Village of the World -- First Visit

Back in 1996, a couple of colleagues with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) international relations team composed an original song -- "Village of the World" -- in which almost 200 national Olympic committees got mention in the lyrics.

I hummed this tune while approaching what turned out to be the worker entrance at Paris Olympic Village, the new home of over 10,000 athletes, which opened to competitor residents on 18 July.

My missions du jour: Check out the guest pass process, and trade pins. 

There were lots of pins. 

After trading with several volunteers and Olympic Village workforce members during what seemed to be a shift change, I walked away the happy owner of several new items, including a heart-shaped International Olympic Committee pin given to volunteers earlier in the day, German and Brazil team pins and a few of the new U.S. half-dollar-sized Samsung Rendezvous pins. 

Upon arrival at the separate Village transportation area, with a much larger athlete presence, I wasted no time capturing the arrival of the Refugee Olympic Team bus, also speaking with several athletes (three pin exchanges). 

The vibe at the transport area among dozens of security, volunteers, NOC officials and athletes was a mix of glee, nervous anticipation (the good kind), a little stress (do I have all of my bags?) and a lot of smiles and hugs. 

When the Fiji Olympians arrived, it made me chuckle that each athlete brought their own case of water from their homeland sponsor (you know ... the expensive Fiji Water bottles like at Whole Foods Market). 

Other NOC interactions included Australia, Canada, St. Lucia, Liechtenstein, Argentina, Norway, France and, of course, Team USA, who had two full-time staffers on site awaiting a critical luggage and supply delivery truck. 

Another eager attendee was a photojournalist for Kyodo News, who was relieved to get his money shots of Team Japan disembarking from their bus as Paris 2024 volunteers helped load airport-style Village-branded luggage carts. 

Perhaps the best pin discoveries: Andorra has a really nice jumbo design, and the Peru Olympic Volunteers got creative with their oversized design, using a globe-spinning mascot image I almost picked for one of my Olympic Rings And Other Things pins. 

Never did find the guest pass area, but learned this morning it's just around the corner from the transport zone -- will endeavor to explore yet another Village entry in the days ahead.

Another curiosity of the Olympic Village was its proximity to dozens of neighboring apartment buildings. 

In the quiet times between pin trades, I spoke with several local residents who revealed a mix of good cheer to live so close to "the action" juxtaposed with "can't we just get this over with" sentiment (one resident was particularly cranky his carpark access had some hiccups). 

Looking forward to the next Village visit. Meanwhile, today's task: Paris Media Centre.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

It Takes A Village

I'm a longtime critic of Olympic Villages. PyeongChang's Village team nailed it!

Since my first Games experience as an Atlanta Olympic Village housing coordinator/supervisor in 1996, I've looked at the housing areas with a manager's eye -- what works, what elements may remain in place as handed down from the Centennial Olympic Village, and what's new. 

South Korea's housing area featured some of each. 

Some additional context on my critiques: Later five-ringed travels afforded a day pass or two to the athlete housing areas at six Olympiads.  

More specifically, in Sydney I was a pre-Games Village volunteer (will never forget meeting Aussie hero Dawn Fraser on the bus one day after a shift). In Salt Lake I was just a visiting spectator (the director was a former Atlanta colleague), and later as an NOC guest it was fun visiting -- and critiquing -- the temporary homes of the Olympians in Beijing, Vancouver, London and Rio. 

Some Villages score on ambiance. Others on efficiency. Some exude an Olympic electricity while others get the job done with measured fun.

Visiting the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Village today, for the first time as a credentialed reporter, was an amazing experience. And the Korean village housing scored two big thumbs up from this blogger.

Here's a Olympic Village first: They have a robot! 

The PyeongChang Village near the mountain Alpensia venues sits along a river and in the foothills of a curving and wooded elevation, with about a dozen residential towers (600 rooms) close to a domed sports arena now serving thousands of meals per day as the main dining hall. 

After passing through security screening with fellow journalists and athletes from Team GB, Slovenia, Turkey and Ghana (yes, Ghana has a skeleton athlete), the Village Welcome Center opened into an international plaza decked out with flags of all 95 competing nations. 

And, yes, the North Korean flag enjoys a spot of prominence near the Olympic and South Korean banners. 

Olympic Villages consist of two main areas.

An International Zone featuring the team welcome ceremony stage, entertainment options and necessities like a post office, hair salon, general store and Olympic merchandise. 

All of the services for PyeongChang's athlete village are nestled into on giant tent (I understand the coastal village at Gangneung, with its 922 rooms, is similar).

Usually the adjacent Residential Zone forbids non-athletes from visiting, but today media got a rare chance to roam freely across a few acres of the Village, affording me photo opps in an athlete game room (i.e. billiards, pinball), lavanderia (since athletes, too, have dirty laundry) and the entry to the tower housing Team USA (the only larger nation in PyeongChang that did not deck the exterior walls with patriotic banners). 

I attended a couple of the Welcoming Ceremonies during which the host nation officially celebrates each arriving nation. 

Today's entrants included a lone alpine ski athlete and HRH Henri Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who were down for some pin trading, as well as Turkey, Australia, Thailand and India. 

According to the first of two Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) competitors met today, their competitors are/were not permitted to create a team pin. Anyone got an egg timer to see how long it takes for bootleg OAR pins to show up on the scene?

While enjoying the warmth of the retail areas, I stamped my passport with an Olympic Village post office postmark and enjoyed an introduction to an Ambassador of Morocco by IOC Member Ms. Nawal El Moutawkel, who asked me to share that her home nation will enjoy an African first: a shot at hosting a future Youth Olympic Games (she also requested a shout-out to her alma matter Iowa State University). 

Pin trading was robust both outside and in the Village. It was fun running into fellow Olympin members Bud and Sid (and his wife) trading near the security entrance. 

I arrived with about 50 pocketed pins and ran out of trading material in less than 90 minutes of trekking the Village, coming home with coveted 2018 NOC pins from Ghana, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Austria, and Mongolia, among others, and even scored a special-design IOC snow globe pin for PyeongChang ... for the win!

Most interesting conversations: short chats with arriving Team USA alpine and snowboard athletes checking in from their Seoul-to-PyeongChang bus ride. Everyone was all smiles, happy for the nomination of luge bronze medalist and four-time Olympian Erin Hamlin, who will carry the Stars and Stripes into the stadium tomorrow night.

It's going to be a great Games!

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Over The Wall

Those final days in Vancouver ... they each remain a fantastic, psychedelic blur.

After posting about hitting the wall weeks ago, the next day (the final Thursday of the Games), brought a great blend of work successes (interviews for clients), a ticketing coup (row three seats for the women's figure skating final for less than an arm and a leg), three nights of red carpet interviews at Club Bud (disclosure: a client of the firm where I work) and as much pin trading as I could muster.

Some old friends arrived in Vancouver, too, so some blogging time went away in order to catch up and create new Olympic memories.

There was a midnight visit to the Main Press Center (MPC) and International Broadcast Center (IBC), tying up loose ends with new friends at work and around town, then packing up from the Marinaside condo (realizing now I have yet to post details of that experience ... and dozens more experiences). Spending an hour at Sochi House, then a Saturday afternoon and evening in the Olympic Village residential zone, were icing in the cake of a fabulous yet extremely exhausting four days of Olympic wrap-up.

Could blog for days about the Closing Ceremony, too (seated under the stage where Avril Lavigne and Michael Buble performed). And I will in good time. There are gold medalist and other surprise interviews yet to be formatted and posted.

There was some big ice hockey game one day, too, wasn't there?

Leaving Vancouver was a HUGE BUMMER. I absolutely love and miss being there.

The commute back to Atlanta -- starting March 2 at 5 a.m. at YVR with landings in Seattle, Dallas and (at long last) ATL at 9:30 p.m. after several consecutive weeks with only 2-3 hours of nightly sleep -- made for a soupy/foggy first few days back (it was indeed good to be home, too -- torn between two cities, now). There are two steamer trunk-sized bags of loot with a label "for eBay" staring at me from the corner of my home office. :-)

It hardly seems possible that only a week after the layover in Dallas on March 2, work travel took me back to "Big D" on March 10. It's nice to sort of ease into a spring of busy days that, by comparison, will be calm and steady.

Was it all a dream?

Vancouver marked my seventh Olympic Games. It is going down among the best. No credentials? No problem.

I keep thinking of John Furlong's astounding speeches of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and the music of the Games. Paraphrasing Furlong, Canada's Winter Games will certainly be remembered for generations.

Only 862 Days to London.

2,417 Days Ago ...

Paraphrasing today's cover story of 24H newspaper, 2,417 days ago the IOC announced Vancouver to host the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. At long last, today is the day they begin.

Walking along False Creek this morning, with the Olympic Village across the water and B.C. Place all decked out on the horizon, was incredibly inspiring. And on the streets people are all smiles and proclaiming "It's finally here!"

For all the preparations, for all the planning, for all the anticipation and chasing the Olympic starting line, it's time to quote Sean Connery in The Untouchables, who proclaimed (after pursuing a bootlegger from the Canadian border crossing to a little log cabin, calling a halt to their chase), "Alright! Enough of this running sh*t!"

Another news source this morning also posted word leaked from the Opening Ceremony rehearsals, affirming at least four of the Canadian performers listed in the survey to the right of this column -- a nice mix of new faces and Olympic veteran performers. We could hear one of them singing as we walked to Gastown on Wednesday night. Can hardly wait. Hours away.

There are dozens of items I need to post from the last 48 hours: Sarah Brightman at the Panasonic (client) pavilion; the Canadian Tenors singing "Oh, Canada" at Canada House last night; chatting with Olympic legend Dick Fosbury; Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton. I will endeavor to post more during the weekend.

Have a great Olympic Day, Vancouver, and world. The best is yet to come!

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

With all this week's chatter about the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, I thought for "B.K.A.N.O.C." installment No. 3 it might be best to peek at an undoubtedly winter sport nation.

You can imagine my surprise to find that the Atlantic nation of Iceland (ICE) earned numerous Olympic medals across the history of the Modern Games, but not one medal was in a Winter sport!

According to the IOC directory of national Olympic committees, Iceland did well earning medals in Beijing, LA84, Melbourne '56 and Sydney 2000. Several summer Iceland Olympic memories come to mind.

First, in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Village at Georgia Tech, my colleagues and I ("Village People") often commented that the athletes of Iceland House (situated in what is now a sorority house near Bobby Dodd Stadium) were unanimously the most gorgeous people in the Olympics. I ran into one of the Atlanta Olympic athletes from Iceland in 2004, on the metro rail to Beach Volleyball, and she was just as beautiful at the latter Games as in '96.

Also, during the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games, several of the athletes participated in an early version of chat rooms, and one athlete who wrote back to me was a skier from Iceland who had one of those dreamy, umlaut-infused names like the Icelandic woman in the outstanding Robert Altman film "The Player." She, too, was a bombshell beauty. We finally met in person at Iceland House in downtown Salt Lake in 2002 (I was biting my wrist like the Lenny & Squiggy on "Laverne & Shirley" credits).

No Iceland post would be complete without mentioning Bjork's performance at the 2004 Athens Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

There is not yet much info on the team that Iceland will field for Vancouver, but no doubt they will make an impression in the new Olympic City next year. Get to know an NOC: Iceland. And look out for your opportunity to meet Sumicelandicgudmansdottir.

Photo via the Iceland National Olympic Committee site and via this Bjork fan site.

100 Days Out Brings Olympic P.R. Trifecta In

The 100 Days to Vancouver milestone marked a flurry of activity online and in the news. It was refreshing to see the Olympic headlines gaining prominence again in anticipation of the big B.C. party coming soon.

There was a party in my inbox as a handful of public relations agencies/contacts sent over their Olympic wares tied to 100 Days as well.

The first arrival was some detail from Polo Ralph Lauren regarding the newly unveiled Vancouver 2010 Closing Ceremony uniforms to be donned by Team USA in February. There's a complete line of Olympic gear from this official outfitter. According to their news:

"The Closing Ceremony Parade Uniform for both men and women are vintage-inspired and modern in design with a functional cotton fleece pant, a patriotic navy and red wool shawl cardigan, and a newsboy hat adorned with the “Look of the Team” logo adding a distinct feel of American spirit. Underneath the shawl cardigan, the women’s uniform will feature a classic navy ribbed turtleneck while the men’s uniform includes a traditional plaid shirt made of woven flannel. The men’s uniform also boasts a sophisticated tie featuring unique patriotic elements."

Looks good to me. Their nods to the 1932 Winter Games wear at Lake Placid is classy.

Perusing the Polo photos and models/Olympians, both on the Polo media site and on another Olympic blog (this one showing some merchandise that was part of the Rockefeller Center festivities for 100 Days), I must admit the gargantuan horse and rider RL logo was a bit much for my taste (as a Polo customer and fan since fifth grade -- my closet has many casual and semi-formal Ralph Lauren items -- I often wish their high quality and stylish products to be available sans logo).

But the 2010 logos will certainly show up on NBC Olympic broadcasts from Vancouver (remember the whole controversy of Michael Jordan wearing having to cover up his sponsor logos on the medal stand in Barcelona? Will that apply again in 2010?).

Sidebar: One of my uncles works in a movie set and design operation in Texas, and at one point in the late 1980/early 1990s he visited one or more of Mr. Lifschitz's (Ralph's) homes to complete some design work. Will have to check the facts on this family lore before revisiting the Ralph connection again in the future.

Next to arrive in the inbox was a nice note from the P.R. team for McDonald's, reminding me of their 2010 Vancouver Olympic contest for kids (just wrapped up entry phase) and the company's extended timeline of Olympic involvement. Per the press site:

"McDonald's Olympic Pride continues to shine throughout the host country of Canada and throughout the world. McDonald's is preparing for its eighth Games as the Official Restaurant and feeding the athletes. Plans are in place to share the excitement of the Games with millions of customers across the globe as a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Movement."

As noted in previous posts, my personal Olympic journey is intertwined with the Golden Arches all the way back to "When The U.S. Wins, You Win" in grade school and the Atlanta Olympic Village (1996) locations of McDonald's across Georgia Tech.

Suggestion for future Games: I'd be "Lovin' It" if McDonald's Vancouver 2010, London 2012, Sochi 2014 or Rio 2016 Happy Meals would include PINS rather than plastic toys.

Another in-box P.R. arrival was from one of my colleagues at Edelman, the firm where I work. Our client 24 Hour Fitness announced Wednesday the names of the athletes on deck for their Vancouver programs. According to the press release:

"[24 Hour Fitness'] partnership [includes] six U.S. Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls for the 2010 Games: Snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, pairs skater Rockne Brubaker, short track speedskater J.R. Celski, Paralympic skier Chris Devlin-Young, speedskater Tucker Fredricks and skier Julia Mancuso. The athletes joined Team 24 Hour Fitness as they strive toward making the 2010 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team and medaling this winter at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

It will be fun to witness how these and other athletes progress, work out, Tweet and shine before and during the Games of Vancouver.

As I wrap up this press release-infused post, it is worth noting that on the 100 Days milestone I also stumbled upon some P.R. gone bad. Apparently an embargoed** press release related to the torch relay struck a nerve with a reporter in Seattle. Call it Schadenfreude, but some of the comments are hilarious.

**offered/delivered to reporters in advance of publication date as a courtesy to aid with timely news delivery

Images via McDonald's, 24 Hour Fitness and Polo Ralph Lauren (Polo image is via Yahoo! News/Associated Press)

IOC Member Anita DeFrantz & Olympic Villages

Since the 1996 Olympic Games, I've crossed paths with International Olympic Committee Member Anita DeFrantz a few times: During the Atlanta Games and their "one year later" celebrations, at Olympic media events, USOC or Olympic bid functions and most recently at the LA84 XXV celebration in Los Angeles.

DeFrantz shared a few minutes to describe her part in shaping the Olympic Villages of the LA Games (see video), and some of her remarks in California relate back to her answers at an Around The Rings Newsmaker Breakfast event in Beijing last summer (also on the video) held at the McDonald's on the Olympic Green.

During the Q&A with Around The Rings publisher Ed Hula and U.S. Olympians chief Willie Banks (a three-time Olympian and part of the Atlanta Olympic Village leadership team), DeFrantz answered questions about how each Olympic organizing committee can succeed by creating a pro-athlete environment at their Olympic Villages and venues.

Her work on the Villages for 1984 definitely remains part of the Olympic Village experience for each Games since.

Headshot photo via International Olympic Committee / Olympics.org bio for Anita DeFrantz

More from Dara Torres

As noted in previous post, during the Dara Torres book signing in Atlanta, she answered a few questions inspired by her new book "Age Is Just A Number." In one chapter she wrote a fairly vivid description of her pre-race routine, including moments in the Beijing Olympic Village and other Olympic Villages from her career, so I took the opportunity to ask whether she had any favorite Village experience.

Blog Catch-Up Time

It's been a whirlwind spring and blogging has been on my to-do list for days (er, weeks) ... lots of catching up to do as travel and projects at home and work kept me away (thanks to folks who kept coming back, or visited, during the lull).

For most recent post, it was the eve of Dara Torres' visit to Atlanta to conclude her book tour showcasing "Age Is Just A Number -- Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage In Your Life." Finished the book recently, and it is worth a read.

Behind the scenes at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum (which has several cool upcoming events), Torres shared a few minutes and answered questions about one remark in the book -- in an early chapter, she explained that while interning at NBC, she helped log tape, and a video of fellow Olympian, Brian Boitano, was part of her inspiration to get back in the pool competitively.