Bill Hancock’s Olympic adventure: Day 14
Old pal Bill Hancock, executive director of the BCS, on his 14th day in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics, where he is a media volunteer:
“Commute: Monday, Monday. Business goes on; it’s not as if they closed Vancouver for the Olympics. So people are back at on the train, back at their desks, back pouring concrete on the construction project next door. Surely some of them are eager for us to go home, but you can’t read it in their earnest faces. Breakfast: Peanut butter crackers.
“Factoid from Olympic historian extraordinaire Jim Constandt, who ably staffs the help desk with Nicki Hancock every day: If you Google (15 years ago, who could have predicted that the word ‘Google’ would become a verb?) 1924 fencing Olympian Adeline Gehrig, you will learn that she was either Lou Gehrig’s sister or his cousin, or no relation. Good ol’ Internet.
“Note from home: ‘Every time you mention “False Creek,” it reminds me of my first kiss at Falls Creek Baptist Camp near Turner Falls.’ How many people enjoyed their first kiss at Falls Creek? (How many didn’t?)
“Michael Wan, a reporter for World Journal, a Chinese-language publication in New York, visits the office every day or so. He’s, a tall, fluffy 30-ish man with a smile and personality that makes you want to take him home, but his wife might object. His real name is ‘Wan Xin,’ but when he first moved from Beijing directly to Lubbock, Texas, people said he should take an American name. (Something like Billy Joe Bob Ray, maybe.) ‘I chose Michael because of Michael Jordan.’ His drivers’ license says ‘Wan Xin’ but he goes by ‘Michael Wan.’ Lunch: Real average cream of broccoli soup; better known as hot water and broccoli soup. Still no McDonald’s for me. I’m gonna make it.
“The organizing committee (VANOC) provides free transportation for all media, athletes and some kind of VIPs. Or maybe some kind VIPs. It’s an awesome undertaking. The depot for media transportation is in an underground parking garage under the Main Press Center. It is the best for any of the nine Olympics I’ve attended; bright, clean and incredibly convenient. Reporters basically have to fall downstairs to the buses.
“Notes from a conversation with a bus driver from Green Bay, Wisc.: VANOC is using some 700 buses; approximately 550 have come from the United States. His 18-bus group came across I-90 to I-5 and then crossed the border. They spent the night in Bismarck and then Missoula. They’re staying in a Ramada Inn here, two to a room. His roomie is the other driver who rode with him from Green Bay. (I have a funny picture of a bus with one driver and one passenger rolling across North Dakota.) They learned their way around Vancouver by trial (much) and goofup (very little). Every driver I’ve met has been professional and courteous. All buses meet at a depot every morning. If the bus is dirty, it gets washed, a big machine with a roller brush circles the bus. A crew empties the toilets and cleans the inside of the bus. The buses are filled with diesel. And then they head out. When the 10-hour day is done, a shuttle takes the drivers from the depot to their hotel. I wouldn’t want to be behind them at the border crossing when the the armada heads home after the Olympics.
“I love to stroll around the Main Press Center. The big papers have their own offices; everyone else works in the ‘bullpen’ which seats about 400. Someone’s on deadline every hour. Some of those agencies with private offices are Corriere Della Sera, Hokkaido Shimbun Press, Sankei Shimbun, Jiji Press, Kyhodo News, Expressen, Axel Springer, Xinhua, Sports Illustrated, New York Times, Japanese Olympic Committee, Tass-Itar. Fascinating.
“Went to the aerials competition at Cypress Mountain tonight. It was daytime when I rode the bus up the mountain; the view is tremendous and reminded me that Vancouver is a maritime city. The woods in Cypress Mountain Provincial Park are lovely. Several little waterfalls cascade down into the ditches beside the road.
“I can’t begin to describe how high those aerials athletes flew. Plenty high. The stadium was jammed full with some 9,000 enthusiastic fans, all of whom rode buses from the bottom of the mountain. Other fans were in a standing-room area, mostly watching on giant televisions. There was a play area for children; about a half-dozen kids were flinging snow powder at each other. Some were rolling around like Ralphie’s little brother doing rhythmic gymnastics, others maybe like Neil Armstrong in the luge. (What the heck is the name of Ralph’s brother? I know Flick, but not the brother.) Anyway, those kids were the cutest things I’ve ever seen on snow except for when Andie B. Hancock, William Hancock and Jack Hancock played behind a snow drift during the blizzard of ‘09.
“Someone suggested that I am faking this Olympics trip, just like they faked the moon landing, and am writing all this from home in Prairie Village. If I am, it’s way past my bedtime.
“Cypress, of course, is the place where snow was brought in by the bucketful. Really big buckets full. It’s a beautiful ski area only 40 minutes from downtown. The competition areas are basically strips of snow surrounded by dirt. Actually there is some real snow, and the weather was plenty cold, maybe like an Oklahoma football playoff game in December. A bright half-moon shone down on the whole scene. There actually was a real live luster of midday.
“I stood at the foot of the hill with reporters. We were on snow that was basically the consistency of Oklahoma sleet. I wore an unlined parka, no gloves, a baseball hat and running shoes. People looked at me funny.
“Gentleman on the bus was speaking with a woman in French. Trying to be friendly (and maybe show off a little bit), I said, ‘je ne parle pas francais.’ He said, ‘me neither, I’m Italian.’ Je suis jealous. We have missed the boat. Am I too old to learn three new languages?
“Every night at 9 p.m. there’s an explosion outside the press center. I don’t know anyone who knows what it is. Dinner: Pretzels. So far. Volunteer du jour: Carla, 30s, administrative assistant with a big company in Toronto. ‘The company sent me here,’ she said. ‘They asked if anyone wanted to volunteer and 60 of us signed up. They chose 20 of us out of a hat. I’m having a great time.’ She was guarding the door at the media center.
“Weather: Another brilliant sunny day. Remarkable. Smell of piney woods and the ocean all rolled into one. Like Ouray meets Oahu. Samuel, the seagull, was back on his perch outside the office. High 49, low 34. Let’s play two.
“Media has plenty of access to athletes here. There are news conferences before competition and afterwards for the medalists. All other athletes are available after they compete, in a gosh-awful wonderful place called the mixed zone. The athletes must pass through on the way from the ‘field of play’ to the locker rooms, and the locker rooms are not open to the media. (It’s basically the ‘field of play’ in all Olympic sports, from swimming to figure skating to soccer.) Media are on one side of a fence, athletes on the other. The athletes actually must pass through a whole gauntlet of television interviewers before getting to the mixed zone. It’s like the BCS; nobody is happy about it but it beats the alternatives.
“Vancouver Fact that surely must be true because somebody told me: Of course, this is the third time Canada has hosted the Olympics: 1976 summer games in Montreal and 1988 Winter games in Calgary. hese people are SO friendly. If you stand around looking lost (I’m good at that) for more than about 30 seconds, someone appears out of vapor and asks if you need help. What a privilege to be here! Every day is an adventure. With glowing hearts, eh?”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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