Junior High Greatness

I wouldn’t go back to junior high if my life depended on it. That said, I wouldn’t mind having the energy and enthusiasm of middle school girls I met this morning at the University of Illinois – Chicago.

We arrived at the school pool by 7am to catch triathlete Julie Ertel before her swim workout.

She had very limited time to do her one hour workout, an interview with us, and make it back to the hotel for her media summit obligations. Minutes were going to count.

And, then I met the kids.

Three giggly girls passed me as I was walking into the gym. I heard some whispering. Then, one of them, came running back and asked, “are the Olympic athletes still coming?”

“Yep,” I replied.

Cue more giggling.

Domi, our Olympic photographer, started setting his gear. Unable to resist a Hannah Montana moment, I ventured over to the girls. I had money on the fact these kids were here for Michael Phelps.

 

Turns out, they were here for an Olympian. Any Olympian.

I explained to them who Julie Ertel was and told them about her amazing prior life as an Olympic water polo player. I told them about her silver medal from Athens.Their eyes got wide and then one of them said it was worth getting up at 4:30am to see her. 

“What time did you get up,” I asked.

“4:30am.”

I’m pretty sure they’d never seen that time on a clock before.

But, someone told them Olympic swimmers would be at the pool at 5:30am and they weren’t going to miss it. They’d waited two hours with no sign of an Olympian until our crew walked in.

They had exactly an hour before they had to report for home room and now there was the potential for athletic greatness.Judging by the handful of Sharpies they each clutched, they were hoping for a little John Hancock action too. 

Julie Ertel showed up promptly at 7:30am and couldn’t have been more kind to her accidental groupies.She was also extremely kind and patient with our crew. Look for a feature on the Southern California triathlete soon. 

Good things come to good people.

72 hours later, Julie Ertel became the second female triathlete to win a spot to represent Team USA in Beijing at a Trials in Alabama.

Oh yeah. The girls made it to homeroom in time too.

 

 

 

It’s TV time

Who needs 15 minutes of fame when you can have 6 minutes, 9 times?

There are 450 journalists here in Chicago previewing the Olympic Games.

There are 100 athletes.

 At the risk of this blog turning into an 8^{th grade math word problem, it’s a mathematic impossibility for every reporter to interview every athlete one on one. So, we’re assigned to one of 9 rooms to “group interview” athletes with other reporters.} Domi and I ended up in a room with Reuters, the Associated Press, and the New York Times. Which of these things does not belong? Um, that would be us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not an Olympian..but I played one on Lake Shore Dr.

I got up early and went for a sunrise run along Lake Shore Drive this morning.

I read somewhere that Oprah trained for the Chicago Marathon along this path. Apparently, it was one of her favorite things before favorite things became trinkets you could buy through a link on her website.

I was about 30 minutes out when I came to the conclusion that Chicago has a lot of fit runners. I’m competitive and I freely admit I struggled to pass anyone.

You’ll find a hot dog, pizza or burger place on every corner in this town and they’re full. And yet, a seemingly tofu nation of early risers was pounding the pavement with me and they were anaerobically superior.

 They also had a lot of matchy matchy outfits. I was getting jealous. They’re fast and they look good.

 

After an hour, I called it a day and headed for the hotel.

As the Lake Shore Blvd crosswalk signal beeped, a guy dressed head to toe in Nike wear slowed long enough to say, “heading back to the Olympic Summit?” Yep, I replied. “Good luck with the media. It’s grueling talking with those reporters all day.”

Then, he was gone.

Then, I was stunned.

The fleet of foot and fancy of pants athletes on the trail had been Olympic athletes. They look good because they’re sponsored athletes who get a lot of free clothes and are expected to wear them.

By coincidence, I was “swooshed” from head to toe in Nike gear too. In addition, I was wearing a freebie Team USA ball cap I’d picked up the day before.

The troubling part of all of this is that the guy at the light mistook me for one of his own kind. I’m worried for Team USA’s vision. Not the kumbaya vision of Intergalactic harmony that’s usually attached to Olympic teams.

I’m worried about their 20/20 or lack thereof.

 

 

 

Take a deep breath…or don’t

NBC scheduled a five hour meeting to discuss the logistics of covering an Olympics in Beijing.

Here are the highlights:

Don’t drink the water.

Don’t breathe the air.

Have a good time.

I don’t know about you. But, I’m pretty much addicted to oxygen and agua. Beijing’s pollution issue is such a big deal that the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BACOG,) actually fired a rocket filled with chemicals at clouds to make it rain and clear out the pollution.

This was done during a BACOG media tour attended by NBC to show how efficient the Chinese are at using chemicals to clear chemicals. I’m sure their hypothesis was worded slightly differently.

The good news, according to our NBC friends is that whoever played Rocket Man that day was successful. The clouds dumped rain. The sky turned blue. Angels wept.

The bad news is that it only lasted for a few hours and the haze was back by dinner.

Beijing’s pollution isn’t a joke. It’s bad enough that some athletes are staying in neighboring countries until their day of competition to protect their lungs.

It’s bad enough that we’re being told to accept the fact that we will likely have what feels like a bad respiratory infection within days of arrival.

Beijing is promising to do what it can to clear the air, in all kinds of political and environmental ways, before August.

The city is ordering certain factories to close in July and is encouraging locals to give up their cars. It’s a tough sell though and you can blame Santa.

Yes, Santa.

All those factories getting the bad rap for filling the air with junk are working to fill stockings with junk at Christmas. It’s “made in China” time. The country typically starts sending toy shipments to the US during August.

Rudolph’s red nose and my red eyes will have a common tie this holiday season.

 

 

 

 

On the road again

Saturday, April 12, 2008 * 4am