Arrived at The National Stadium at 5 pm Beijing time on Friday night for the first day of events at the Nest. I wasn't sure what to expect, especially since I hadn't been at the venue for the past 2 weeks, and I had been covering basketball. The first thing I noticed (obviously) was the Olympic flame! It is amazing...and loud too! It makes a lot of noise, at least that's what I hear...we are not really allowed on the Field of Play. We might try that tonight, after the events are over.
[One of my favorite quotes of the night was from a US woman who just finished the women's steeplechase: "That Olympic flame, sets you on fire!"]We got to the office, checked the white board (which tells us which events we will be covering and what the medal events are, etc.). My group was covering women's triple jump, women's heptathlon 200 meters and men's 1500 meters. All were qualifying rounds--no medal events yet. We got the start lists and event reviews, and read them over in our group. Our ONS Managers sat us all down and we went through all the events for the evening and talked through which athletes we'd want to speak to.
There are 10-15 of us from Emerson working every night, so there are lots of different jobs and places to be. Some are upstairs in the Press Tribune, some are in the office taking copy, a couple are Video Flash Quote Reporters, but most of us are in the Mixed Zone. The Mixed Zone is a place where are the international journalists rub elbows (well, more like, jab) and try to get to their respective athletes. Broadcast journalists get the best spots, and if we are in the Broadcast area we are not allowed to ask any questions--we just write down whatever the athletes say. (Since we're ONS, it's allowed...it's not like we are copying or stealing.) The next zone is the wire services (AP, Reuters, AFP, Xinhua) and it's the same thing, just stand and listen and write fast. The rest of the mixed zone is up for grabs. That's where we usually are.
And that's where I spent most of my time Friday night. I met some USA journalists, including the Globe's Bob Ryan (he was waiting for the USA men shot putters). It is incredibly surreal to be right there, in my little ONS 'bib' (as the Aussies call it) trying to get athletes to stop and talk to me...a little ONS nobody. But I did get to speak to a couple athletes last night, directly, and that was pretty cool. Not many athletes wanted to talk, especially if it was just a qualifying round. After some of the track events the athletes literally ran right through the Mixed Zone and never stopped. All athletes are required to go the Mixed Zone but no one has to stop.
For the most part, I try to be invisible and take down whatever I can for notes and then rush back to the ONS office to read off my notes to one of the four copytakers.
没有评论:
发表评论