Final Push Toward PyeongChang

Two weeks from now (Feb. 4), this blogger will be aloft on a Delta Air Lines flight half-way across the Pacific. Destination: Seoul, and a couple of days later via rental car, PyeongChang and the 2018 Winter Olympics.

It's exciting this countdown to the Games, my fifth consecutive snowy Olympiad and 11th overall trek to a new host city.

This will be a first-time adventure in South Korea, and I'm as pumped about exploring the historic 1988 summer Games sites in the nation's capital as much as experiencing the shiny and new venues in the mountains and on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

Photo via KoreaHerald.com

As with prior travels to Olympic competitions at destinations deemed "unsafe" (Rio with Zika), "un-secure" (Athens w/terrorism) or "scary" (Sochi or Beijing and "being watched"), friends and family already inquired about the outlook for PyeongChang safety and the Olympics' proximity to potential aggression from North Korea.

Honestly, since 2016 I was always more hung up on the potential for a Rio-repeat (abysmal and frustrating fan/volunteer logistics) than ever concerned about the Communists a few mountains away from the snow venues south of the 38th Parallel.

Photo by Amy Sancetta/AP

Fortunately, North Korea's pro-Olympic stance announced on January 1, and subsequent friendly conversations involving International Olympic Committee top brass and diplomacy from Korea's North- and South-based leadership, put many folks' (and my own) further at ease that peace will reign in PyeongChang. Will a Nobel Peace Prize result from this? Maybe.

It's historic and exciting to read about the unified team, individual athletes from both South and North, and the delegation crossing the border in just over 21 days. I'm definitely going to try to score an interview with some North Korean athletes or fans (wish me luck).

Let's just hope The White House avoids mucking up things in the next 18 days to the Opening Ceremony and the 16 Games-time days and nights that follow!

Thankfully (sort of), the Team USA delegation leader-designate is Vice President Mike Pence -- what thin ice will he manage to skate and create next month? We'll see.

Blog and PyeongChang mascot image by Nicholas Wolaver; ski jump photo via KoreaHerald.com; Torino 2006 Opening Ceremony photo via Associated Press.

Feeling Great (-ish) RE: IOC Vote for '24 and '28

Around noon July 11 word arrived (in the form of back-to-back media advisories from the International Olympic Committee, LA2024 and Paris 2024 and a live stream) that an unanimous vote in Switzerland will change the game for summer Olympic Games bids and hosting.

And now the world officially knows, for the first time in a single IOC Session, Olympic leadership will award both the 2024 and 2028 summer Olympics through a vote set to take place in Lima, Peru, two months from now. 

If IOC President Thomas Bach has his druthers, the dates for the next Games of Los Angeles and Paris will be known as early as August, with the September decision a mere formality. During his remarks with the mayors of Paris and L.A., the notion of "everyone wins" came up repeatedly, and this is apt. 

I applaud change and innovation. It also was good to see the official (and outstanding/flawless) presentations by Los Angeles and Paris earlier today. See the base of this post for the YouTube versions.

During the joint press conference featuring Bach and the mayors of both bid cities flanked by the bid leadership, I was trying to get a read on Casey Wasserman. 

On one hand, there must be some relief. The Olympics WILL RETURN to Los Angeles. Bravo!

On the other hand, there's gotta be a twinge of ... I don't know the right words ... a waft of sour grapes over the decision. Like two Olympians worthy of gold, two Olympic-level committees brought their A-Game, and the IOC is trying to divvy out two top-of-podium medals as if only a millisecond or micrometer separates the two champions from victory. Don't both "Olympians" in this fight deserve to know THE victor for posterity? 

I singled out Wasserman for a read on this because I believe it was his passion and communications savvy that kept LA in the race even with Boston's false start win early in the 2024 domestic race. Though I can only armchair quarterback on the Olympic bid front, I've been in a similar seat-- for comparison, I sat at PRSA and PR Week Award ceremonies awaiting word as to which client (mine or another agency's) would take home top honors, and tie wins kinda suck more than getting a silver! 

Wasserman's game face was all smiles, but I can't help wonder what he said behind closed doors with family or closest associates with less skin in the game. Was he beaming with glee or relief, or a little bit disappointed that his team will always have to wonder "who won, damnit!?"

But this is just speculation and Olympic armchair quarterbacking. I am thrilled that Los Angeles and Paris will follow Tokyo's 2020 Games in some order. The 2020's will be an outstanding and thrilling decade for summer Olympiads, period. Everyone wins, indeed!

Photo via LA2024

Surf's Up for New LA2024 Olympic Bid Pins

On the home stretch to Rio 2016, Olympic pin collectors may anticipate a wave of board-shaped pins designed in homage to the city's surfing culture. 

Earlier this year, the U.S. Olympic Committee released a series of longboard pins inspired by Rio surfing culture.

In the set, each pin matches an actual surf board created for a sponsor appreciation display planned at USA House.

On the Olympic bid pin front, so far only one or two generic logo designs emerged from Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome, and there are some pins out there for the defunct Boston 2024 organization.

Until now.

At last night's 20th anniversary celebration for Atlanta's 1996 Games -- held in Centennial Olympic park with a stage for prepared remarks by several Games-related leaders -- LA24 Chairman Casey Wasserman decided the time was right for taking the drop, delivering the first boxed-set of new surfboard-shaped Olympic bid pins.

The lucky recipient? Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games CEO turned Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne. 

Wasserman handed the gift box of four surfboard pins while encouraging Payne and the crowd of thousands to "Follow the Sun" (LA24's bid theme) in support of America's next Olympiad.

On stage Payne thanked Wasserman, stating he appreciated the surfing tutorial as, at least during Payne's first glance, the pins' shape was not as self-explanatory as intended. 

Standing in the photo pit at the conclusion of the event, I asked Payne for a peek at the boxed set, which he held up for a photo. It was fun to inspect the new pin treasures -- Payne would not let the box out of his hand, so he must have considered them "keepers."

I'm no surfing guru, but upon inspecting the designs, each of the four pins appear to be wider than the longboard surfing pins the USOC previously released -- more in the shape of Payne's or my thumbprints. 

To me, the LA24 Olympic bid pins are more like wakeboards, perhaps to provide a wider space for the LA24 angel logo and the Olympic rings. 

I consulted some surfboard infographics and the aptly-titled "Riptionary" of surfing lingo, but found no surfboard shape exactly matched.

But who cares? These pins are gorgeous!

Each of the pins would certainly stand out upon a sport coat lapel or as a broach adorning a blouse. From left to right, the designs are:

• Soaring palm trees, like visitors might enjoy while driving through Beverly Hills

• Silhouetted cresting wave reminiscent of Malibu at sunset

• Barrel wave encircling the "angel" logo at the wrong angle for a body-surfing stance

• Sunrise over the San Gabriel Mountains and LA skyline

A possible fifth pin -- sans logos or rings -- appears to be a white cloisonné plaque on which "Follow The Sun" is painted in purple enamel. The cardboard presentation box also features colors from the bid palette.

I asked the LA24 media relations team to confirm the quantity and potential availability of the new bid pin sets and so far this was their response.

"Pins are a limited set, no plans for now on wider distribution."

My guess is the pins may be a special VIP gift for visitors to USA House in Rio, where LA24 will have a special display or other "to be unveiled" elements.

With known quantities historically a factor for bid pin collectors, I'll keep an open eye and ear for details. A boxed set of LA24 surfboard pins is now in the top five most-sought designs to add to my personal Olympic bid pin collection.

Until such time, wishing everyone some glorious and smooth tube riding to the Games of the XXXIst Olympiad, and happy pin collecting to all. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Better Know An N.O.C. -- Zimbabwe

As noted last week, some Olympic wit is inspired by Stephen Colbert's outstanding "Better Know A District" series.

So with the One Happy Island of Aruba and its national Olympic committee (NOC) as the premiere NOC featured, I kicked of this blog's "Better Know An N.O.C."

Today's B.K.A.N.O.C." (from the other end of the English alphabet spectrum): Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is situated in the southern part of Africa, and via the International Olympic Committee's recently upgraded website, I just learned that Zimbabwe has numerous gold, silver and bronze medal winners spanning three Olympiads.

At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Zimbabwe fielded a team of women's hockey players who took home the gold (who knew?! -- apparently the IOC, and some tough women in Zimbabwe!).

More recently, in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics, Zimbabwe's "national treasure" Kirsty Coventry swam for no fewer than 11 (!!!) medals, including four gold, six silver and one bronze medal in the pool. This lady could be a perfect date for Michael Phelps!

OK, I admit now to being under a rock -- seriously, until tonight I had no clue about Ms. Coventry's feats, which are World Class.

Now one must also wonder, were the members of the 1980 gold medal field hockey team the previous "national treasure(s)" until Ms. Coventry dove into Olympic competition?

Zimbabwe did not yet enter any winter Olympiads, but their summer Games attendance is consistent since 1980. The NOC office is in the capital city Harare.

Interesting to note that resemblance of Zimbabwe's iconic balancing rocks to the VANOC logo for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games (the Inukshuk).

Photos via Kirsty Coventry's Facebook profile and via Samwise Gamgee via Wikipedia. Additional sources include NBCOlympics.com (a past client of Edelman, the P.R. firm where I work), as well as Olympics.org and Wikipedia.