Feb 1
The Winter Olympics are far more dangerous than the summer version. Everything is competed on snow and ice — mostly ice. Rock-hard ice. We interviewed 36 athletes in the most dangerous sports to see if what they do scares them. Or are they just daredevils, fearless.
Read moreThe bar is open!
High tech culinary exploits are underway at the MMC, a.k.a. Main Media Center. There are precisely measured and expertly shaken drinks at the Robot Bar. Patricia, perhaps you should get one for your opening ceremony party. Robots also make our food and deliver it. Touchless cuisine at its finest. Asking them to leave out the soy sauce seems to fall on deaf ears, though. Well, to be completely fair, the robots don’t have ears.
Read moreBack so soon, you ask?
I’ve had my fill of the Far East these past few Games — South Korea, Japan, China. Marco Polo has nothing on me. I didn’t have to take the Silk Road, but my journey did seem endless. More than 24 hours from JFK to my hotel in Beijing, with a long stop in Paris and a long, cold wait in the Beijing airport.
Read moreAnother Eat@Joes comes to a close. By my count, this was the ninth Games for me and the eighth that included some sort of regular correspondence with friends and family. In Turin, it was a series of emails that got passed around like a basket at church. It morphed into something of a blog for Beijing, but that iteration, which also included Vancouver, was lost forever when Apple shuttered its software for such things.
Read moreDear Joe’s Readers,
I’ve finally written up the story I alluded to in the last post. An experience that happened on day 6 that I thought would cut short my nascent Olympic career if I ever spoke a word of it (I didn’t even tell Erin). The blog has continued, I was not kicked out. And, in retrospect, it wasn’t a big deal. But it sure felt like one in the moment.
Read moreSeveral days back, we were freed from our two-week quarantine, which had only allowed us to go to the office or the venues. They were kind enough to allow us to go out of the hotel for 15 minutes to pick up food, which normally meant 7-11. (Best egg salad sandwiches people have ever eaten, I’m told.) As you already know, quarantine does not make for good Olympic blogs.
Read moreChang Lee thought he was hung over — again. Several people woke up at 5:35 a.m. and didn’t really know why. Motoko Rich also woke up then but knew exactly why. She lives here. I, on the other hand, was asleep and stayed that way until my alarm went off at 6 a.m. I checked my phone and saw all the chatter in our Olympics WhatsApp chat: Did you feel it? No, first i’m hearing of it, must be the Ambien. Oh my god, I knew it! I thought it was the dryer in my room causing all the shaking! Motoko says we are now all honorary Japanese with nonchalant earthquake experience.
Read moreJan. 2016 — I found myself on a plane headed to Spring,Texas, to fly a drone over the greatest gymnast of all time. I was scared and nervous. I forgot toothpaste. I carried the heavy box.
It was, as they (Joe and Bedel) say, my first Olympics rodeo. And they reminded me of it, constantly.
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