Our days are filled right now with answering media questions, solving problems, arranging interviews, strategizing USOC messaging and statements on everything from our stance on Internet censorship to food safety in Beijing. The accredited press know that our office is the place to go for everything regarding to the U.S. Team, so we have a revolving door of needs and inquiries. Because of this, we’re a bit office-bound at the moment, which makes it even more enticing to envision the days of actual competition!
If you’re looking for an indication of how much information our office pours out, visit www.usocpressbox.org. This is the USOC’s media website and provides a glimpse of the pseudo-newsroom we run here from the Main Press Center.
Another Main Press Center activity is our pre-event press conferences with athletes from each sport. These are quite popular with the media, as they encapsulate the only interviews some athletes conduct prior to competing. And even with that said, our athletes are the most accessible to the press of any country.
One of my tasks is to run an athlete briefing session with all of our press conference participants right before they take the stage. Our intention is to communicate our USOC viewpoints on some of the hot button issues, which serves two purposes. First, it’s important for athletes to understand our take on issues, even just the background and facts. For instance, some of the athletes I’ve briefed so far haven’t even heard that the USOC has developed a mask for our team, should they request one outside of competition (for air quality purposes). It would sound really bad if they were asked about it and said “What? The USOC never told me that.”
Second, it subtly gives them a way to answer difficult questions, if they’re looking for some help. I go over gracious answers for how to deal with questions about air quality, food safety, human rights, Internet censorship, free speech and more, while not offending our hosts or taking a side. But at the same time, I make it clear to them that they are free to answer any questions however they wish, and they should be sincere and authentic to who they are when answering.
One of the big press conferences today was with Jenny and two players from the women’s volleyball team, Nicole Davis and Danielle Scott-Arruda. There were hoards of Chinese press there and all three handled the questions very well.
Here's Danielle in an informal media scramble after the press conference...
Last night Tom and I were able to stroll out into Beijing for a bit. We went to a dumpling house where the servers just kept giggling at us, and then to a massage parlor. They’re all over China, and because they’re so cheap, Westerners love them. $15 for an hour! Here's Tom in the waiting room...
I also had my first experience with a true Chinese public toilet. A picture’s worth a thousand words…
A couple of days ago my coworkers and I were able to get away, and we chose to go back to the Summer Palace. We brought a little picnic and rented an electric boat (kind of like a golf cart). It was the most beautiful day and we just boated around the resort, taking photos and sipping beers! It was hard to believe that just 15 minutes away was the chaotic hustle-bustle of the Olympics!
Tomorrow I’m escorting The Today Show crew around Beijing Normal University for a story on our High Performance Training Center, and then its ‘all hands on deck’ for our USOC Leadership Press Conference in the afternoon. It’s one day closer to the Opening Ceremony!
No comments:
Post a Comment