elevator wasn't too appealing either. So, I am sitting here waiting for things to begin, so a good time to look back on a couple of days now. The issues I have had so far are mostly just things I need to learn. I have to figure out exactly how to navigate the public transport system, though I am slowly getting ...

After all the drama of the first day, it's a new day in Milan and it was time to get the Olympics officially started on Thursday. I got up a little after 6 a.m. and hit the hotel breakfast, which offered plenty of great choices, which made my morning. The Paris hotel breakfast left a lot to be desired, so it was good to see all the options and able to find things that I eat, which is not always the easiest. The next adventure was trying to find my way to the Main Press Center from the hotel. I put the information into the transportation app and it told me exactly how to get there. I went to the train station near the hotel and got on what I was hoping was the correct train (it had no number on it, so it was really a guess) and it turned out that I was right. I took the train to the station that was listed, got off and made my way to the next train, which dropped me off at the station right near the Main Press Center. After going in the wrong entrance at first, I found my way to the...

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have a trip to the Olympics. Probably not as catchy as the original, but kind of fitting. The flight to Paris was great, despite the fact that we left about a half-hour late. The seat next to me was empty, I had splurged a little and bought a premium seat so there was more room, which came in handy when it came time to sleep. We had dinner (which really wasn't all that bad for airplane food) and I fell asleep pretty easily and slept for most of the flight. I woke up as they were serving breakfast prior to landing in Paris. Paris is a massive airport and I had to take a train from one terminal to the next, but I was not expecting to have to go through security again. I ended up having to dump two bottles of water that I purchased in the airport believing I was through security until I left the airport. Then my backpack got flagged (it didn't at Logan) and they had to take my camera out and make sure it wasn...

Over the years I've written a few of these blog posts from the international terminal at Logan Airport. And just for good measure, here's another one. This may have been one of the easiest processes I've had going through security, checking my bag and the whole nine yards. I got here a little after 4 p.m. for a 7:40 p.m. boarding figuring I may find a few long lines. I was pleasantly surprised. With a little bit of luck, I found a parking spot in the economy garage literally two rows away from where the shuttle bus picks us up and drops us off. I hopped on the bus and got to terminal E in a few minutes and was surprised that there was absolutely no line at security. I showed my passport and then went through security. The only drawback was that I needed to get the full patdown treatment for whatever reason. It probably would've just been easier to go through the security checkpoint naked so they could see I didn't have any dangerous weapons. But, got through and am ...

Ok, maybe that headline is a bit misleading. I did, in fact, make donuts today, which was my final day doing the Yum Yum Shop thing prior to my flight to the Olympics, which happens tomorrow night. However, I will not reach the Dolomites by tomorrow evening. In fact, I won't even make France until Wednesday morning. Italy comes on Wednesday afternoon. But, no matter how you slice it, the Olympics are here and whether I'm ready or not, it is time to get going. Sunday I spent some time doing the stupid little things you don't think about. After making the donuts, I did laundry so it's not piled up while I'm gone. Then I went through and made sure all my bills were paid for the rest of the month. This afternoon I stopped at TD Bank and picked up the euros that I had ordered and after covering a couple of hockey games, stopped in at the office to pick up a few things, go through some last minute paperwork to make sure stuff was in order while I'm gone and take all t...