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Feb 10 2014

Game on in Sochi

I have used this site to showcase many things, but not many sports. I cover basketball and football. That’s it. You know this to be true.

So when I got an opportunity to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, I had a lot of thoughts to process.

Sure, it’s the WINTER OLYMPICS. They only come around once every four years. But … Russia? Sochi? Where the hell is Sochi? Biathlon? What the hell is a biathlon? February??? School?

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Fast forward a bit. I’m here. The concerns about the games are numerous. Perhaps, a bit overblown.

Security concerns? It’s the world. I’m from Philadelphia, and living in Los Angeles. You pray that you can live every day. Switching up countries doesn’t change that.

Accommodations concerns? Well, I got lucky on that one, I guess. #SochiProblems dominated the web for a few days. Funny stuff. My water, shower, electricity, bed, bathroom door, lights, and locks are all fine. Not that I’m in my room much.

No, I get to work with the United States Olympic Committee. In five days, I’ve written previews for snowboarding, biathlon, and luge. I’ve doubled up my snowboarding fun by writing features on the snowboard slopestyle events. Bob Costas said that those events were Jackass-type events. Perhaps he was joking. But watching Sage Kotsenburg and Jamie Anderson do gold-medal work on the slopestyle? Easily the highlight of my first week here.

My interview with Anderson after she won gold

I also got to go to the Opening Ceremony on Friday night. I had no clue what to expect. I don’t know that much about Russia, and I’ve never watched an Opening Ceremony from any of the Olympic Games. It is one of those events that, on the surface, seems like a can’t-miss event every year. Yet I miss it. Every year. Except this one!

 

 

I even got a chance to attend part of the figure skating team event. Listening to the crowd rise up for Yulia Lipnitskaya was intense, and I wasn’t surprised when Russia ended up with gold.

 

In all, this has been an eventful week. That was expected. What may not have been expected is just how great the experience has been so far. It’s only going to get deeper from here.

 

 

3 pings

  1. Escape from the Winter Olympics: Russia Rear View » 1skillz-networksunited.net

    […] spent my first week talking about the America-to-Russia transition, and I followed that up with what it was like to be me in Sochi.  Naturally, I shall spend this […]

  2. Deeper Than the Black Sea | USC Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media, & Society

    […] week, I shared my adventures that were coming out from Los Angeles to Sochi. That was an introduction to being here. I got […]

  3. Deeper Than the Black Sea » 1skillz-networksunited.net

    […] « Game on in Sochi […]

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