Podium Training

Today (yesterday) was the last day of training and the first taste of the real thing. I haven't been on an emotional roller coaster that intense since the last speech I gave in April. 

I heard rumor yesterday that today was going to be a podium practice, where the athletes are all here and run through the motiosn of the big day. This includes walking through the mix zone where we get quotes. Knowing this I made sure I had time to do my hari and make up this morning! We got to work and the rumor became reality. The day was divided into 3 sections, just like the real event. My 1st job was to collect quotes from the U.S. Men's Team, who weren't expected to talk until a press conference in the afternoon. After an early lunch our group watched the 1st set of teams practice from the stands. Then went down to the Press Mixed Zone to get quotes. We got a little lost and darn the luck got stuck on an elevator with 3 French gymnasts who were practicing in the afternoon. Every face in the elevator turned red and all the French phrases we knew went out the door, except those of the French gymnasts! 

Once we got to the Mixed Zone we waited around. My nerves hit to roof at the beginning of practice and sky rocketed while waiting for the athletes to walk through. I felt like a 5-year-old waiting for Christmas. Me and Danielle were supposed to work together. She was nervous they would stop and talk and I was nervous they wouldn't! There was a miscommunication at teh higher up level and only three teams ended up walking through. One of them was the U.S. and of course their PR rep shut us down quick and hard but I tried to talk to a straggler into a  "small" quote. I didn't end up getting any words but I did get a smile- at that point I was happy to have gotten that much from both a personal coach and the U.S. Team Captain. I had accomplished my mission- to get a quote and if all else a smile. I want this to be fun for everyone. After that my adrenaline took a downward spiral and it took all I had not to cry in the middle of the Mixed Zone. That was my only chance to get quotes that day, the rest was to be copytaking- typing the quotes that others took. But I am stronger than that, plus I wanted to show my ONS Managers that I could handle anything and I think I did that. I wasn't upset that I didn't get the quote, I knew the whole time I probably wouldn't get one, but I was upset because that was my only chance to interview someone- kind of a catch 22. 

The second round I was more relaxed and by the third round at 8 pm I was getting tired and it was going to take a lot to shake me. My copytaking skills improved a lot during the second round, from my first set of quotes to my third I learned a lot and fixed the mistakes I had made the first time around. The third round I did pretty good, but it was a little more challenging because I was copy-taking quotes from the Chinese students and they had interview an English speaker- wrote the quote down in Chinese and had to translate back into English. Plus they had issues with getting incomplete or no quotes at all and the quotes they did get sometimes had words confused like fit instead of faith. It was harder to get what they were saying. I typed what they said and went back later to check. One of the ONS Managers had been around and had heard so he helped me fix the quotes but there were instances where they had not used the right tense as in had instead of have, which made a difference in the quotes they had taken. It was an extra challenge, but what do you do? I should now be a better copytaker  knowing how to deal with the different students and how they take quotes. I can learn to ask more questions to make sure the quotes are being published in the same context it was said- which overall is more important that getting the quote verbatim. 

Overall, Podium practice was a great experience. The 14 hours flew by quickly and I wish I could have done it today- but they didn't need the extra help, they just wanted me to get rested up. I am starting to really catch the Olympic fever. Choosing this internship came with some give and take and I am so happy I took this opportunity- there is no way this is going to be a negative experience. I am learning so much, and know that I will continue to learn from this experience for the rest of my life. I have been blessed.