Olympic Update

Where is your stuff?
Scorecard for those of you wondering when and where all of my stories are airing:  Of the 6 mini features I was assigned when I first arrived here, 3 of them have been dropped, all for various reasons.  I was supposed to do a preview on the women's ski jumping team, but could not get access to the women on the ski jumping team in time to make my deadline (kinda key).  I was then supposed to do a story on U.S. biathletes hanging out in their athletes village.  I shot this, but then it couldn't air it because there were no more slots in our show to air it.  Lastly I was scheduled to shoot a story on how to watch the games as a spectator from the stands.....until I was told by the Olympic Broadcasting System that I was not allowed to take a camera into the stands.  (I mentioned that I've done this at previous Olympics, and was promptly told that at all of those Olympics I was definitely doing something wrong.  Oh.  Glad I know now!).  I think the point in sharing all of this is to show just how cumbersome it is sometimes just to get stuff done at an Olympics.  Sure, I'm here with NBC, and while that may hold some clout stateside, it really doesn't mean a thing at an international event.  So it's been an interesting last 4 or 5 days as I scramble to get shoots organized and then have them called off!

To take my mind off of all the chaos, I actually had the chance to attend an event last night! 

I had taken a trip down to the coast and someone was randomly handing out extra tickets in the office.  I caught the men's 500m speed skating event where the Dutch delivered a podium sweep.  Here are two of the three medal winners embracing after what was a very exciting race.

American Shani Davis raced in this event, but he finished near the back of the pack.  He was quoted as saying the 500 is merely a warm-up to his better events.

American Pride Can Be Expensive
While I was down at the coast, I took a jaunt to the USA House, the hospitality house that Team USA uses every Olympics to entertain sponsors and athletes' families.  They also have a retail store where you can buy official gear of the team.  You may have seen slopestyle gold medal winner Jamie Anderson wearing this silver puffy jacket when she received her award at the medal ceremony.  Want one?  Yeah, that retails for 400 American Dollars.  The hooded running shirt underneath is a steal at 125 bucks!

Sealed Shut
Final thought to leave you with this morning -- many of you have been inquiring about the security at the venues.  Just to give you an idea of how controlled some access points are, I'm posting these pictures...

...of stickers that are used to seal our vehicles.  Anytime an official van, with officially credentialed media, and official Olympic camera and audio gear needs to head to a venue to shoot a story, we have to empty the entire vehicle.  Every piece of equipment (and every human being) must pass through an electric scanner before we load it all back into the van again.  That's when we are all sealed with a sticker that cannot be opened until the next checkpoint at the entrance to the venue.  A royal pain in the rear end to be certain, but all in the name of keeping safe. 

Happy Tuesday everyone!