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| The view from the broadcast pen |
Wow. What a night.
Last night was my first proper shift in the media scrum of
the mixed zone and what a learning curve it was. Having worked test events
previously I was prepared for mayhem and that’s exactly what I got.
Firstly we had our team briefing. I was assigned one of the
broadcast areas. This means my role was to stand behind the camera of TV
interviewers and take notes of what the athletes say. The slight issue with
this is that you can’t get in camera shot at all, meaning shoving your
Dictaphone is someone’s face is a complete no-no.
It was quite a fun start. Athletes didn’t stop in the
qualifying rounds so we were able to watch the racing and soak it all up.
American broadcaster NBC were quite amusing to observe. They were just focused
on the stands, not the action. When I enquired what they were doing they
informed me they were only there to film the royals in the crowd – they wasn’t
interested in the sport! And then a man from the Golf Channel turned up. Only
in America.
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| The french cable conundrum. Good luck with that |
The French were equally amusing. It seemed odd that there
was an empty broadcast pen after the action had started. This was good for me
as it gave me an opportunity to get into the pen to get a better shot at
getting my quotes. But then they turned up. Late. It was highly amusing
watching the cameraman wrestle with his cable spaghetti in time for the French
athletes’ races.
Unfortunately the GB Women’s Sprint Team were demoted for an infringement in their semi final. This meant Victoria Pendleton came through
the mixed zone a lot earlier than we were expecting. I therefore had to
literally chase her down the mixed zone as she ping-ponged between
broadcasters. Apparently she was in tears by the time she got to the press
section.
I was then moved into the proper press scrum. Given the very
humid temperature in the velodrome, let’s just say it’s a little, well, whiffy
in there. Glamorous it is not.
I was assigned getting the Australian riders who came fourth
in the Men’s Team Sprint. Nice – I get the athlete that has come in the worst
place possible! But Shane Perkins from Australia was very generous in defeat,
and it was quite amusing being assigned to him as I had a Twitter exchange with
him only two days ago.
I was trying to annotate my notes while the British team were getting their gold medals so I missed that, but it has to be quotes first,
spectate second. It’s hard, but you have to do it as we have a 15-minute
deadline to file our quotes.
As the racing was finished I was told I could go back to the
office to file my quotes, rather than phone them in. What a stroke of luck that
turned out to be. As I was walking up the stairs there were Wills and Kate
coming through from the stand. There didn’t seem anyone there to stop me or
tell me the protocol, so I just acted like I hadn’t recognised them, let them
through first and followed on after them.
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| Philip Hindes and Sir Chris Hoy talk to the media |
Once I had filed my copy I was allowed to go and sit in on
the press conferences. It was a real privilege to see Sir Chris Hoy give his
thoughts on the race. At times I am pinching myself that this is happening and
that I am actually doing this.
So, at last, I have seen a GB gold medal won. It was
incredible – you really don’t get a sense of how loud the crowd is in the
velodrome on TV – it is literally deafening. Great for spectators – not so
great for us trying to collect quotes.
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