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Hi everyone! I’ve decided to blog once again from the Olympics. This time up, it’s Vancouver, Canada.

I love the Winter Games! Because it’s smaller, there’s just more of a quaint, charming, Village feel to the whole experience. In summer Olympics, we send about 600 U.S. athletes; for the winter, it’s 215. One challenge with the winter though, is that the Games take place on two fronts: the city venues and the mountain venues. I’ll be based in Vancouver, just as I was in Torino six years ago. Other staff members will be based in Whistler. I hope to make it up at least once to visit! Plus, Tom and I are going up to ski a few days after the Olympics end.

Speaking of Torino, the approach of these Olympics has me reminiscing about where I was four years ago. At this time, we had just made it through the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, which serve as the Olympic Trials for figure skating. I ran the media services and operations at the event, working with our U.S. athletes, hosting press conferences, handling interview requests, assigning daily photo positions inside the arena and working with NBC.

Since then, I’ve moved on to work for the U.S. Olympic Committee, so I don’t oversee any one sport. Similar to my role in Beijing, it allows me to be more involved in the strategy and publicity planning for all our sports, rather than the day-to-day logistics of one.

These Games will be fantastic – incredibly scenic and packed full of compelling athletes and storylines. Just a few names you’ll be hearing a lot:

Lindsey Vonn: Alpine Skier

Shaun White: Halfpipe Snowboarder (also known as the Flying Tomato)

Apolo Ohno: Short Track Speedskater (and Dancing with the Stars Champion) 

Shani Davis: Long Track Speedskater

 
Yu-Na Kim: Figure skater from South Korea

Evan Lysacek: U.S. men’s figure skater

While in Vancouver, I’ll wear a few hats:

First, I’m working at Team Processing at the Delta Hotel, which is a 24 hour stop for all U.S. athletes when they first get into Vancouver. They take part in team briefings, receive their apparel and team rings, go through a final medical screening, take part in our Olympic Ambassador Program, do some on-camera interviews, take official U.S. team headshots and get a few healthy meals before checking into the Athlete Village the next day. I handle media requests and run the Olympic Ambassador Program. More on that in the weeks to come.

Then on Feb. 12, Team Processing closes. From there I head into the heart of Vancouver throughout the Games where I’ll run the USOC’s Managing Victory program, our term for the 24-36 hours after a U.S. athlete wins a medal. We coordinate all of the media requests and logistics in order to help our athletes maximize their window of opportunity, including in-venue press requirements, medal ceremonies, NBC in-studio interviews, morning shows (which shoot from 4-7 am!), press conferences, celebrations at USA House, other media one-on-one requests and sponsor appearances. It’s a great gig and it’ll be fun to be amidst the celebration!

Main Press Center in Vancouver on the left

I’ll also manage media operations at USA House, which is the U.S. Olympic Committee’s hospitality lounge. We rent out an entire building and transform it into a floor-to-ceiling Go Team USA meeting and hospitality center, where sponsors bring guests, food and drink are aplenty, athletes come to celebrate, VIPs arrange their meetings, TVs fill every corner with live event feeds, and hopefully, the mood is always festive.

Between all of those programs, I’ll be busy! I don’t imagine having as much time to blog as I did in Beijing, but I’ll be doing my best to get on here. Thanks for joining me!