My Australian Counterparts

Check out this youtube clip on a news story about the ONS selecting Australian volunteers. The testing mentioned in the states is what I’m doing next week. Note the description of “grueling” testing!

Countdown to THE TEST: 13 days!

So what is this test?  This test will determine whether or not I go to Beijing this summer…no pressure!!  I actually had to sign a waiver stating that I understand Emerson doesn’t have the last say on my participation in the Olympics program!

With only 13 days to go, our class is still not clear exactly what we will be tested on.  First we were told that it was going to be on note taking accuracy and interview skills but just today we were told it’s going to be on note taking and debate skills!!  For the record, I have no debate training…and I don’t think fighting with my brother as an adolescent counts!  Beijing officials from the Olympic News Service are flying to Boston to monitor and grade our performance.  The debate aspect I believe will test us more on our composure and ability to survive stressful circumstances…which they are supplying plenty of already!

To prepare, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to get up to speed on my journalistic skills.  This involves listening to endless online interviews and taking notes word-for-word on quotable material.  I’m finding that it’s a lot harder than it sounds.  This past weekend I went to a college invitational meet and interviewed my first real athlete.  He won the men’s mile and kept throwing me off by looking at what I was writing as he answered my questions.

I’ve also been working on coming up with good questions to ask in interviews.  Luckily I have a friend, the same one who hooked my up with the Boston Indoors ticket, who is a die-hard fan of running and willingly shares his knowledge and love for the sport with me which helps a lot when formulating intelligent questions. (His name is Mike and I’ll probably refer to him a lot since he’s my information and meet buddy)

On top of this, in class we do drills and work on writing wire copy – what we’ll actually be writing at the Olympics.  The importance of grammar in a miniscule  5 sentence piece has never been more important in my life!

In the next 13 days we’re also going to be doing a crash course on debating too.  I’m just glad the Beijing officials don’t expect us to be fluent in Mandarin in two weeks…

More updates to come….and I’ll throw in some actual travel-related blogs in the near future too

- Helen

New 2 Mile World Record!

This past Saturday I witnessed a new world record get set! Meseret Defar ran the indoor two miles in 9 minutes and 10.5 seconds!! The indoor stadium rocked with shouts and cheers at this feat! Defar’s from Ethiopia and a ton of local Ethiopians showed their support and were decked out in head-to-toe green, yellow and red.

 

Defar in the lead, followed by the Kiwi and strong competitor Kim Smith

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Another Ethiopian and rival to Defar, Tirunesh Dibaba, won the 3,000 meters in 8 minutes and 33.37 seconds! Although Dibaba had a stitch which held her back from breaking a world record, she still held an enormous lead when she sprinted at the end of the race. Both will more than likely end up competing in the Olympics against each other where their rivalry will be put to the test at the 5,000 meter competition! To cap off the evening, my track expert and friend who hooked me up with my ticket, Mike, and I headed to an Ethiopian restaurant in Boston’s trendy South End for an authentic, no-utensils dinner!

 

One of the many Ethiopian fans in the stadium

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The Boston Indoor Games was a great event to get a glimpse of what’s to come this summer. There’s something truly remarkable about witnessing one of the fastest people in the world break a world record before your eyes!