Author: Nick

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Paris

Day 12: Site visits, events, and MORE speakers

Part Deux of my most recent update!

The day after we visited Montmartre we spoke with Olympian and LA OCOG member, Janet Evans. She shared her experience with career transition post-retirement and that was something that we continued to hear reverberate as an area where the Olympic movement can better help to support its athletes. We later returned to Montmartre to meet with Rebecca Perez at the beautiful cafe – Le Vrai. As a venue operations director, she shared a unique insight to the challenges faced when programs run long and cause delays in turnover for staff or spectators. I was also interested to learn that some venues like hers are expected to be turned over for the Paralympic games but have suboptimal conditions for some events (like a lack of sound-proofing for Goal Ball).

a group picture of our class and Janet Evans
the outside of Le Vrai cafe in Paris showing a neon signed surrounded by blue, white, and red flowers
a group picture of our class with Rebecca Perez

While we were there we stopped by a mural with hundreds of different messages of love in languages around the world. I thought it was very fitting for an Olympic host city.

a wall showing text spelling out 'I Love You' in hundreds of languages

Afterwards a group of us made our way to the NBC broadcast location to have an interview with their Washington, DC affiliate! We got to share our thoughts about the class and our experience at the Olympics so far – which makes the second time I’ve been on TV. If you caught it live at 6am and 11pm on July 30, send me the footage!

NBC interviewing me and Aine Kirwan about the class

Other highlights from that day include “monkeying around” at Spot24, an exhibition of sport and urban culture showing how the Olympics have evolved to include modern events, and speaking with Drew Johnson – strategic communications executive at Octagon.

a description of the mission of Spot24
an artpiece combining classical sculpture and graffiti art
an artpiece combining classical sculpture and graffiti art
LA `84 olympic torch
Tokyo 2020 torch
an artpiece using blue and red paint to create a 'fleshy' and skeletal underwater scene featuring a surfer and a sea turtle
the red "skeletal" view
the blue, convential view
an artpiece using mirrored glass to create a basketball hoop and chainlink fence
torch from the Singapore 2010 youth olympic games
artwork featuring a classical sculpture in modern dress
me in an interactive breaking exhibit designed to evoke a NYC subway car

On July 30, we visited the Pierre de Coubertin museum and spoke with his relative and president of the de Coubertin Family Association, Alexandra de Navacelle. This is the first games that has had this exhibition and it was incredible to be able to learn more about the father of the modern Olympic games directly from his family.

me and classmate Pratyoush outside of the Genius of Sport exhibit
a glass case of memorabilia from the de Coubertin Association

August 1st was my day off (and my birthday!) – during which I made a pilgrimage to the Pride house on the Seine where stories of queer athletics from around the world are shared and celebrated. Later on, I cheered on USA Swimming at La Defense arena and met a huge icon from my childhood, Summer Sanders! She herself is a gold medal-winning swimmer for Team USA so it felt very much like kismet.

That’s all for now but I will be sure to put more up when I can – thank you for following along!

Categories
Paris

Day 5: Speakers, Volunteering + Exploring the

Hello again from beautiful Paris. I apologize for the delay – this will be the first of two updates back-to-back so be sure to return for the second post TOMORROW!

My experience over the past week and a half has been a whirlwind. We began our first day with a tour of Team USA House, where we are volunteering over the course of our stay. It was incredible! There are two floors of activities including a Roblox-type game, photo areas like the USA lock display where athletes will sign and attach a lock in the Parisian fashion, and the team store (spoiler alert: I could afford very little).

After our tour, as we were taking a group photo outside, we met Olympic alumni Karen Keehn and Claudia Schneider who are also volunteering! Their personal stories from being part of the Olympic movement for so long were amazing to hear. It was an experience I never expected but would happen repeatedly over the next several days.

group photo outside of USA house with Karen Keehn and Claudia Schneider

Later in the day, I was lucky enough to catch the finale of the torch relay in Paris! It was the last exchange before going to the opening ceremonies which some of us decided to watch from Poland House. It was a terrific experience to be able to celebrate with people from another culture and Dr. Neirotti’s family. We made great friends with a local, Damian, who was raised in France but whose parents emigrated from Poland. The watch party was outside and I did end up getting soaked but their team store was a little more reasonably priced (I paid with Mastercard). My back also made an appearance on Polish TV!

the final torch bearer for paris 2024 before reaching the opening ceremonies
a soaking wet but fake grouch
dry and happy students at poland house watch party

My first volunteer shift actually took place at the Olympian house – a site for alumni to gather for events or hospitality where they can sign a wall of posters from previous games (except Atlanta???) and take a photo with one of the Paris 2024 torches. My role was to help with printing credentials which meant I didn’t get to spend too much time discussing the games and their history with the guests, however they were all extremely kind and happy to talk. This house also boasts its own Olympic torch which we were actually allowed to hold! It’s heavier than it looks…

me holding the torch at OLY house

Volunteering at USA House was much more active; for my first shift, I was stationed at the credentialed access gate and applied stamps to everyone entering the building. That gave ample time for conversation and, again, most everyone was very friendly! Google is soft launching their Project Starline, essentially a fully immersive virtual meeting setup, onsite and I spoke to one of their representatives about it. They’re targeting it to medical professionals but I could see it used for virtual classrooms as well. After our shift, we were allowed to peruse the store and I took another photo with their torch. I ran a fundraising campaign prior to the trip to help cover program costs and any potential event tickets. Every donor will receive a personalized photo like the one below from sites across the city. This one is for my parents who have always been my biggest supporters–

me posing with the torch at USA house

After our shift – a group of us when to Montmartre to view the Sacre Coeur cathedral and take in the full view of Paris.

locks adorning a fence at the sacre coeur
a view of the sacre coeur basilica from the bottom
a view of paris from the top of montmartre
the eiffel tower from afar

Part 2 will be coming tomorrow with many more updates including Dutch House and attending the swimming competition at La Defense!

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Paris

Day 1: Ireland + the trek to Paris

me in Wicklow Mountains National Park

Welcome and thank you for joining me along my journey traveling and learning about the Olympic games!

For the past week, I’ve been touring the land of Eire with my mom who has wanted to visit ever since she was a girl. Our departure from the US hit a bit of a snag, however, as it happened to coincide with the Crowdstrike update and subsequent disruption of Windows OS-based systems. Not to worry – we were at the front end of the issue and escaped with a flight delay of only a couple of hours .

For those that don’t know (I didn’t), Ireland is in the middle of their All-Ireland, a.k.a. inter-county, championship games. The hurling final was on Saturday and saw Clare defeat county Cork where we happened to be staying at the time! (Side Note: I actually met a son of Cork after the loss, in Dublin, and we had a lively discussion about why the Gaelic Athletic Association hasn’t petitioned hurling as an Olympic sport. Tldr; it is tied intrinsically to Irish identity despite being played around the world. Perhaps I’ll go more into it in a later post!) By complete accident we were able to see firsthand the celebration and eventual pall that overtook the entire region. County flags were hung everywhere you looked – kids even had their faces painted. On the day of the final, there was a large outdoor viewing party in the city we visited, Cobh, where many people gathered. Normally this would be unremarkable but it was 60 degrees fahrenheit, windy, and raining!

We also toured Croke Park, the stadium where the championships take place, and its museum on Irish sport leading to a surprise find of an Olympic exhibit on Marathon silver-medalist, John Treacy (see below).

a panoramic view of Croke Park behind a replica of the Liam McCarthy Cup
kit worn by John Treacy in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games
description card for the exhibit
ID card for John Treacy, Competitor, Ireland

Later on, we were lucky to find more Olympic factoids at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum where we learned about athletes born in Ireland and those from Irish descent. Going back to Ireland is always a treat for me but finding references to the Olympic games ahead of my arrival in Paris makes me appreciate my journey even more. The pride that people have for their countrymen and women, especially in such close-knit communities, is something that we see glimpses of in the US but rises to another level in countries that are a fraction of its size. I am anxious to see how their passion compares to that of the French on a world stage.

Now – I’m off to London by way of ferry and national rail. From there, I will take the Eurostar into Paris. I have started a tradition of experiencing as many forms of public transit as possible when traveling abroad because I get to spend more time around the locals and get a sense of how it compares to our own. So far so good! The train feels like it’s moving at twice the speed (in four times the comfort).

Tomorrow — we will meet with Team USA for our orientation as volunteers and then prepare for the spectacular opening ceremony. Stick around to hear all about it!