Today consisted of an introduction lecture by the heads of the Olympic News Service and Infostrada Sports, followed by a round of training exercises and a flash quote crash-course. We learned many of the details about our jobs that we had been craving for months. It is important to clarify that Infostrada Sports is an independent sports statistics and event services provider that will handle the official media content distribution responsibilities for BOCOG. Infostrada has hired professionals to cover each and every event. They provide accurate, reliable results, statistics, and quotes to journalists around the world in real time. Along with these staff members, there are hundreds of volunteers to assist with the massive task of covering the Olympics. All 951 of us have united under the banner of the “Olympic News Service” as of today.
The Olympic News Service has been successful in many past Games because it allows journalists to easily cover all sports without having to be in multiple places at once. Infostrada has provided these services for countless world championship events, major international tournaments, and recent Olympic Games in Sydney, Athens, and Torino. The major clients of the ONS are members of the accredited media, most notably the Associated Press (USA), Reuters (GBR), the Australian Associated Press, and the Agence France-Presse (FRA). Information will also be available to members of the broadcast media, like NBC (USA), Channel 9 (AUS), BBC (GBR), and CCTV (CHN). They will provide event results, flash quotes, press conference highlights, sport background information, and biographical information on all teams, athletes, and coaches both electronically and in hard copy.
Our job is focused around one of the most crucial elements in the success of the ONS. As FQRs, we will interview athletes immediately following their competition, ask questions relevant to the performance, transcribe flash quotes, and get them published to the accredited media within a 10-minute deadline.
During the events we will be watching as an observer (not a spectator!), taking careful competition notes, and preparing interview questions. Interviews will take place in what’s known as the “mixed zone” where athletes and journalists interact. We will also put together press conference highlights. All operations at the Laoshan Bicycle Cluster will be under the supervision of our ONS Manager Krystyna, an Aussie who's lived in London for the past seven years working as a sportswriter for the Associated Press. Before that she worked for five years in Sydney as a reporter for Australian Associated Press. She’s covered two summer Olympics, the soccer World Cup and European Championship, and two Commonwealth Games. Her impressive resume makes me eager to learn more about cycling and the crazy world of journalism!
Tomorrow is another full day of training, or as Steve, the ONS guru from Sydney 2000, called it, "Death by PowerPoint."
XOXO
Andrea talks with a friend from home while peacefully balancing her ch'i beneath the rice hat.
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