3 Things to Know about the Olympic canoe/kayak trials
1) It’s another very cool event for Oklahoma City. When you see the Olympic rings on the hillside across the Oklahoma River you realize it’s a big time event.
2) Good people. The local officials we spoke with were very gracious and talked happily about their sport and the wonderful facilities of the Chesapeake Boathouse. I ran into Shane Hamman, two time Olympian and American record holder in weight lifting. Also ran into Hal McKnight from Wheeler Dealer fame and a big time proponent of the local trails system. Great to catch up with both of those guys.
For more discussion, check out OKCtalk.com, as always there is a good thread of discussion on that site.
3) And I’ll give you a huge reason I was disappointed this morning with the Olympic trials: ridiculously limited media access. Cameras were not allowed to shoot the trials themself. Cameras could not enter the area under the bridge nor access the Olympic Village area with the athletes. In fact we were told the athletes were so focused we would have to schedule an interview through the officials and it was unlikely they would want to talk until later.
It’s for the Olympics, I get that.
But the only video we could shoot was of the boats floating on the other side of the bridge, the non-competitive side, some cutaway shots of athletes from a distance and the regular people in the Olympic Experience area.
Seriously. It was frustrating and silly. Good thing MSNBC is airing highlights from these trials later this summer.
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UPDATE: Here’s the vid from Friday morning. Wish there were more we could shoot…
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Gas reaches new record
Here are a few headlines for this morning.
From The Oklahoman’s Jack Money: AAA puts the average price for gas in the Sooner State at about $3.31 a gallon. The old record was about $3.29 set nearly a year ago.
The Seattle SuperSonics’ Oklahoma-based owners will have a financial package deal from their home state when their request to move the team to Oklahoma City is taken up today during a meeting of NBA owners. NBA owners meeting in New York are scheduled to vote on whether to approve relocating the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City.
Residents across the Midwest were awakened by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that rattled skyscrapers in Chicago’s Loop and homes in Cincinnati.
The U.S. Spring Canoe/Kayak Olympic Trials are today through Sunday at the Oklahoma River. Tickets are $10 for adults. Weather could be a factor on the trials. Temps today should be in the 60s with winds 20-30 mph. The remainder of the weekend looks better.
