First Post of the Games

Privyet!

Sorry for the delay of this official first post of the 2014 Winter Olympics!  I don't have my own computer here in Russia (you've seen the hacking reports!).  And I can't blog very easily from my phone.  So I needed to wait until I had some spare time in the office to post anything. But then I learned that the other afternoon when I was on a shoot, some local officials came into our complex and ordered the NBC group to take down our wifi because they said we weren't authorized to have it. (The U.S. rightsholder of a multimillion dollar TV property somehow failed to get the proper authorization for its production team to use wifi? Um...not so sure about that one). In any case, the lack of access to a working computer and a shoot schedule that's getting busier by the moment are at fault!

But I digress...Greetings from Krasnaya Polyana just north of Sochi, Russia where I am stationed up here in the mountains for the next couple of weeks while covering the Olympics for NBC. 

 

As a field and feature producer, I'm part of a unit that primarily provides short features for "The Olympic Zone", a half-hour show airing on most NBC affiliate stations almost every night during the Olympics (first episode tonight!).  We provide content, and the local stations book-end our features using their anchors. It has become a hugely popular show over the course of the last few Games and it provides a great lead-in to NBC's traditional nightly primetime coverage.  

Our group is also assigned to cover any news that happens up in the mountains once the competition gets underway - from an injury on a training run to a surprise surge from a dark-horse competitor.  Content of that kind could end up on any number of NBC platforms. NBC is broadcasting so many hours of coverage this year -- my team merely supplies about one gazillionth if it :)

A quick rundown of what Russia is like so far? Annoying, amazing, weird and wonderful all at the same time. Lots of stories floating about but for now I'll address the number one question I've been getting from folks at home:  "do you feel safe over there?"  I have felt fine so far. There are uniformed government officials visible wherever you turn (and uh taking down wifi). These two guys were willing to mug for a photo with me last week when the local village was empty. I haven't been back there, but I heard this week they are not providing any photo ops. 

That said, there are two notable differences in this Olympics from others I've attended.  The first is the lack of culture stories in my list of assignments. In London we filed stories featuring a shopping trip to Harrod's and a ride on the landmark Eye. In Beijing I walked through the old sections of the city and did a bit on traditional life in the hutong neighborhoods. This time around we are unable to venture into public parts of town that are outside the confines of Olympic security.  Initially I wondered if there might be a lack of local flavor in our coverage, but some NBC correspondents were able to shoot much of this cultural content in the weeks and months leading up to the Games, so viewers at home won't likely notice any difference.  But now that we are getting closer access is becoming much more restricted.  The takeaway here is that the NBC higher-ups aren't messing around -- they are taking our safety seriously.  (Really bummed, though, that my pitch to visit multiple local vodka houses was nixed ;). 

The other difference I've noticed is what you've already been reading about in the states. Empty storefronts, unfinished construction projects, etc.  Walking around, you'd be hard pressed to tell there is even an Olympics going on over here! 

Row upon row of brand new buildings housing empty store fronts with signs of promise.  These were taken TODAY!!  There is one day until Opening Ceremony, there is no more "soon" left!

 

Can we keep him?

By now you must have also heard or read the stories about the stray dogs in Russia. It was one of the most immediate and astonishing things I noticed when I arrived here last week.  I saw 8 different strays on my first day here.  None of them appear to be malnourished or sickly. They just sorta walk about and mingle among the peole. 

Here's the puppy that hangs out right outside our office complex. We think it lives with it's mom underneath the building.  You don't even need the Sara McLachlan soundtrack -- the pic alone breaks your heart. And damn if I got a tear in my eye when I read reports of what's happening to these animals.  (A note to TJ Greco, this only fuels my fire to want to adopt a dog, so you have the reopening of that topic to look forward to when I return:)

 

Will write more when I can, but for now enjoy the first episode of The Olympic Zone tonight and the first night of competition!  And be sure to tune in tomorrow for the Opening Ceremony.  I ran into The Today Show's  Matt Lauer the other day just after he had Opening Ceremony rehearsal and he was telling us all that they still had a few kinks to work out.  He said "If I start vamping about my summer vacation in the middle of the show, you'll know something that was supposed to happen didn't" :)