The Olympics... and beyond

The first realization that my Olympic experience was coming to an end came on Wednesday afternoon when I stopped in at the front office of the Gangneung Media Village to reserve my seat on a bus and then a train to get to the airport and Seoul on Sunday. I had submitted my departure flight to the organizers before I got here and they already had me in the computer. My flight leaves at a little after 5 p.m. Korean time on Sunday. They advised that you make your arrangements with the arrival and departure desk at least three days in advance and I figured it was a good idea to be earlier than later. This was confirmed to me by the older gentleman in line in front of me who was flying out today (Friday) and was just booking his train ticket on Wednesday afternoon. Of course, as one might expect, the train that got him there at a decent time was sold out, so he had to take an earlier train that got him to the airport pretty early, which wasn’t ideal to him. They have me on a 10:40 a.m....

Four years ago, I missed out on seeing the greatest female skier in history. Injuries felled Lindsey Vonn prior to the Sochi Games and she had to miss out after taking home gold in Vancouver four years earlier. I consider myself lucky to now have seen her ski twice in these Olympics (with one more coming today). Sure, it’s great to see her for the simple fact that she is absolutely stunning. But it’s so much more than that and that’s what makes it fun to see. You know people have a special gift to do great things. Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Pedro Martinez and Tiger Woods all come to mind when you think of people like that. Yes, they have impressive gifts but they also work hard to get what they want and make themselves into what they become. Lindsey Vonn is no different. She’s overcome countless injuries and essentially races through pain every time she straps on her skis. But she loves her sport, she loves doing what she does and she goes out and does it. She gives 100 percent ...

I’m sitting in the press tribune area of the Gangneung Hockey Center on Tuesday night. It’s been an interesting day, to say the least. As has been the case most of the days I’ve been here, the alarm went off at 6 a.m. and after thinking about going back to sleep, I got up, took a shower and headed to the main media dining room to grab some breakfast, which has been my main meal every day. I took the bus up to the mountains and switched buses at the International Broadcast Center, catching the bus to Phoenix Snow Park. There is a direct bus from the Gangneung Media Village to Phoenix, but it doesn’t leave until 8 a.m. and I was hoping to get the last of my deadline work done in the venue media center prior to the day’s halfpipe competition. As I was sitting in the media venue organizing pages, a gentleman came up to me and pointed to my shirt and said, “is that the Kingswood in New Hampshire?” I was wearing my Kingswood shirt (the day before was Prospect Mountain, Plymouth is tom...