Monday, August 22, 2016

That's a Wrap!


None of the sports I was assigned are "primetime" sports. They are rarely shown live on TV. Most are streamed live online, often without commentary. A color analyst and play-by-play guy are calling it live from a booth in Stamford, but this commentary won't be heard until the event is shown later on tv, likely in a much shorter segment.

But if an American is on the verge of winning a medal or if they simply need to fill time, my sports will occasionally be shown live on one of the myriad of channels in the NBC family. It's always surprising and exciting to see my sports on TV and to hear the analyst repeat a bit of information I gave him minutes before. It's a rare glimpse of the finished product I helped create and makes this massive operation feel more real... and then a Mongolian wrestling coach takes off his clothes.

Overall, the U.S. won 13 medals among the 6 sports I covered. Here are the highlights:
  • Judo - The dominance of Kayla Harrison: No American in my sports came in with such high expectations and then exceeded them like she did en route to gold.
  • Boxing - The rise of Shakur Stevenson: From his Powerade commercial to his recruitment by Floyd Mayweather to his silver medal, this is not the last we'll hear from the 19-year-old.
  • Wrestling - While some big U.S. names faltered, upstart Helen Maroulis made up for it with a gold medal win over three-time Olympic Champion Saori Yoshida of Japan.
535 days until the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea

Monday, August 15, 2016

In a Connecticut State of Mind


Best thing about Stamford? It's close to New York. I've made three trips into the Big Apple so far to see friends and family.

It's a super easy 40-60 minute train ride to Grand Central Station. That said, I got on the wrong train the first time.

Manhattan is a wild place with people moving in every direction like ants. I wish I had more time to explore but I've enjoyed being amongst the craziness.

Best part about it is the people I make the trip for. They give me a welcome break from the Olympic bubble I've been living in.

Some of the interesting storylines in the sports I've been assigned:
  • Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first American Olympian to compete while wearing a hijab, then won bronze in the team sabre event. 
  • American judo athlete Kayla Harrison overcame sexual abuse from a former coach to win her 2nd Olympic gold medal in Rio. 
  • Three-time Olympic kayaker Kazuki Yazawa of Japan is also a Buddhist priest.
  • Belgian taekwondo athlete Moored Laachraoui is the brother of Najim Laachraoui, one of the suicide bombers who killed 17 at a Brussels airport. 
  • Two Muslim judo athletes have caused a stir with their actions (or inactions) towards Israeli athletes. One allegedly pulled out due to "injury" rather than face an Israeli opponent while another competed and lost to an Israeli and then refused to shake hands afterwards - a major breach of protocol in judo.

Monday, August 8, 2016

It begins...


It's day 3 of the Olympics. I'm not yet running on fumes. The adrenaline of the games is keeping me energized.

Four of my six sports have started. Since I have only smaller profile sports and none of them are team sports, it can be dizzying trying to keep up with every canoe race and boxing match. Luckily I have a lot of tv monitors and a chair that swivels.

Yesterday, fencer Alexander Massialas won a silver medal, the first individual fencing medal for a U.S. male in 32 years and the first in that particular discipline in 104 years. These kind of stories make the long days all worth it.

And it's not just the Americans we research. It's the judo athlete from Kosovo who won her country's first medal in any sport - in the country's first ever Olympics after declaring independence in 2009.

If you're watching the Olympics and the color analyst drops an obscure stat or personal story about the athlete, chances are that info was provided to them by the research room, where I reside. We are like human Wikipedia, except hopefully a bit more credible.

Olympic vocabulary:
ippon - like a knockout in boxing, but in judo
parry riposte - to deflect and counter strike in fencing
second - any coach/trainer/hypeman in your corner in boxing
taekwondo - Korean for "the way of hand and foot"
par terre position - starting on your hands and knees in wrestling, if penalized