What’s it like to work at the world’s biggest sporting event? Louise Evans (Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) '82) who’s covering her seventh Games, takes you deep inside the Olympics for a rare look behind the scenes.
Forget about sleeping, you barely have time during 16 days of continuous world-class competition across 32 sports at 22 venues in greater Paris alone.
So how do you cover the Olympics as a journalist? How do you choose which of the 329 events and 10,500 athletes to watch? And how do you make sure you don’t miss any of the key gold-medal events and the memorable moments?
At my previous 6 Games, I’ve worked for media platforms including The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Associated Press.
At the Paris Games, I’m working for Sportshounds, the premier Australian website for in-depth Games news and stories. Our senior correspondent is Michael Osborne, a fellow UQ alum (Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) '82), who is also covering his seventh Olympics.
UQ alumni and journalists Mike Osborne and Louise Evans were tempted to "Do a Dawn” (Fraser) and steal an Olympic flag but settled for a photo instead.
UQ alumni and journalists Mike Osborne and Louise Evans were tempted to "Do a Dawn” (Fraser) and steal an Olympic flag but settled for a photo instead.
Preparation
Even though our team has a lot of experience, pre-Games research is the key to performing at our peak, surviving the Games and thriving inside the Olympic cauldron.
We need to know long before the Games start where we need to be on any day and at any given time. We also need to know who’s likely to win the key events so we know who are the surprises and shocks.
So how do you do that?
First, we draw up a list of Australia’s potential medallists – there’s about 60. Then we marry that list with the Paris Olympic competition schedule to produce a day-by-day and morning-noon-night draft of where we need to be. Exhausted yet?
Then we work out how long the events we want to cover go for, in terms of time, and what venues we can get to using the public and Games transport.
Now we’ve got our Plan A, we are ready to roll.
Each morning starts with a 7.50am call from Ali Moore, presenter of the ABC Radio Melbourne Drive program, for a live radio cross about the day ahead.
Each evening for the first 9 days was anchored by the swimming program. Because Australia is such a gun swimming nation, winning 7 gold medals, and we spent so much time at the Aquatic Centre, I’m going to take you with me to an evening final’s session.
Sportshounds Mike Osborne and the Australian press pack interview Australian windsurfing silver medallist Grae Morris outside the Main Press Centre.
Sportshounds Mike Osborne and the Australian press pack interview Australian windsurfing silver medallist Grae Morris outside the Main Press Centre.
Warming up
We set out from the Main Press Centre (MPC), which is the Olympic OK Corral for the international media. It’s also where medallists, who are competing at outside-Paris venues, gravitate to talk to the wider media about their success.
The pool at the Le Paris la Defense Arena des Congrès de Paris, is a 30-minute Metro journey from the MPC, which has free seating for 500 media.
Photographers have to be at the venue for a briefing 90 minutes before the swim program begins. So, for a 8.30pm start, your Sportshounds team, which also includes photographer Nick La Galle, departs the MPC at 6:30pm. Before we leave the MPC, we make sure our equipment is fully charged.
Irish swimming fans Eamonn Boland and Aoife Sexton from county Cork hold up signs requesting to buy tickets from the flood of people heading to the Paris pool.
Irish swimming fans Eamonn Boland and Aoife Sexton from county Cork hold up signs requesting to buy tickets from the flood of people heading to the Paris pool.
Meeting the fans
As we emerge from the Metro and approach the swimming venue, we meet 2 Irish swimming fans, Eamonn Boland and Aoife Sexton, from county Cork, who are holding up signs requesting to buy tickets from the flood of people passing by. Sexton is a 200-metre freestyle silver Masters medallist and she talks passionately about how much she wants to watch her heroes.
I don’t like their chances as the closer we get to the venue we’re confronted by a long snaking queue of spectators with tickets who have been made to line up in the hot evening sun.
Swimming is a high-demand ticketed event for the media too so, in addition to showing your accreditation to get in, you also need to show another ticket at the security gate issued by the Australian Olympic Committee.
We proceed through security and bag scanning and walk around to the Media Entrance. We collect the start lists and discuss the night ahead with fellow colleagues – including legendary Games statistician David Clark, who is working with the host broadcaster Nine.
Legendary Australian Games statistician David Clark has a bird’s eye view of the action from the Nine TV broadcast position at the Paris pool. Image: Nick La Galle
Legendary Australian Games statistician David Clark has a bird’s eye view of the action from the Nine TV broadcast position at the Paris pool. Image: Nick La Galle
Take your marks...
Having curated our facts and figures, we then head out into the pool area to find a seat in the Media Tribune. Here there’s decks and power where we can set up and plug in our devices to work poolside.
It’s incredibly noisy inside the pool dome with a lot of hoopla and music blaring out over the stadium speakers to get the crowd going. It makes it hard to concentrate, but you get used to it.
The noise does not abate once the swimming starts – it gets louder as fans cheer their favourites to the finish line. You have to shout into your colleague’s ear to be heard.
From her position in the poolside Media Tribune, Louise Evans has to leg it down 60 steps every time she needs to talk to a medal-winning swimmer.
From her position in the poolside Media Tribune, Louise Evans has to leg it down 60 steps every time she needs to talk to a medal-winning swimmer.
Get set, go!
This is where Olympic reporting gets very challenging. When every race is over, the swimmers are guided past the host broadcasters where they stop and talk to the folks back home.
They are then guided through what’s called the mixed zone where they talk to all the other media.
Journalists have to leg it down about 60 steps to get to the mixed zone, wait until the swimmers they want to talk to come by to get their quotes, and then race back up 60 steps to the tribune to their desk to write their stories. We’re not athletes. It’s exhausting.
On any night we’ll be filing multiple stories, up to 20 images as well as doing social media.
The unglamorous side of Olympic reporting: Mike Osborne and Nick La Galle work out how to get back to our media hotel after one of the Metro lines was shut down at midnight.
The unglamorous side of Olympic reporting: Mike Osborne and Nick La Galle work out how to get back to our media hotel after one of the Metro lines was shut down at midnight.
Cool down, rest and recovery
It’s just past midnight when your Sportshounds team have filed, packed up and are heading back to the Metro for the 30-minute journey back to the MPC and then another 30-minute walk to the media hotel.
But wait, the Metro line is down so we have to pivot to the RER train station to connect with another Metro line to get back. The streets of Paris are littered with revellers enjoying their Olympics experience. But all we can think of is sleep.
Sometime around 2am we’ll finally get to our hotel, having had a meeting on the way back about the next day’s schedule as we have to do all this again tomorrow and the next day and… can you die of fatigue?
Just as I’m drifting into Shakespeare’s famous line from Hamlet "to sleep – perchance to dream'' my mobile pings and I’m jolted wide awake again because I’ve forgotten to turn the damn thing off.
It seems like it’s only 5 minutes later when it’s time for “Bonjour Ali” on ABC Radio Drive and I’m on transmit – again.
“It’s another sensational day at the Paris Olympics and the big medal events for Australia today are…”
Front row to the greatest sporting moments
Sports media pioneer Louise Evans is in Paris covering her 7th Olympic Games. She spoke to Contact ahead of departure about her experiences and highlights while reporting on global sporting events.
