Happy Birthday Phoebe Mills

It's November 2. Happy birthday, Phoebe Mills, the Olympic bronze medalist with 40 reasons to celebrate!

When I was 15 and it was spring of 1988, Mills emerged as a contender for the Seoul Olympics gymnastics competition around the time a newspaper ad appeared in the Daily Oklahoman inviting folks to volunteer for U.S. Olympic Festival '89. Chatting with a friend, I signed up to donate time stating, "Maybe this is one way I could meet that cute gymnast (who is my age), Phoebe Mills."

That volunteer gig changed my life, and on an early volunteer assignment we sat in a rain-soaked tent at the State Fair of Oklahoma recruiting more volunteers and watching Mills win bronze on the balance beam via NBC's Olympic coverage. So cool!

Of course, a few months after Seoul, Mills wrapped up her gymnastics career before the '89 Festival (drat!), but I did meet one of her sisters, a figure skater, when she competed in Oklahoma City. Phoebe was nice enough to reply to a fan letter I sent to her, and that was pretty much the end of that.

Until ...

Fast forward to the summer of 1993, during which I picked up a Texas Torch Relay volunteer spot for U.S. Olympic Festival '93 in San Antonio (another life-shaping experience that influenced my selection of public relations/journalism pursuits). When the relay ended at the gleaming new Alamodome (the Olympic Festival opening ceremony was the venue's debut event), in the press box I learned Phoebe Mills returned to Olympic pursuits as a competitive diver (hooray!).

It was a bummer to learn, however, I'd miss her diving competition by a day or two (with the Torch Relay complete, I went on back to Oklahoma early during the Festival, seriously bummed).

Just a college year later, during the summer of 1994 (best ... summer ... ever, working as U.S.O.F. employee in the Olympic Village at Washington University in St. Louis, site of 1904 Olympic competitions), the stars aligned, sort of, and I shared a brief, albeit embarrassing, introduction to Phoebe Mills. Hopefully she does not remember this intro.

You see, one morning in the Olympic Village dining hall, I dragged myself (dog tired) in to breakfast, and while dispensing grape juice or some other beverage, half-awake I looked up to find Phoebe Mills standing beside me in line at the juice bar. Hello!

In an instant I thought, "Finally, I can tell this person she changed my life! If I hadn't volunteered in 1989, specifically to meet her, my Olympic aspirations might have remained dormant. I'm your No. 1 fan! Thank you for changing my life, Phoebe! You're beautiful ... (etc. etc. more embarrassing crush stuff)."

If only I had spoken up!

Sadly, these thoughts were all for naught as in my dazed and surprised state, the grape juice I dispensed overfilled my glass, pouring over my clueless hands and cascading into a messy pool at our feet.

Mortified, I stepped away apologizing, retreating to retrieve an Olympic Village mop, and by my blushed return, Phoebe Mills vanished from the dining hall and my message of thanks remained only in my brain. Until now.

I appreciate that Phoebe Mills, the newest 40-something Olympian, was driven during the 1980s in gymnastics and that she inspired me (and I suspect thousands of other fans) to step into the Olympic circles and get involved with this great Olympic Family. I am thankful that Phoebe's family pushed her, and her fellow Olympic siblings, as members of a peer family in the Midwestern U.S. (still have the magazine article about their collective five-ringed aspirations).

I also wish our paths had crossed again at one of the eight Olympics and two Olympic bids at which I worked or volunteered over the years (we had a near-miss again in Salt Lake as we apparently were on the same Park City bus but I was on a new-fangled cell phone too many aisles away).

It is really cool that Phoebe continued with athletic pursuits after gymnastics, first as a diver and then as a snowboarding entrant (it's my understanding she now is an attorney and/or board member with the U.S. Snowboarding team). See, she turned out to be beautiful and athletic and smart, too! Bravo!

While visiting family in Oklahoma last week, I stopped by the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, which is now nestled in the science museum in Oklahoma City. But there was no mention of Phoebe Mills! Hello, will someone in the international gymnastics community wake up and nominate Mills for the Hall of Fame?!? She's a bronze medalist, after all. Duh! Wake up, H.O.F., and get this nomination started, pronto!

Just now online, a quick search yielded Mills' name among the inductees for the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame (whew!).

Writing this post tonight, there was also a reminder that in London at USA House this summer, I shook hands with Bela Karolyi, the famous coach of Nadia, Mary Lou Retton, Mills and other U.S. women's gymnasts, and asked him specifically about Phoebe, "Do you keep in touch?"

Karolyi smiled, then sort of winced and said in that Bela voice, "Not as often as I should."

Here's hoping on this milestone birthday year he remembered to reach out and catch up with Mills.

Phoebe Mills turns 40 today. Happy birthday and thank you.

Photo copyright Corbis via this link

Olympic News Briefs

Work's had me on the run of late, but that hasn't stopped Olympic news from arriving at the in box. Here's a quick pick list of recent items on the five-ringed front:

• Allen Brooks, noted as a “veteran Olympic Games marketer” (according to a press release) joined GMR Marketing as vice president overseeing international client management, specifically to co-lead Procter & Gamble Olympic marketing in London and other future Olympic sites.
• Rome's 2020 Olympic bid is gaining steam, according to the Associated Press. In other news, a shoe company is handing over a pile of money to refurbish Rome's famed Colosseum.
• New Waverly, Texas, will be an official training site for USA Gymnastics, according to a local Fox News report noting the decades of work by Bela and Martha Karolyi (disclosure: the Hilton/USA Gymnastics news element of this report is related to clients of Edelman, the P.R. agency where I work).
• Vancouver is going to celebrate like it's 2010 again!
• Munich's Olympic bid books are now in the hands of the IOC, according to the AP.
• Jan. 25 Update: I intended to also include this link to a Natalie Coughlin video related to BMW's support of the USOC and national governing bodies USA Bobsled & Skeleton, USA Swimming, USA Track & Field and US Speedskating.

Have a great week!

Photo of Munich Olympiapark via Reuters

15 Degrees

Hello from Hoffman Estates, Illinois, site of the 2009 Tyson American Cup on Saturday.

While volunteering yesterday as a media quote taker, got to speak with a few of the athletes and coaches for tomorrow's competition (the USA Gymnastics site for the event includes notes from the experience). You can't make it here tomorrow? Check it out on NBC Sports and Universal Sports.

On site, spotted Olympians Bridget Sloan, Joseph Hagerty, Chelle Stack and Diane Simpson. The word is that tomorrow's event will include pre-competition autograph session with Nastia Liukin, Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug, Stella Zakharova, Elena Zamolodchikova, Tim Daggett, Trent Dimas, Paul Hamm, Vitaly Scherbo and Peter Vidmar -- should be exciting.

As hoped, the experience also helped learn more about the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid efforts and to meet a few fellow volunteers -- looking forward to seeing the bid booth on site at the event.

Only two "issues" on this trip:

American Airlines charged me $15 for a checked bag, and then they left it in Atlanta while I arrived in Chicago. Fortunately, a courier arrived overnight with my gear (problem solved, but about that $15 ...).

The other is the weather -- no surprises, but yesterday's 15 degree Fahrenheit morning temps were just brutal. Even the locals found it unpleasant.

Everything else is top-notch, from the Hyatt Place to the Sears Centre and even dinner in Milwaukee yesterday evening (yikes, it was windy and cold there, too).

Looking forward to walkabout downtown this afternoon (a day off) and tomorrow's day "on" at the Tyson American Cup.

Heading for Hoffman Estates

Fifty years ago, residents in a then-rural NW Chicago suburb voted to incorporate the Village of Hoffman Estates, according the the city's website. This weekend, this Sears Centre in the village's entertainment district will host the 2009 Tyson American Cup, which is one of the most prestigious international gymnastics events.

To contribute to the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid effort, I'm heading to Hoffman Estates tomorrow afternoon for a three-day volunteer gig at the Tyson American Cup. Should be a fun way to learn first-hand how the Chicago 2016 bid team continues to gain positive momentum toward the big vote IOC vote in Copenhagen this October.

This will be my first Olympic-level event experience since Beijing, and it will be fun to (hopefully) again see some of the athletes who succeeded in China while learning about the next wave of gymnastics greats who will compete. According to the organizer's press release with quotes from Bela Karolyi (last spotted at, of all places, the Water Cube just after Michael Phelps' eighth race in China -- see photo), there are bound to be surprises.

Hoping to post an update or two from the event. In the meantime, some notes from the Beijing gymnastics events are here.

Sunday Gymnastics

The Beijing National Indoor Stadium was the scene of day one for women's gymnastics. Though my seat for the big event -- opening competition for the women's teams from USA, Japan, U.K. and Italy -- was for the 300s section, I never made it that far up in the arena.

After helping a fellow American with a photo request (they forgot their cameras, so I snapped a shot to later e-mail), I followed my new acquaintances into the 100s seating (the helpful and plentiful volunteers never did ask my exact seat number). This entry point combined with my assigned Olympic credential later opened doors to the media photo pit for the event (overlooking the balance beam and vault, just a few yards away).

The USA women did not disappoint. All the team seemed to be trying their best (it was slightly challenging to keep up with the scores and rotations). Italy had the best floor exercise tunes (Madame Butterfly, ohh, la, la). After the second rotation, and feeling like there was nothing to lose, I moved to another corner of the arena and sat on the front row overlooking balance beam -- sweet seats!

Turns out more than two things come from Okahoma ...

To my left, a fellow Oklahoman: Mr. 1984 Gold Medalist Bart Conner!
Behind Bart: His wife, Nadia Comaneci, trying her best to keep track of their very young son!

Though gymnastics' golden couple did not respond to requests for a blog interview, at the conclusion of the fourth and final rotation, most of the building was cleared. I lingered for a bit and discovered the photo pit again, this time transformed into the post-event media Q&A area, sans security!

I did not want to push my luck any further on the access coup, so did not attempt any interviews with team USA. But there was no problem snapping a photo or 10. The day was off to an awesome start, and it wasn't yet noon!