The Olympics... and beyond

I've been to three Olympics and they've all had their things that went well and things that didn't go as well. That is to be expected. But, one thing they all had in common was that they kept me busy. There was always something going on, always some place to go to cover an event or interview an athlete. However, in most cases, the work that I had to do over in Sochi, PyeongChang and Tokyo was not really much more than I am used to doing back here in the United States. Tokyo was a bit of a different story than my first two Olympic experiences. The simple fact of the matter is that summer is a slower time for me. I have fewer events to cover and fewer places to go than during the school year. So, in many ways, those few weeks this summer were my busiest summer weeks in a few years. But now that I am gearing up for a trip to Beijing, I am in the middle of one of the two busiest seasons of my year. The fall and spring sports seasons have been absolutely impossible the last year...

It seems like Tokyo 2020 just ended, even though it was a month ago now. But, while I was in Tokyo, I got an e-mail from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee asking me to confirm all my details for the Beijing Olympics. I wasn't quite ready to deal with that while dealing with all the Tokyo stuff, so I waited until I got home and had a little time to take care of business. I did take care of that paperwork a week or so ago, but it just seems like it is so quick on the heels of Tokyo that I am not quite ready for it to be here. Obviously, the postponement of the 2020 Olympics for a year contributed to the short time between the two Olympics for me. However, this is also a new experience for me in that even if the Olympics had gone off as planned in 2020, there was still a shorter time than between my previous Olympic experiences. After Sochi in 2014, which was my first Olympic experience, there was four years before I was back in the Olympics in PyeongChang. While the ...

I promised a look back at Tokyo and after a few days at home, two early mornings of baking, three late nights of rehearsals for Laughing Stock (opening tonight) and a great in-studio interview with the Morning Buzz, it is time to look back and reflect on what was certainly a unique experience. I am going to take the whole return trip out of the discussion here. That was a miserable experience (my suitcase arrived on Thursday) that had nothing to do with the Olympics. As highlighted in my previous post, that is all on Air Canada and can't reflect on the Tokyo experience. All in all, this was definitely a unique situation. It started with a three-day quarantine in a tiny hotel room and ended with my first ever Olympic ceremony. In between, there were countless long bus rides, plenty of great Olympic action and plenty of heat and humidity. In my previous Olympics, I had the chance to cover athletes that I covered while they were in high school or athletes that had other local connecti...

My last blog post said that my next blog post would be a decompression upon my return, a reflection of the Tokyo Olympics. However, the experiences of the last two days has led me to a different step, though there will still be a reflection on the Olympics in the next few days. If you had told me that the experience of hanging around the Tokyo airport for more than four hours upon arrival, filling out paperwork and taking COVID tests, would be the worst of my traveling adventures, I would have believed you. But, then Air Canada stepped in and made sure I had the most miserable travel days I have ever experienced. And as I write this on Tuesday afternoon on my couch, it’s still not over. I arrived at Narita Airport three and a half hours before my scheduled flight out of Tokyo, which was slated for 5:30 p.m. on Monday. We had been advised to get their early, since it was anticipated that the airport would be busy and it was. However, because I downloaded my boarding pass before leaving ...

My first Olympic ceremony experience was certainly interesting and was a fitting close to this long strange trip that has been the Tokyo Olympics. All the media transportation guides advised us to arrive early, since there is a lot of journalists moving in and out of the venue as the evening moves along and in order to keep the transportation moving, they wanted traffic spread out a little bit. I got to the Olympic Stadium about 4:30 p.m., well ahead of the 8 p.m. scheduled start time. I spent a little time in the venue media center in the bowels of the stadium and then moved up to the stands. I was glad that I made my way up to the stands early, as I was able to get a tabled tribune seat, which is a seat with a table, monitor and power outlets. Many of the people that showed up later did not have that option and sat in the regular stadium seats.  While sitting there, I got the chance to watch as the participants went through a practice run of many parts of the closing ceremonies, ...

The closing ceremony is just a few hours away and I am in the basement of the Olympic Stadium, having just arrived via the media transport. They advised leaving the media center early, so I took the advice and here I sit in the venue media center. As I prepare to leave Japan tomorrow, I thought I’d point out some of the things I’ve learned about Japan while I was here. First, there are a lot of bikes. Everywhere you look, there are people riding bikes. Men dressed in suits and ties with their briefcase in a basket. Women in skirts and their hair up with bags in the basket. Mothers and fathers with children in seats in the back (or in some cases, the front). There are bikes everywhere and it seems it is the way to get around. From what I have come to understand, it’s hard finding parking for cars in Tokyo, and if you do find it, it’s expensive, so bikes are the way to go. There are even dedicated bike parking spots in the entrances to buildings and around the city. The second thing may ...

It’s 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Today has not been a very long day. In fact, I slept in the latest I have since I’ve been able to leave my hotel and I only covered two events today. But I am fried. My brain is just not functioning. You know that feeling you get when you’re almost on auto-pilot and things are just floating by you. That’s me. I have had longer days. I have had stretches of days where I’ve worked more hours and not felt this way. I think, more than anything, the tiredness is a mental fatigue more than a physical fatigue.  I am not tired of the Olympics. However, there are things about this particular experience that I am tired of. I am tired of having to remember which day it is so I can be sure to take the COVID tests on the right days. I am tired of having to fill out a health questionnaire every morning. I am tired of making sure I have enough time to catch one bus to another bus to get to a venue. I am tired of the security checks and the temperature screenings before...