Initial Volunteer Purgatory Converts to Epic Milan Games -- The Rest of the Story, Olympin Edition

The Games of Milano proved among the best ever for many. 

Some ask why this site was quiet during the Olympics. The easy answer is I was simply too busy enjoying the Milan experience, sans mental bandwidth for writing. You wake up, shower, grab a bite then it's off to the Games until dragging home at 1 a.m. to sort the day's intake of memories, memorabilia and pins. 

On the request of the Olympin newsletter editors, there was finally some post-Milan time to jot down stories and illustrate where so much time and energy went in Italy and since. 

What follows is an expansion of the article published in the club's March edition, plus more photos. Enjoy, with additional non-pin stories of 2026 to follow in future posts. And for anyone reading who is a pin collector and not already a member, consider joining Olympin for its many benefits. 

And now, the start to and ... the rest of the story:

Epic! That was pin trading at Milano Cortina. But for this writer, not from the start.

Feb. 1 arrival at the city’s Linate airport inspired nervousness, as only a handful of volunteers and the pair of Belgian athletes they assisted with luggage all proved pinless.

Attempted trades with airport employees also bore no fruit as their newly issued Olympic staff pins were decidedly divisa ufficiale (not to be exchanged). And the airport shops plus the Official Store near Duomo, visited that first night in town, were scant of pins. 

Hardly the envisioned Benvenuto to Italy!

Settling into Hotel Cita Studi brought comfort, but the question lingered: Where are the pins?

The next day proved encouraging, with about 20 trades completed while fitting my volunteer uniform and receiving accreditation for the Games. 

My mix of “vintage” Atlanta 1996 and Calgary ’88 pin varieties (including an abundance of Jeep pins) proved quite popular in a couple of trades aboard Milan’s metro system. By evening, day one’s haul of, say, 25 inbound pins, instilled optimism.

Volunteering for this Olympiad—specifically, investing the time in the 18-month application, interview and online training process (a bureaucratic mess)—of course made all the difference. Though discouraging to be wait-listed on the “Reserve” volunteer force (aka Purgatorio) from December to late January, fellow Olympin member and volunteer Nippy Feldhake put in a word for me with the IOC’s Games Family Services (formerly Protocol) manager and around Jan. 31 my accreditation was initially upgraded to include work and access at the IOC Hotels (Westin and NH).

Anyone hip to Games badging can appreciate my surprise when a seemingly errant “R”—as in “Residential Zone” of the Milan Olympic Village for athletes—appeared prominently on my I.D. at pickup. And on the morning of Feb. 2, I could not resist trying to enter the Village. Without surprise, however, the red light shone when the accreditation was scanned. Accesso negato!

“Go see the Accreditation Team in the tent,” said the Village security. Not at all optimistic, after about 10 minutes of data entry and some emails with managers, the junior accreditation staffer taught me an unfamiliar word: Caspito! Or in Western terms, SHAZAM!

The lighting strike, of course, was that my accreditation was not only upgraded, but they added access to ALL MILAN VENUES including the IOC hotels, main press center and Village.

Re-entering the athlete housing a few moments later, this time with a green light to do so, I quietly sat beside the in-Village Olympic Rings and cried happy tears, chuckling with joy for about 10 minutes, dumbfounded by the unheard-of stroke of good fortune.

And then it was time to start trading pins. While enjoying a self-guided tour of the Village, initial trades first emerged at the Polyclinic and each sponsor area. 

Samsung, TCL, Grana Padano, Alibaba, Technogym and Bauerfeind each had athlete experience spaces, mostly in a single building’s lobby, while Corona had a two-roomed beach hut lounge near the athlete dining hall, which I observed as strictly off limits to anyone without an “A” accreditation.

From the start, I was careful to play only a passive trading game: if an athlete spotted me/my pins, they could approach with interest, but there was no “chasing down” anyone, which made a bit of difference if/when security or Milano Cortina staff got curious. 

Street clothes—not the official volunteer garb—were my trading “uniform” which drew a few curious staffers who mostly shrugged off any concern once a trade was initiated. More Jeep pin magic!

Meanwhile, my first actual volunteer assignment was set for the afternoon of Feb. 6 to help IOC members with transport and check-in at the Opening Ceremony. What extraordinary, combined gifts of all play and no work!

On Feb. 3, I arrived at the Village right at opening time to find the celebrity Team NL athlete, speedskater Jutta Leerdam, was in line behind me. With some intention I lingered then generally walked in step with her entourage to the Netherlands team building, where the group, I accurately predicted, had to wait for an elevator, providing just enough time to trade with Jutta, two teammates and her coaches, yielding my first prize pin of Milan: The “I heart Jutta” puppy pin her family created (limited to 50, said Jutta) and a mix of Team NL pins and orange clogs, which I found to be schoon!

Though walking away I kicked myself for passing on a selfie option, the next day I met Jutta for the second time while Italy’s President toured the Village. Would Jutta trade another puppy pin? No. But she did smile for the camera and share some stories of her other first-day trades. 

See below for more about the third time speaking with Jutta. 

By this second day in the Village, a routine started taking shape, which involved displaying a single and curated pin book page of traders on a picnic table in the Coca-Cola athlete lounge. By displaying fewer pins, this encouraged athletes and other passersby to trade faster.

Fellow trader Olga—daughter of Olympin member Oleg Vorontsov—enjoyed access via NOC Village Day Passes, and on this day she emerged as an informed and enthusiastic partner as our athlete engagement styles complemented versus competed. She was also savvy to avoid any interaction that could disrupt an athlete’s concentration or experience, and the hours of trading—sometimes including 100 to 125 exchanges in an afternoon or evening—was magic well into competition dates.

Once the Games got underway, and the Looney Tunes Pin Trading Center opened thanks to Warner Bros., Honav and numerous trading volunteers recruited and organized by Scott Reed, my daily pin trading activities evolved from intown trading at The Center, suburban exchanges at the Village or venues, and on the metro rides or in the Milan restaurants. 

So many people were donning pins, there was trading potential around every corner of the city, and the daily pin hauls averaged out in the 75 to 125 range.

While many agree each pin and conversation creates a new memory, the following interactions—some once in a lifetime—stand out from Milan, my 13^th Games, in no particular order:

Congratulating Leerdam on her gold medal in the speedskating venue mixed zone (our third convo). As fellow reporters witnessed, I said, “Kudos on the win! Now your pin is exponentially more valuable!” to which she pointed at me and replied, “Thanks! I remember you, and no, you cannot have another pin!” (her pin video: https://bit.ly/JuttaLeerdamPins).

      Discovering that after trading with Team USA’s speedskaters in the Village, boyfriend-girlfriend teammates Cooper McLeod and Greta Myers selected one of my Olympic Rings And Other Things website pins among their favorites (Instagram.com/p/DUWalfVjNDi/).

·        Realizing Spain’s ice dancer Olivia Smart also shared a description of our exchanges online only hours before her engagement to Jean-Luc Baker (Instagram.com/p/DUa47LBjwBG/).

·        Learning that my question to Olympic champion Erin Jackson—“Will you have your own pin in Milan?”—posed at the Olympic Trials in Milwaukee, got an answer when Jackson walked up to me smiling on the street at the Milan Olympic Village, stating, “I have something for you!” In her hand was one of her own pins as a thank you for one gifted to her in Wisconsin.

·        Exiting the Village one evening to witness Alysa Liu and her coach arriving by Uber. “Thanks for commenting on my Media Summit videos of you—want to trade pins?” I inquired, to which Liu answered, “Are you kidding? YES, of COURSE!” She gifted me a TODAY Show pin and traded a U.S. Figure Skating for a Tina pin while her coach, an Italian Olympian who competed in Torino, shared stories from his Games. When I commented how unbelievably calm they both were, only 24 hours before Liu won gold, they both just shrugged, giggled and said thanks as we leaned in for a photo. Of course, in all the excitement my last question—to what extent was her hairstyle inspired by Berlin lead singer Terri Nunn in the “Take My Breath Away” music video?—went unasked.

·        More Village trades with hockey players from most of the 10 women’s teams, yielding an average of five to 10 NOC pins per nation. The same was true of figure skaters and speedskaters, of which many were eager to offload their Alibaba “robot pin ball” exchanges or their Grana Padano “cheese pins” received free with a sample cube of the good stuff.

·        Sharing conversations and pin stories with Team USA’s Brittany Rowe and Hillary Knight to learn hours later of their engagement (congrats!).

·        Numerous trades with Coca-Cola Village staff members with their seemingly unlimited supply of the now-iconic “poster stamp” pins for each Italian venue.

·        Exchanging for Corona’s snowboard Olympic pins, which only arrived at their Village bar and lounge on the final Thursday of the Games.

·        Meeting a Canadian couple whose wife worked in Olympic media—specifically coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies—from Sydney to PyeongChang. They sought to downsize their collection of rare ceremony and media pins in exchange for a few specific Milan pins serendipitously on hand, yielding 150 inbound pins for my collection, trades or future sale items (I still owe them some key Paris pins).

·        Discussing figure skating costumes, music and training during an extended conversation with Team Belgium skaters LoenaHendrickx and Nina Pinzarrone (translated surname: pin jar), who was one of those pinless athletes arriving at Milan Linate Airport.

·        Talking venues, pins and the Closing Ceremony plans for Nice, France, with an official observer from the 2030 French AlpsOrganizing Committee while waiting to purchase drinks at Olympic hockey.

·        Meeting Utah 2034 observers and trading for the dated Life Elevated Utah spinner pin.

·        Gifting pins to most of the Team NL medalists in the long track speedskating venue after each attended evening competitions. Gold medalist Femke Kok stated “this is a great one!” of my blog pin for her sport.

·        Riding the athlete bus from speedskating to the Village after taking a wrong turn and encountering an eagle-eyed volunteer who spotted the credential “T” and offered transport.

·        Discovering that same “T” enabled me to summon Ubers booked by Milano Cortina organizers, sparing me a few metro rides later in the Games. When one of the volunteer drivers dropped me at the figure skating arena’s accredited entrance, I could not enter, but this created a serendipitous reunion with my Torino 2006 colleague of 20 years ago (who now works at Visa).

·   Attempting to gift a pin to Italian President Sergio Mattenella, leading instead posing with the Presidential Guard and posting a video of their Village Olympic Rings photo session, yielding over 90,000Instagram views @NicholasWolaver.

·        Befriending a Milano Cortina fulltime employee from their transportation department, inviting her to use my extra Opening Ceremony ticket, leading to post-ceremony access to the IOC member suites at San Siro and a kind invitation to the MiCo headquarters transportation command center on the day of one of those mountain venue blizzards. Their team had a special disaster training pin themed “Embrace the Scenario!”

·        Discovering the World Olympians Association OLY House Hub in Milan’s Monumentale metro station, meeting Olympian Sandrine Billiett and learning about their great work.

·        Serendipitously encountering about 15 Japanese reporters/crew from NHK eagerly awaiting interviews with retiring speedskating champion Miho Takagi. Most wore NHK pins not yet traded by week two of the Games, yielding over a dozen inbound varieties of their network’s Olympic media pins from Milan and Paris in a five-minute trading bonanza!

·        Brief, albeit accidental, pin trade with Deloitte’s Global Board Chair after briefly asking her husband, a Games newbie, where he got his nice Deloitte snowflake pin.

·        Gifting Olympic bronze medalist Gracie Gold a blog pin as thanks for answering questions about her book “OutofShapeWorthlessLoser” and ADHD awaiting coffee in the Village.

·        Trading for two hometown 11 Alive NBC Atlanta pins live on the air from Milan Galleria. 

·        Discovering the Prosecco hospitality experience a few steps from the Omega popup pavilion in Central Milan. Their two-level suite included options to enjoy a wine tasting, Grana Pagano cheese samples, a trio of pin designs (Prosecco staff, bottle and bottle cap) and the perfect sofa to watch Team USA defeat Team Canada in the men’s hockey final. 

·        Multiple meals, storytelling sessions and puns shared with Keep The Flame Alive’s Jill Jaracz and Alison Brown, brief conversations with USA Today’s Christine Brennan, visits with Journal of Olympic History editor Philip Barker (including a day at ISOH’s special session on AI with partner organizations including AICO, which created that gorgeous gold Duomo pin), and the Washington Post’s Les Carpenter. Just one of these interactions yielded pins but a chance meeting with The Athletic’s Lukas Weese resulted in a large feature report on pin collecting published by The New York Times (link: https://bit.ly/MilanPinsNYT).

Special shout-outs for Scott Reed and Jim Goddard who helped me re-supply trading material when I ran out mid-Games. Kudos also to Honav USA’s Mario and Marcelo for creating such a dynamic meeting point in Milan enjoyed by thousands of visitors per day. 

And the biggest thanks goes to Nippy Feldhake for the introduction to my volunteer manager who, for various reasons, set me up with the aforementioned opening ceremony assignment and never again had a shift for me to work  as some miscalculations by the organizing committee yielded a team of volunteers like me who had great access but no work to do, but they let us keep the credentials, which brings me to my final Games acquisitions.

On the morning after attending the Main Press Center Wrap Party, a tradition immediately following the Closing Ceremony, I visited the IOC Hotel to pick up the last of my volunteer pins. With many IOC members and staff departing from Milan, several were generous with exchanges or gifting pins. I was this close to trading for an IOC Session Badge but the offer switched instead to two boxes of fine cocoa candies from Lausanne in Olympic rings-emblazoned boxes, proving again, “Life is like a box of chocolates … you never know what you’re gonna get.”

Some pin favorites in order: I (heart) Jutta, Hong Kong China Skating Union, Flo food pins, Carabinieri security with rings, Team China laughing Tina and panda, Team Deutschland, Uzbekistan spaghetti, Qazaqstan (Kazakhstan) snow leopard in snow globe, AICO’s giant gold Duomo, No Ice Milano, Team Santa/North Pole Delegation, Corona Olympic snowboard, Hong Kong China ice cream truck, Torre Valasca Milano, Deloitte snowboarding, Alfa Romeo downhill skiing, Reuters, Switzerland Volunteers, Mexico “big cat” and Allianz luger with pretzel.

Least favorite: Coach Snoop—love the entertainer, but why the pin designed with a shrunken head?

And there were three mishaps preventing a perfect Games: Missing Coach Snoop’s Village visit by about 10 minutes after taking the wrong tram; engaging Trinidad & Tobago bobsledders for a trade, only to misplace their pin during an Uber ride; and the airline leaving my checked bags in Atlanta (eventually resolved).

For this collector, who stopped counting at around trade No. 1,200 and returned to Atlanta with around 1,500 new pins (in some cases, 10 or more of the same design), Milan may never be surpassed for its ranking among attended Games. Epic, indeed!

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver may not be used without written permission. Night cauldron photo at Cortina by Nippy Feldhake. 

Gracie Gold Gets Real with Page-Turning Autobiography "Outofshapeworthlessloser"

There's a dose of ominous foreshadowing in the table of contents to Gracie Gold's new autobiography "Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuring It Out."

Arranged in four parts, the 329-page bestseller includes chapters ranging from "Perfect Obsession" and "Four Is the Loneliest Number" to "Failed Anorexic" and a nod to another dark page-turning literary work (and soundtrack to a skating performance), "East of Eden." 

As reported by initial critical reviews for the book titled after one of Gold's self-disparaging nicknames or personas, her work includes vivid and frank details of life experiences the 28-year-old endured and from which she continues to heal. Anorexia, OCD, pill popping and alcohol abuse populate the club flush of crud and wild Jokers on the table for readers to ponder.  

Gold's mostly no-holds-barred perspectives about U.S. Figure Skating and the unglamorous (often ugly) behind-the-scenes realities of international figure skating competitions also are in full view. Her take on recent doping revelations is aptly stern. She also alleges a rape at the hands of a fellow competitor, references her bisexuality, and delves into nearly three decades of family secrets including her parents and fellow athlete twin sister. 

Impressed (or distressed) the morning after a full read, I described to friends that "Outofshapeworthlessloser" is akin to "watching a slow-motion train wreck or seemingly avoidable car crash" for the narrative's "ability to inspire both gasps and cringes amid an irresistible desire to keep watching, err, reading" with "reader remorse at an inability to take the wheel, inspiring one to holler out, as in a horror movie screening, 'Stop, girl, don't go near there!' or similar when the protagonist in danger is about to make a terrible decision."  

The book also inspired some rabbit hole searches of social media archives to view past posts, images or videos and competition footage referenced by Gold. 

While she did not specifically reference the 2014 Team USA Media Summit at which I reported on her ascent to the Sochi Olympics, Gold did describe her experiences at the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships from which this blogger posted interviews. Some of her harshest on-ice self-flogging is revealed in a chapter describing the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston. 

There are some light moments, too, that brought a smile or chuckle to this reader. Gold's wry sense of humor shines through some of her interactions with coaches or media. In an early chapter, while detailing work with a youth skating coach nicknamed Cruella, Gold punctuates several paragraphs of verbal abuse with this gem:

"When Cruella lashed out at me, I lashed back louder. Anger was my protection. It got back to me years later that Cruella told people she had always known I'd become a star. I call bullshit! She was doing her best to humiliate me. Or maybe she didn't like me because I stood up to her."

On a more serious note, Gold continues while aptly taking to task the notion of coaching as a bully.

"The years I spent with Cruella normalized the kind of controlling behavior that even if it produces positive results on the ice, can be ruinous to a child's personal development."

Readers may find joy through the Olympian's interactions with Taylor Swift (they baked cookies together) or descriptions of collaboration with sponsors including cosmetics brand CoverGirl. 

In the realm of funny-not funny, Gold describes some of the name-punctuated headlines published to preview Sochi 2014. 

"I remember someone tweeting out to me, 'If I hear one more Gracie Gold headline, I'm going to scream.' And I was like, 'Me too, bud.' It was enough to make me start wishing for a new name. Stacy Silver or Bonnie Bronze, anyone?"

Gold's dry wit also shines in the Chapter 23, in which "chest size and its impact on exercise is absolutely a conversation worth starting." While several notes echoed remarks of female friends who, like Gold, opted for breast reduction surgery, I found the author's self-deprecating comparisons to Charles Schulz drawings -- and her inventive use of (one-time PR client'o'mine) KT Tape -- both original and funny (back in the day, we never had Gold's method in KT press materials). 

The only letdown from "Outofshapeworthlessloser" was Gold's restraint from sharing more than a few sentences about another professional mental health diagnosis: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), buried on page 246. 

Like Gold, my attention-deficit diagnosis arrived in my mid-20s, and upon reading her disclosure I was eager to learn the treatment options or behavior modifications she chose, only to find a succinct reference that she is "on medication for it" without specifics (for moi, decidedly drug-free and it worked/works when you work it, though it's compelling to admit it took me over two weeks sidelined by countless Instagram scrolls to find focus and complete this book review post).

Juxtaposed with comparative oversharing around other wellness challenges, Gold's omission of ADHD details inspired a wave of questions, starting with the extent to which her physicians or therapists place ADHD as the deepest roots of the battery of her other mental health diagnoses. In my case, the hypochondriac on my shoulder labeled, or mislabeled, a lot of "stuff" that more recent therapists consistently trace back to ADD of youth. 

As her childhood memories fill the early pages of "Outofshapeworthlessloser," Gold describes persistent restlessness. If ice hockey was among her parents' attempted remedies for channeling her boundless energy, can Gold relate to other kids' ADD-ness enlightened by her adult experiences? Guess we'll have to find out in her mid-life or later life follow-up books after planting her ADHD "sea legs" on thick ice. 

Since interview requests for Gold went unanswered by her publicity team, I turned to another source for insights: Karen Crouse, Gold's seldom-cited "Outofshapeworthlessloser" ghost writer. 

As of this March 12 post, only two other book reviewers mentioned Crouse by name. 

Via email, Crouse affirmed my hunch that only Gold could speak more about her ADHD management and the reasons for sparsely addressing the topic. It's perhaps too recent a diagnosis or it's simply not as page-turning urgent as other mental health challenges, from my view.

Crouse also was generous in explaining how she tackled the "Outofshapeworthlessloser" project and when she started the writing on Gold's initiative.

"I signed (gladly) a contract that stated I would ghostwrite Gracie's book and that my name would not appear on the cover or title page," wrote Crouse in a Feb. 26 email response. "I had no issue with that arrangement ... it was plenty good enough for me."

Crouse continued that, "My satisfaction was wholly and richly derived from the collaborative process. I loved the work. From the time I spent talking with Gracie for a 2019 New York Times profile, I suspected that this project would be interesting and profound, with great potential to help many readers who recognize themselves in the challenges [Gold] has faced."

According to Crouse, once a proposal and contract got formalized, the collaboration hastened in early 2022 with "at least three" in person visits as well as phone conversations "at least twice a month ... recorded and that I transcribed myself so I could get a feel for Gracie's vocabulary and speech patterns." 

Rounds of drafts later, the lion's share of work concluded last July. Crouse also volunteered background on the foundation for the text.

"It was Gracie's choice to lay bare her soul in the pages," wrote Crouse. "She told me before I signed on ... that she didn't want 'another fluffy sports memoir' and that was all I needed to hear as I had no interest in hagiography.

"From the start I simply asked the necessary questions to develop and deepen the narrative," Crouse added. "[Gold] provided the compelling stories that I, in concert with our editor, crafted into a coherent - hopefully - structure." 

Gold closes the book's acknowledgements "To Matt Inman for the edits" shortly after a dedication "To Karen Crouse for going on this journey ... and helping me write a better memoir than I could have ever dreamed possible." 

For anyone who can't get enough of Gold's perspectives, Crouse also helped the skater with a thoughtful and timely Olympic figure skating commentary published in The Cut during the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. 

"Outofshapeworthlessloser" is an absorbing read that inspires questions, sheds light in dark corners of international skating, and leaves readers with optimism for Gold's future on or off the ice. No matter the degree to which readers manage ADD, they may find themselves hyper-focused on learning the Olympian's lifetime of hard work. 

As of this post, there are no publicized book signing events in the weeks ahead, but Gold may appear at November's 8th edition of "Scott Hamilton & Friends" in Nashville (where she performed in 2022 and 2023) -- details are posted at this link during summer months.  

Book cover provided by Crown Publishing with book design by Caroline Cunningham. All other images -- except of Karen Crouse's Instagram profile image -- are photos copyright Nicholas Wolaver and may not be published nor reposted without written advance permission.