Weekly Roundup & My So-Called Life
My own bright ideas, thoughts and opinions from the week, as well as some "about me"...
Not a tremendous amount to 'roundup' this week, so I'll start with my thoughts on the site's progress so far:
And here's some background on me, for those who care...
I've received some emails asking about me in regards to my involvement with tennis, sports, and writing... so here's "my life"on that. As usual it'll ramble a bit, but even though I don't have an exciting history, it does take up more than a few paragraphs! I picked these events to hopefully explain "who I am"...
I'm American, but thanks to our neighbors (Oh Canada!), I am a huge ice hockey fan... that, not tennis, is actually my favorite sport. If I could've been Bobby Orr as a little girl, I would've done so. I love defense in all sports, because it's true that defense wins championships. Soccer was another huge part of my life, the only sport I played year-round for 15 years and eventually had to stop due to injuries. I just loved soccer, and can see myself coaching youth teams in the future. I also, even as a girl, played hockey - and when I was growing up, there weren't many of us on the ice, so I can fight too. 
I don't like getting pushed around and I don't like to see others get pushed around either, and that is still in me today - now I don't walk up and roundhouse someone in such situations, but I'll speak up for those that may need it.
In soccer I was a fullback and a goalie, in hockey I was (surprise) a defenseman, and when I picked up lacrosse in college I played point and cover point, but was a goalie once (that has its own ridiculous story). I did the camps and clinics for both soccer and hockey, a great memory comes from one summer in the '80s I was at a hockey camp in extremely rural
Quebec where some players from the Montreal Canadiens would come and do clinics and skate with you... well, at the time Brian Hayward and Patrick Roy were the goalies, and we got to shoot on them... and I am proud to say that of the 5 that Roy let in on something like a 120 shots by us kids, two were mine. Roy, on the other hand, was not as happy when he found out I was a girl.
In soccer, I always played an age group or two up or with the boys, and even had the chance to play with some members who went on to national team, so that was incredibly fun and a great experience. Though it was weird when practice ended and everyone jumped in their cars to go home, and there I was waiting for my mom since I was maybe 13-14. In high school after giving up competitive tennis, I was talked into trying track and field and then spent a couple great years doing shot put, discus and javelin. Javelin I liked and did well at, but the shot and discus were my favorites, I almost did them in college but balked. I think I liked the fact that even though it was such an old sport there are only so many subtle adjustments you can make - it's still essentially the same as it was a thousand years ago.
I also grew up skiing, sailing, windsurfing, playing tennis (I had a great serve - it was big, it was fast, and it was also just out half the time), having a blast playing football (the American version) and take great pride in throwing a nice spiral, and from my father I am also into auto racing. My dad's raced cars since he was little, so when I was younger I was always at the track with some of the most amazing cars, helping out in the pits, getting parts, you name it. I still follow the pro side of racing, but it's hard to see F1 here and get detailed info on it. I've lost interest in Indy cars because it's far too political these days, and I haven't watched much CART since Greg Moore died. And to my dismay, I've become a bit of a NASCAR fan in the past couple years. But racing in general is always thrilling to watch, and if you get the chance to drive, it's even better. I love to see the guys in the rally cars screaming at each other as they're driving through trees at 110 mph or launching off sand dunes, or even watching the bravest of the brave - the motorcycle racers who put that bike nearly on its side while pulling off 2/3 apex.
I learned to ski at the age of four when my dad and a buddy of his got me all suited up and hauled me up on the lift and then stood me at the top of the mountain. Now this is top of the mountain, not the top of the beginners slope... and I was four. My dad then watched a few people start down before pointing and saying to me,
"See that person?"
"Yes," I said.
"Good, now just do that."
I've been skiing ever since. One amazing thing is that despite my knee problems and surgeries, skiing does not bother them and I am able to ski my brains out pain-free. I love the speed (think Super-G and downhill) of it but I also love the solitude that skiing brings you. Also, not many things make you forget about lunch and make you wish 4pm never came. Besides my beloved Volants, I have a pair of rather cherished bump skis that I break out from time to time. I worked in an awful job for 18 months just to get the free skiing perks and discount on all sorts of equipment. I'm getting ready for this ski season as we speak - lots of stairs, bike and balance board... it's supposed to be a harsh winter, I can't wait! My skis get their tune-up in October.
One of my wilder ski stories come from high school when I was doing some slalom and downhill racing at a new mountain. The staff had set the course and we were all to get a few runs before actual competition. I ended up, for whatever reason, being the first one down to test the course. The ski area was on the smaller side so they tried to use every bit of terrain that they could. The lifts were right at the parking lot and the area where we'd slow down came right up against this same small area. Well, I'm cruising towards the final few sweeping turns and for a second I think it doesn't look like there's enough space to actually stop. "They must know what they're doing," went through my head and I just kept going - well up over the last ridge I flew and at that same moment, while airborne realized that there wasn't enough room because they had set the course wrong towards the end. Where we were to be banking right the course actually threw us (me) off to the left and the last gate was too close to the finish area. Maybe that's hard to picture, but the end result was that after a blind turn and jump, I had maybe 25 feet to land, sweep right to slow down/stop to avoid shooting into the actual parking lot - full of mud, gravel and cars. Of course there's no way that was happening and I think I hit the snow maybe 8 feet before the parking lot, with a lot of speed. Let me tell you, it was almost like hitting a wall - one ski popped off instantly when it hit the mud, I catapulted up over some station wagon as if I were shot out of a cannon, landed in some ice and dirt and then skidded on my right side at least another 10 feet or so and stopped up against the outdoor paddle tennis courts, half in a mud puddle. I was so amazed at what happened and stunned that I was essentially okay that I just started laughing. By the time the ski officials got to me, I was crying - from laughing so hard sitting there all by myself in the mud, nowhere near snow with one ski on and spitting dirt out of my mouth. They of course were freaking out and worried about all my cuts and thought I must have broken something. A friend of mine, once she realized I was fine, said that the sight of me flying through the air practically upside down was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen.
I started laughing all over again and said that "flying through the air upside down wasn't so bad, it was just seeing the station wagon getting closer and closer that scared me!" The moral of my story - don't ever be the first one down a course - in anything! My next skiing "goal" is to heliski someplace great in the next couple years, whether Utah, Canada, Europe or New Zealand... as long as I still have funds available for Vancouver 2010!
In following sports and for my own entertainment, I've always loved reading and absorbing information. For me, it's a chicken-or-the-egg issue... did my love of sports make me want to read more about it, or in reading about sports did I want to then see everything I could? My non-athletic favorites are crime/mystery (such as Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham) but I also like history and non-fiction (put it this way, as an 11 year old I spent a summer reading Alex Haley's Roots, and it was not required for school). Reading newspapers and magazines was how I followed a lot of sports growing up because we never had cable until I went off to college. I also listened to sports on the radio... two crazy things I remember are listening to an Ali fight on the radio and another time working on cars with my dad while listening to the America's Cup on the radio. How ridiculous is that, sailing on the radio?! But I listened.
In high school I was torn between deciding upon a "life" as a sportswriter or as an athletic trainer, and went off to college deciding on the latter. I took all the classes and labs and enjoyed it, but didn't love it as much as I loved "words"... so I switched to Sport Communications, with the focus on print, not TV - I have no desire to be on TV. During the summers I wrote feature articles for the sports section of my local town's paper (only about 24,000 people) and then did an internship in college where I did both sportswriting and shot game photos. When not working, I'd shoot any game I could and made all my spending money by selling my photos to the players... in college football, no quarterback can resist a photo of themselves and linemen are just happy to be in one.
After college I got a paying internship within a university's athletic department and had a blast, totally confirming that "when I grow up" I'd like to work for either a pro league or team in PR, Media Relations, etc. I got to work with every team, all the students, coaches, other media people, write-create-edit media guides, do feature stories for game programs - you name it. And one of the better perks - travel!! Another thing I love to do! It's so much fun rolling into an opponent's town, staying in hotels, keeping with your routine (superstitions), game day, working like crazy, trying to finish before the bus rolls out, getting home at 1-2am... then do it all again in two days. I loved it all and would do it again in a flash. I went to Bermuda with the football team, Alaska with the basketball team, Annapolis for Navy games, West Point to take on Army, and all around the east coast and mid-Atlantic states. The only down side was that I working so much I could only ski 8 days.
Alaska is one of the greatest places I've ever been to and will someday make it back there to enjoy it own my own, that and Venice, Italy are my favorite places in the world. In a super-close second is Austria... living there would be a dream. My amusing Alaska incident: there are something like 9 men to every woman in that state, and walking into a bar with a college women's basketball team sure caused a stir! And at 5'9" I was honestly one of the shorter people in our group, it was hysterical!
I've done crazy things in the name of sport, just for hockey I've driven 15 hours to see the NY Rangers Stanley Cup ticker-tape parade; years ago I carried a pair of old and very heavy Boston Garden stadium seats five blocks after getting up at 4am and driving three hours to wait in line six hours to purchase them for $600 - and I didn't even leave the line to get Bobby Orr's autograph (to this day still don't have his autograph);
and as a representation of my most favorite hockey memory... I have a piece of artwork depicting the 1980 US Olympic hockey team signed by every player. I bought it in my absolute favorite store in Lake Placid, The Pipe and Book, and I was maybe 16... spent all the money I had made the whole summer to purchase it.
Some silly things on sport in general - one job I've had is stringing racquets, another had me operating TV cameras for a college football show; I caught a Mark McGwire home run ball in Baltimore without a glove; two of my sports comments have appeared on CNNSI's website - one on Michael Jordan and the other on NASCAR; in college I'd ride my mountain bike some 40 miles a day to avoid boredom;
I've run the bases at the field from "Field of Dreams" out in Iowa and have two of the cornstalks and an ear of corn; I've skated around two Olympic speed skating rinks; seen the facilities of every Winter Olympic host city that I am anywhere near - Calgary, Innsbruck, Sarajevo, Lake Placid, Salt Lake City (Summer are St Louis and Montreal) - 
and I am already figuring out how to go to Vancouver in 2010. The Summer Games are just as great to me, but I am not a hot weather girl, and sports you don't always get to see on TV all take place during the winter games (my apologies to tennis).
In regards to travel, I spent some weeks in Europe just after I turned 12 as part of an orchestra that played in five countries. The rest of the kids were juniors and seniors in high school, and I was this little, quiet cello player... off to Europe with them, and since I wasn't in the same school as these kids, I was pretty much on my own - and I had a fabulous time.
This is where Austria comes in, as well as Germany, Italy, what was then Yugoslavia, and Hungary. From border patrol guards with machine guns on the bus to playing concerts outside in the streets of Vienna to being a kid on your own walking down tiny narrow streets in Baden. Even though I was young, I had such an appreciation of the trip because of being a history buff (thanks to reading), and of course I had my camera with me everywhere I went!
Also part of what makes me who I am are the injuries and health problems I've experienced, through sports and just life in general. I've had a couple knee surgeries, some foot operations, and three operations regarding my serious asthma and allergies. I was pretty healthy, except for my knees, with all the sports I did until I hit my late teens - then sports caught up with me and asthma came into and took over my life, after never having any symptoms of it until I was 17. After some years of off and on flareups, it deteriorated to the point where my asthma could come on at any moment - walking my dogs, getting the mail or just sitting at my computer - it didn't matter the level of activity. My only aid came from using inhalers multiple times a day and getting treatment from a nebulizer a couple times a week. Every place I went I had to pack the device and make sure I could get to an outlet if I needed one. My allergies caused terrible headaches and I lost my senses of smell and taste. I was able to do less and less and at times was afraid to go places because of my fear of an asthma attack. Such simple things as going out to eat, taking a plane anywhere, catching a concert, rearranging some furniture all became an issue - do I try it and hope I don't get into a problem, or just pass?
During my third operation for allergies in Dec 2001 I nearly died due to a medical mistake (was given a drug I'm allergic to in recovery) and spent two days in the hospital with a night in ICU. As I was waking up after a successful procedure, I was given something in my IV, and I remember telling the nurse I was beginning to have a hard time breathing. Within seconds I was in the middle of the worst asthma attack I'd ever had, and I had three before that nearly required ER trips. They called in the head pulmonary doctor and I was given all sorts of treatment, but a lot of it was up to me and whether or not I would start to panic, which would have been very bad. I just focused and relied on my usual way of trying to contain an attack - counting as I was trying to get a breath in and then as I exhaled. To give you an idea, think of one second - that was all I could get into my lungs to breathe - almost like that involuntary breath you take before you sneeze. Then I could exhale for barely two seconds, and then try for another second to get a breathe back in. My heart monitor at one point was at 174, just lying there trying to breathe. After about 20 minutes I was able to get slightly deeper breathes and the extra doses of medicine were beginning to work. Throughout the night I received inhaled treatments every couple hours and learned I was the youngest person in ICU and the only one that was conscious, so the nurses weren't used to my talking to them when they were in the room. The next day I went through more tests and received three new medications that I take twice a day and since then there have been no attacks, not even some wheezing. After just a weekend on the new medicines, my lungs went from 45% of the normal capacity to 98%. After my recheck, I sat in my car and cried from happiness, which had never happened to me before in my entire life. That incident has changed my life - enabling me to resume some of the things that I missed out on for so long, also regaining my "just go for it" attitude. A lifelong dream of going to the Olympic Games happened just two months later, and I had to be one of the happiest people there - in the cold, at altitude, an asthmatic with no problems whatsoever. There's no way the "old, asthmatic me" would have been able to go and enjoy myself.
Anyway, I digress, I warned you. Speaking of Olympics, my entire life I have been an Olympic Games junkie. If it had to do with the Olympics I read it, watched it, learned it, and would quiz you on it. My absolute greatest experience ever was in February 2002 when I spent the entire month in Utah for the Olympic Games. Yes, the entire month and I went all by myself! I had at least one event a day and soaked up everything like a sponge. From the Opening Ceremonies to speed skating to skiing to of course some hockey to Closing Ceremonies... I was everywhere. I saved for 5 years to go and it was the most money I'd spent on anything, but so worth it - and I am now saving for the games in Vancouver - I am so excited!! It was the greatest thing, just being there witnessing all these athletes so proudly representing their country, seeing all these incredible sports in person, even getting blown away as to how unbelievably fast a bobsled really goes - even uphill.
My favorite part of the Games came just after the Closing Ceremonies as I was trying to get out of the stadium. Somehow I ended up on some far side near this chain-link fence tunnel that was covered up to about 6' high so you couldn't see into the tunnel, maybe the top of someone's head or a hat would pass by. All of a sudden, hundreds of the athletes started coming through the tunnel which led them to the Olympic Village just up the hill. Everyone there - the athletes on the inside and the maybe 65 people (including me) on the outside just instinctively lined the walls tunnel and put their hands up over the top of the fence and started high-fiving and shaking hands as they passed by. The athletes touched every hand and were all saying "Thank you" "Goodbye Olympics" "Thank you America" "Thanks Utah" - and those of us in the small crowd of normal people, comprised of kids, spectators, some security and Army guys were going "Goodbye" "Congratulations" "Thank you" "We'll Miss You." It was remarkable, no matter the massive language barrier everyone had, and the fact that you couldn't really even see one another, there was an alliance between everyone. After some time, the athletes tried tearing down part of the covers so that we could all see one another and to take pictures of this little impromptu going away party.
This memory of all the hands will stay with me forever, I still get goosebumps remembering it. I know it sounds stupid, but I feel it's a perfect representation of the power of sport. People out there were so friendly and the atmosphere was totally electric, it really was a world united. Being there you really felt that if everyone else in the world could experience even just an Opening Ceremonies, there would be less cruelty and evil in the world... how could you possibly hurt any these people?
Well, I guess I'll end that monologue with the Olympics... this is who I am. Maybe it helps explain or gives you an idea of who I am and why I love sports and all it entails.
I took over 400 photos from my time at the Olympics (yes, I shoot photos other than those of Rainer Schuettler) and I had my mini videocamera in action as well.
Here are some of my favorite shots from Utah. Not all are "action" shots, as interesting as those can be, as I think colors and detail are just as important in conveying the overall setting...
Not a tremendous amount to 'roundup' this week, so I'll start with my thoughts on the site's progress so far:
- It takes forever to get all the links and translations done for the regular postings, but it's getting easier as I get used to doing it all. I haven't gotten into learning how to do frames yet, more because I think I'll then try to create everything in frames and I need to step away from the computer from time to time.
- In looking at tracking for the site to date, there have been folks from Romania, Brazil and Spain who've passed through here, in addition to the US and Germany.
- Some people are looking for info on other ATP players, a good amount are searching for live tickers (they are more elusive than you'd imagine), but my favorite search phrase so far has to be: "hot photos of Rainer Schuettler" That just cracks me up!
- Don't know if they found any of those here, but like I said at the start, I just want to 'spread the word' on Rainer and tennis and hope that some fans can find some good info here. It's hard gathering items on him, even just searching can be difficult and time consuming - there are different things found under different spellings... Schuettler, Schuttler, and Schuttler with the umlaut (it matters!). Then there's the whole language thing too... most are German, some English, and then some in French... I have yet to tackle any of those.
- I've also heard from fans that have emailed me through the site and I'm happy to say they liked it and found it helpful. As always, check out Rainer's official site and the fan forum there is worth a look too. Lots of German and European fans talking about Schuettler's results, but also tennis in general.
- You may notice, depending on what info you're looking for on Rainer, that this isn't a site that has gossip or non-tennis details of his life. I absolutely respect the fact that even as a professional athlete, Rainer is a pretty low-key person, and in all the interviews I've seen or read, he doesn't like to get into things regarding his personal life. Because of that, there won't be any sort of rumors or details of such things found here. Unless Rainer himself makes some sort of announcement in that area, it's not relevant to this site. There, that's my 'disclaimer' on that subject.
The only 'personal' information that has me truly curious about Rainer is that I don't think his listed height (5'11", 180cm) and weight (155lbs, 70kg) are true. Now, he's not a big guy, but in some photos he's much smaller than other players (the Davis Cup photo of the German team in suits is the one that really stumps me)... yet in person, he doesn't look at all like a little guy. Attending all sorts of tennis events, I know some players differ as to what they appear to look like on TV - some are definitely bigger and more solid in real life and then there are some that are just downright scrawny. I'd wager that maybe Rainer tops out at 5'10 on a good day but I think he's over 155, even if it's just 160. He's all muscle and with that he can't be just 155, hell one of my dogs weighs 100!
And here's some background on me, for those who care...
I've received some emails asking about me in regards to my involvement with tennis, sports, and writing... so here's "my life"on that. As usual it'll ramble a bit, but even though I don't have an exciting history, it does take up more than a few paragraphs! I picked these events to hopefully explain "who I am"...
I'm American, but thanks to our neighbors (Oh Canada!), I am a huge ice hockey fan... that, not tennis, is actually my favorite sport. If I could've been Bobby Orr as a little girl, I would've done so. I love defense in all sports, because it's true that defense wins championships. Soccer was another huge part of my life, the only sport I played year-round for 15 years and eventually had to stop due to injuries. I just loved soccer, and can see myself coaching youth teams in the future. I also, even as a girl, played hockey - and when I was growing up, there weren't many of us on the ice, so I can fight too. I don't like getting pushed around and I don't like to see others get pushed around either, and that is still in me today - now I don't walk up and roundhouse someone in such situations, but I'll speak up for those that may need it.
In soccer I was a fullback and a goalie, in hockey I was (surprise) a defenseman, and when I picked up lacrosse in college I played point and cover point, but was a goalie once (that has its own ridiculous story). I did the camps and clinics for both soccer and hockey, a great memory comes from one summer in the '80s I was at a hockey camp in extremely rural
Quebec where some players from the Montreal Canadiens would come and do clinics and skate with you... well, at the time Brian Hayward and Patrick Roy were the goalies, and we got to shoot on them... and I am proud to say that of the 5 that Roy let in on something like a 120 shots by us kids, two were mine. Roy, on the other hand, was not as happy when he found out I was a girl.
In soccer, I always played an age group or two up or with the boys, and even had the chance to play with some members who went on to national team, so that was incredibly fun and a great experience. Though it was weird when practice ended and everyone jumped in their cars to go home, and there I was waiting for my mom since I was maybe 13-14. In high school after giving up competitive tennis, I was talked into trying track and field and then spent a couple great years doing shot put, discus and javelin. Javelin I liked and did well at, but the shot and discus were my favorites, I almost did them in college but balked. I think I liked the fact that even though it was such an old sport there are only so many subtle adjustments you can make - it's still essentially the same as it was a thousand years ago.
I also grew up skiing, sailing, windsurfing, playing tennis (I had a great serve - it was big, it was fast, and it was also just out half the time), having a blast playing football (the American version) and take great pride in throwing a nice spiral, and from my father I am also into auto racing. My dad's raced cars since he was little, so when I was younger I was always at the track with some of the most amazing cars, helping out in the pits, getting parts, you name it. I still follow the pro side of racing, but it's hard to see F1 here and get detailed info on it. I've lost interest in Indy cars because it's far too political these days, and I haven't watched much CART since Greg Moore died. And to my dismay, I've become a bit of a NASCAR fan in the past couple years. But racing in general is always thrilling to watch, and if you get the chance to drive, it's even better. I love to see the guys in the rally cars screaming at each other as they're driving through trees at 110 mph or launching off sand dunes, or even watching the bravest of the brave - the motorcycle racers who put that bike nearly on its side while pulling off 2/3 apex.
I learned to ski at the age of four when my dad and a buddy of his got me all suited up and hauled me up on the lift and then stood me at the top of the mountain. Now this is top of the mountain, not the top of the beginners slope... and I was four. My dad then watched a few people start down before pointing and saying to me,
"See that person?"
"Yes," I said.
"Good, now just do that."
I've been skiing ever since. One amazing thing is that despite my knee problems and surgeries, skiing does not bother them and I am able to ski my brains out pain-free. I love the speed (think Super-G and downhill) of it but I also love the solitude that skiing brings you. Also, not many things make you forget about lunch and make you wish 4pm never came. Besides my beloved Volants, I have a pair of rather cherished bump skis that I break out from time to time. I worked in an awful job for 18 months just to get the free skiing perks and discount on all sorts of equipment. I'm getting ready for this ski season as we speak - lots of stairs, bike and balance board... it's supposed to be a harsh winter, I can't wait! My skis get their tune-up in October.
One of my wilder ski stories come from high school when I was doing some slalom and downhill racing at a new mountain. The staff had set the course and we were all to get a few runs before actual competition. I ended up, for whatever reason, being the first one down to test the course. The ski area was on the smaller side so they tried to use every bit of terrain that they could. The lifts were right at the parking lot and the area where we'd slow down came right up against this same small area. Well, I'm cruising towards the final few sweeping turns and for a second I think it doesn't look like there's enough space to actually stop. "They must know what they're doing," went through my head and I just kept going - well up over the last ridge I flew and at that same moment, while airborne realized that there wasn't enough room because they had set the course wrong towards the end. Where we were to be banking right the course actually threw us (me) off to the left and the last gate was too close to the finish area. Maybe that's hard to picture, but the end result was that after a blind turn and jump, I had maybe 25 feet to land, sweep right to slow down/stop to avoid shooting into the actual parking lot - full of mud, gravel and cars. Of course there's no way that was happening and I think I hit the snow maybe 8 feet before the parking lot, with a lot of speed. Let me tell you, it was almost like hitting a wall - one ski popped off instantly when it hit the mud, I catapulted up over some station wagon as if I were shot out of a cannon, landed in some ice and dirt and then skidded on my right side at least another 10 feet or so and stopped up against the outdoor paddle tennis courts, half in a mud puddle. I was so amazed at what happened and stunned that I was essentially okay that I just started laughing. By the time the ski officials got to me, I was crying - from laughing so hard sitting there all by myself in the mud, nowhere near snow with one ski on and spitting dirt out of my mouth. They of course were freaking out and worried about all my cuts and thought I must have broken something. A friend of mine, once she realized I was fine, said that the sight of me flying through the air practically upside down was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen.
I started laughing all over again and said that "flying through the air upside down wasn't so bad, it was just seeing the station wagon getting closer and closer that scared me!" The moral of my story - don't ever be the first one down a course - in anything! My next skiing "goal" is to heliski someplace great in the next couple years, whether Utah, Canada, Europe or New Zealand... as long as I still have funds available for Vancouver 2010!
In following sports and for my own entertainment, I've always loved reading and absorbing information. For me, it's a chicken-or-the-egg issue... did my love of sports make me want to read more about it, or in reading about sports did I want to then see everything I could? My non-athletic favorites are crime/mystery (such as Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham) but I also like history and non-fiction (put it this way, as an 11 year old I spent a summer reading Alex Haley's Roots, and it was not required for school). Reading newspapers and magazines was how I followed a lot of sports growing up because we never had cable until I went off to college. I also listened to sports on the radio... two crazy things I remember are listening to an Ali fight on the radio and another time working on cars with my dad while listening to the America's Cup on the radio. How ridiculous is that, sailing on the radio?! But I listened.
In high school I was torn between deciding upon a "life" as a sportswriter or as an athletic trainer, and went off to college deciding on the latter. I took all the classes and labs and enjoyed it, but didn't love it as much as I loved "words"... so I switched to Sport Communications, with the focus on print, not TV - I have no desire to be on TV. During the summers I wrote feature articles for the sports section of my local town's paper (only about 24,000 people) and then did an internship in college where I did both sportswriting and shot game photos. When not working, I'd shoot any game I could and made all my spending money by selling my photos to the players... in college football, no quarterback can resist a photo of themselves and linemen are just happy to be in one.
After college I got a paying internship within a university's athletic department and had a blast, totally confirming that "when I grow up" I'd like to work for either a pro league or team in PR, Media Relations, etc. I got to work with every team, all the students, coaches, other media people, write-create-edit media guides, do feature stories for game programs - you name it. And one of the better perks - travel!! Another thing I love to do! It's so much fun rolling into an opponent's town, staying in hotels, keeping with your routine (superstitions), game day, working like crazy, trying to finish before the bus rolls out, getting home at 1-2am... then do it all again in two days. I loved it all and would do it again in a flash. I went to Bermuda with the football team, Alaska with the basketball team, Annapolis for Navy games, West Point to take on Army, and all around the east coast and mid-Atlantic states. The only down side was that I working so much I could only ski 8 days.
Alaska is one of the greatest places I've ever been to and will someday make it back there to enjoy it own my own, that and Venice, Italy are my favorite places in the world. In a super-close second is Austria... living there would be a dream. My amusing Alaska incident: there are something like 9 men to every woman in that state, and walking into a bar with a college women's basketball team sure caused a stir! And at 5'9" I was honestly one of the shorter people in our group, it was hysterical!
I've done crazy things in the name of sport, just for hockey I've driven 15 hours to see the NY Rangers Stanley Cup ticker-tape parade; years ago I carried a pair of old and very heavy Boston Garden stadium seats five blocks after getting up at 4am and driving three hours to wait in line six hours to purchase them for $600 - and I didn't even leave the line to get Bobby Orr's autograph (to this day still don't have his autograph);
and as a representation of my most favorite hockey memory... I have a piece of artwork depicting the 1980 US Olympic hockey team signed by every player. I bought it in my absolute favorite store in Lake Placid, The Pipe and Book, and I was maybe 16... spent all the money I had made the whole summer to purchase it.
Some silly things on sport in general - one job I've had is stringing racquets, another had me operating TV cameras for a college football show; I caught a Mark McGwire home run ball in Baltimore without a glove; two of my sports comments have appeared on CNNSI's website - one on Michael Jordan and the other on NASCAR; in college I'd ride my mountain bike some 40 miles a day to avoid boredom;
I've run the bases at the field from "Field of Dreams" out in Iowa and have two of the cornstalks and an ear of corn; I've skated around two Olympic speed skating rinks; seen the facilities of every Winter Olympic host city that I am anywhere near - Calgary, Innsbruck, Sarajevo, Lake Placid, Salt Lake City (Summer are St Louis and Montreal) - and I am already figuring out how to go to Vancouver in 2010. The Summer Games are just as great to me, but I am not a hot weather girl, and sports you don't always get to see on TV all take place during the winter games (my apologies to tennis).
In regards to travel, I spent some weeks in Europe just after I turned 12 as part of an orchestra that played in five countries. The rest of the kids were juniors and seniors in high school, and I was this little, quiet cello player... off to Europe with them, and since I wasn't in the same school as these kids, I was pretty much on my own - and I had a fabulous time.
This is where Austria comes in, as well as Germany, Italy, what was then Yugoslavia, and Hungary. From border patrol guards with machine guns on the bus to playing concerts outside in the streets of Vienna to being a kid on your own walking down tiny narrow streets in Baden. Even though I was young, I had such an appreciation of the trip because of being a history buff (thanks to reading), and of course I had my camera with me everywhere I went!
Also part of what makes me who I am are the injuries and health problems I've experienced, through sports and just life in general. I've had a couple knee surgeries, some foot operations, and three operations regarding my serious asthma and allergies. I was pretty healthy, except for my knees, with all the sports I did until I hit my late teens - then sports caught up with me and asthma came into and took over my life, after never having any symptoms of it until I was 17. After some years of off and on flareups, it deteriorated to the point where my asthma could come on at any moment - walking my dogs, getting the mail or just sitting at my computer - it didn't matter the level of activity. My only aid came from using inhalers multiple times a day and getting treatment from a nebulizer a couple times a week. Every place I went I had to pack the device and make sure I could get to an outlet if I needed one. My allergies caused terrible headaches and I lost my senses of smell and taste. I was able to do less and less and at times was afraid to go places because of my fear of an asthma attack. Such simple things as going out to eat, taking a plane anywhere, catching a concert, rearranging some furniture all became an issue - do I try it and hope I don't get into a problem, or just pass?
During my third operation for allergies in Dec 2001 I nearly died due to a medical mistake (was given a drug I'm allergic to in recovery) and spent two days in the hospital with a night in ICU. As I was waking up after a successful procedure, I was given something in my IV, and I remember telling the nurse I was beginning to have a hard time breathing. Within seconds I was in the middle of the worst asthma attack I'd ever had, and I had three before that nearly required ER trips. They called in the head pulmonary doctor and I was given all sorts of treatment, but a lot of it was up to me and whether or not I would start to panic, which would have been very bad. I just focused and relied on my usual way of trying to contain an attack - counting as I was trying to get a breath in and then as I exhaled. To give you an idea, think of one second - that was all I could get into my lungs to breathe - almost like that involuntary breath you take before you sneeze. Then I could exhale for barely two seconds, and then try for another second to get a breathe back in. My heart monitor at one point was at 174, just lying there trying to breathe. After about 20 minutes I was able to get slightly deeper breathes and the extra doses of medicine were beginning to work. Throughout the night I received inhaled treatments every couple hours and learned I was the youngest person in ICU and the only one that was conscious, so the nurses weren't used to my talking to them when they were in the room. The next day I went through more tests and received three new medications that I take twice a day and since then there have been no attacks, not even some wheezing. After just a weekend on the new medicines, my lungs went from 45% of the normal capacity to 98%. After my recheck, I sat in my car and cried from happiness, which had never happened to me before in my entire life. That incident has changed my life - enabling me to resume some of the things that I missed out on for so long, also regaining my "just go for it" attitude. A lifelong dream of going to the Olympic Games happened just two months later, and I had to be one of the happiest people there - in the cold, at altitude, an asthmatic with no problems whatsoever. There's no way the "old, asthmatic me" would have been able to go and enjoy myself.
Anyway, I digress, I warned you. Speaking of Olympics, my entire life I have been an Olympic Games junkie. If it had to do with the Olympics I read it, watched it, learned it, and would quiz you on it. My absolute greatest experience ever was in February 2002 when I spent the entire month in Utah for the Olympic Games. Yes, the entire month and I went all by myself! I had at least one event a day and soaked up everything like a sponge. From the Opening Ceremonies to speed skating to skiing to of course some hockey to Closing Ceremonies... I was everywhere. I saved for 5 years to go and it was the most money I'd spent on anything, but so worth it - and I am now saving for the games in Vancouver - I am so excited!! It was the greatest thing, just being there witnessing all these athletes so proudly representing their country, seeing all these incredible sports in person, even getting blown away as to how unbelievably fast a bobsled really goes - even uphill.
My favorite part of the Games came just after the Closing Ceremonies as I was trying to get out of the stadium. Somehow I ended up on some far side near this chain-link fence tunnel that was covered up to about 6' high so you couldn't see into the tunnel, maybe the top of someone's head or a hat would pass by. All of a sudden, hundreds of the athletes started coming through the tunnel which led them to the Olympic Village just up the hill. Everyone there - the athletes on the inside and the maybe 65 people (including me) on the outside just instinctively lined the walls tunnel and put their hands up over the top of the fence and started high-fiving and shaking hands as they passed by. The athletes touched every hand and were all saying "Thank you" "Goodbye Olympics" "Thank you America" "Thanks Utah" - and those of us in the small crowd of normal people, comprised of kids, spectators, some security and Army guys were going "Goodbye" "Congratulations" "Thank you" "We'll Miss You." It was remarkable, no matter the massive language barrier everyone had, and the fact that you couldn't really even see one another, there was an alliance between everyone. After some time, the athletes tried tearing down part of the covers so that we could all see one another and to take pictures of this little impromptu going away party.
This memory of all the hands will stay with me forever, I still get goosebumps remembering it. I know it sounds stupid, but I feel it's a perfect representation of the power of sport. People out there were so friendly and the atmosphere was totally electric, it really was a world united. Being there you really felt that if everyone else in the world could experience even just an Opening Ceremonies, there would be less cruelty and evil in the world... how could you possibly hurt any these people?
Well, I guess I'll end that monologue with the Olympics... this is who I am. Maybe it helps explain or gives you an idea of who I am and why I love sports and all it entails.
I took over 400 photos from my time at the Olympics (yes, I shoot photos other than those of Rainer Schuettler) and I had my mini videocamera in action as well.
Here are some of my favorite shots from Utah. Not all are "action" shots, as interesting as those can be, as I think colors and detail are just as important in conveying the overall setting...
posted by Sprtswrtr @ 8:55 AM
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