Willie Geist was the correspondent on the piece, and halfway through the interview he turned to me and said "this story is all about Lolo". And he was right. No one really cares about the 5 other women on the bobsled team.....but we all care about Lolo. She's the reason why there were 4 camera crews at the women's bobsled training run this morning!
In order to interview the athletes, I had to get a special pass for her and her teammates to get into the NBC compound....take a close look at the name on the credential
It's a shame that my story, airing tonight, will just be a 2 minute blurb on Lolo because these gals were really interesting and fun to talk to. I love bobsledders - there is no glory in bobsled. You really have to leave your ego at the door to suit up in spandex and stand at the start in sub-zero temperatures very late at night at tracks all over the world. No thank you! The women start their two heats tomorrow night, and I'll be cheering for them. Even Lolo :).
Speaking of Willie Geist, a fellow producer was assigned a story with him about crazy uniforms or weird fashion or something of that sort at the Olympics. Somehow the official jacket of Germany made its way into our office, so naturally we all modeled it for the camera.
Not much else to report - we are on the downhill part of the Games (yay!). I am quite anxious to get home and see the family. I am also eager to return to a normal diet. When I was in Beijing for the 2008 Games, I remember desperately missing cheese. There is plenty of cheese here in Russia, but I'm fairly sick of everything else. Sometimes you just yearn for something....familiar. We found it here!
For the record.....it didn't really taste like ice cream from the States :(
2 comments:
Like curling, It seems that some nations take bobsled, luge and skeleton more seriously than other… it's definitely a great way for former track athletes to get involved in winter sports, later in their career.
The annual budget for the French team is 5 times smaller than the Swiss! In Germany, there are about 100 bobsled, luge and skeleton clubs combined, only one track and club in France… with 35 members. That explains 5 medals in luge only for Germany, out of their total of 12!
Your RI crew watched your bobsled piece - while we were getting pedicures on Day 0. A first! Buy we learned a lot about bobsledding - the other women don't hate her because she's pretty. I can only hope for as much acceptance now that my toenails are green. Way to rock the German rainbow coat. JR
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