The Olympics... and beyond

As last year came to an end and 2023 kicked off, I made a move from the place that I have called home for the past 20+ years to a new apartment in Wolfeboro. There was really no reason for it other than it was time for a change. I attempted to bring my DirecTV package with me to the new location, but after a discussion on the phone with a DirecTV representative, it became obvious that I couldn't do that, since the new apartment would not get satellite service because of the many, many trees that surround the house where I am living. As a devoted television addict, I had to look for another option to get my fix. My only experience with streaming services before the move was my subscription to Paramount-Plus, which I did during Survivor season 40 in order to get the awesome behind the scenes videos that came out during that season, which aired during the height of COVID in the spring of 2020. Beyond watching those videos, I didn't really watch much else online, but I knew that I ...

Eight short months ago, I was on a mountain top two hours outside of downtown Beijing, China, watching as the woman regarded as one of the world's best alpine skiers, had what can only be described as the worst few days of her competition career. It was tough watching Mikaela Shiffrin go through what she went through following disappointing non-finishes in the Beijing Winter Olympics and it led to my most read blog post by far  and stoked many discussions both in Beijing and back at home in the United States. What made me think of this was the week that Mikaela just had, which can only be described as possibly one of the best weeks of her competition career, with three wins in a row, which pushes her closer to Lindsey Vonn's record for World Cup wins for a woman and closer to Ingemar Stenmark's record for World Cup wins for anyone and made her only the third person in history to record 80 World Cup wins. It was truly remarkable to follow the races while I was covering the n...

Those Facebook memories struck again. This time, it was Sunday when I happened to be on the laptop and took a quick break from work and the memory popped up. It was four years ago that day (December 18) that I received the e-mail from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee that I had been granted credentials for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. What a ride that turned out to be. That e-mail came a scant 10 months after I had returned from PyeongChang, South Korea and the 2018 Winter Olympics. On a whim, wanting to see how a Summer Olympics experience would differ from the two Winter Olympics that I had been to, I had applied for credentials for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. I was excited to get the chance to see something different, to see the Olympics without having to don a winter coat at any point. The next year proved to be much the same type of processes that I had gone leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and the aforementioned PyeongChang Games four years later...

The road to Paris has officially begun. However, I am still unsure just exactly how far down that road I am going to go. The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee sent out the e-mail for press to apply for credentials earlier this week. On Tuesday I completed the form and sent in my application for the Paris Olympics, but did so knowing that if I choose to, I can pass on the opportunity and allow them to go to another journalist. My concerns leading up to Paris have nothing to do with the fact that it's the Summer Olympics or even that it will be less than two years since my most recent Olympic trip. My concerns are almost completely financial. As some people may know, I work part time at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro. While I started doing this during the pandemic when I got laid off from my writing job, I've kept doing it as a way to pay for the trips that I enjoy taking, be it to the Olympics or Survivor events around the country. Sure, it leads to me being tired a ...

Facebook memories are always reminding you where you were in previous years. Most of my summer memories are from baseball fields and race courses around New Hampshire. But, the one-year-ago memories this week have started coming from the other side of the world, as at this time last year I was in Tokyo, preparing for my first summer Olympics experience, a year later than planned and a few days later than planned thanks to a three-day required quarantine. As I write this on Saturday, July 23, it was exactly one year since the Opening Ceremonies, which I watched from my hotel room, as my quarantine had yet to be completed. I had originally hoped to make the Tokyo Opening Ceremonies my first-ever Olympic ceremony, but that had to wait a few weeks until the Tokyo Closing Ceremony. Over the past six or seven years, I have really enjoyed when Facebook provides me with memories from my Olympic experiences. Most of those have come in the middle of February when the Sochi and PyeongChang Olympi...

This piece previously appeared in Salmon Press Newspapers. I’m putting my foot to the floor, riding inches from the ground as I get up to speed and enter the race track, my heart pounding and a voice in my ear telling me to move up and get between the lines. The number eight Budweiser Monte Carlo, long a fixture of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., is now carrying a guy who barely fit through the window and is super happy he took his blood pressure medication earlier in the day. That being said, as the car circled the track, with my foot hammering down coming out of turns two and four looking to pick up speed on the straightaways, the thrill was real. It felt like I was flying. In reality, I was probably going about the speed I do on Interstate 93 when I’m heading to Littleton to cover a basketball game. A little backstory. A few years ago, I was in the media center at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when someone came in and asked if anyone wanted to take a ride in the pace car. It seemed like a great...

It's been more than two months since my last blog post. Obviously, this blog focuses on the Olympics and my experiences covering the Games as a local sports reporter. During the time between the Olympics, most of my life is devoted to covering high school sports across the Lakes Region of New Hampshire and north through Franconia Notch. That job keeps me more than busy, with games just about every day and tons of stories to be written. The past few months have been filled with trips to baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis and track competitions all around the state. While there has been nothing that is comparable to the Olympics, in many ways, my normal life is much busier than the two or three weeks that I spend in foreign countries every couple of years. However, this week there were a couple of noteworthy Olympic announcements and I found them both to be interesting in a few ways. The first announcement was the 800-day mark to the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024. I have yet...