pinky part II...

I wish I had had more time yesterday. I was in the blogging groove and now I seem to have lost my rhythm of yesterday's blog.

Once the medal ceremony ended yesterday the athletes traveled through the broadcast mixed zone. Bringing me within reaching distance of the medals, as I previously mentioned. I can't tell you how hard it is to be listening to a Frenchman ramble off some answer in French and all the while not just stick your hand out there for one little touch. There were times where I almost had to physically restrain myself. Anyway, while in the broadcast zone Pinky and her friends all asked similar questions, and most of the athletes give the typical canned, cliche answers. Heck, if I had just won an Olympic medal I would not have the cognitive ability to flesh out something new and profound. I would most definitely default to the boring "I am very happy. I have worked very hard for this." But when you are trying to get something fresh and genuine, while fighting feverishly to defend yourself against Pinky's pointy elbows there is a different mind set. The worst part of this whole thing is that the Germans and French are only speaking in German and French, which means us language challenged people have not written anything down about the Bronze or Silver medals. AWESOME.

We rush downstairs to meet the 10 min deadline. (i.e. we have ten minutes from the time the medal ceremony ends to get in all the flash quotes. It's really not as bad as it seems, especially because nothing EVER seems to be running on time.) Soon after the Press Conference starts so we jump on over there, but not before we have a run in with the local volunteers trying to deny us access. (Friday was consumed by BOCOC and domestic volunteers telling us "no.") Krystyna got on that and all was good in flash quoting world again.

The press conference was no different than the rest of the day, chaotic. Although, I do have to say, it was much better than the test runs. During the test runs they had domestic volunteers doing the translations and we were concerned that would be the "professional translations" they kept speaking of. They did in fact have qualified translators, so that part went quite well. The room was full of British journalists trying to have a one-on-one with the three Brits who had just won the Gold. Nothing we being asked of the Silver and Bronze medalists. Traci had to step in and ask a question to her best friends, the Germans. I felt really bad because when the Brits decided to leave most of the journalists left, some in the middle of a response from the Germans. I realize this happens all the time, but their answers and moment were just as important as the stupid Brits who think they own the cycling world. (I'm not really a fan of the British team or their press agent who anxiously hovers over every interview just waiting for some one to say something that she needs to fix or retract. ANNOYING.)

The Women's and Men's Pursuit qualifications were nothing too riveting. Both USA cyclists, Taylor Phinney and Sarah Hammer qualified, but by no means were they exceptional. Those races became more exciting the second day when there was more competition.

Since nothing was running on time we didn't get out of there until almost 9:30. It had been decided a few days ago we would go out with our managers after work that day to the Holland House. During the Olympics each country sets up it's own house to host the athletes and visitors. Being media we are allowed to go to any of the houses and apparently Holland House is the best one. By the time we ate and met up with Amy it was decently late, it was still a blast. Maybe we'll go back when we have more time. Who knows.

The first day was generally how any first day of an event goes. Things were being changed on the fly, new rules were being made, and nothing seemed to go according to plan. We had significant trouble with BOCOG trying to keep people out of the mixed zone. They "hired" us to do this job and Friday they were trying to prevent us from doing it. They wanted only two people in there to interview anywhere from 3 to 9 athletes. That's not going to work. But, as we have done this entire trip, we rolled with the punches and did what we could. I have to say, if there is one thing I have really learned while in China it's adaptability and flexibility. If I wrote about all the times we had to just go with the flow I would be writing until the next Olympics.