Covering a hometown Olympian from afar

The PR person at USA Boxing is fantastic. Her name is Julie, and I'm sure she'll work something out with you.

Also, try to make inroads at the boxer's local gym ASAP. I'm sure they'll be watching closely and enthusiastically.

Lastly, a caveat: athlete blogs can be risky. Find out beforehand if they can write decently and can express themselves on paper. Then, if so, try to pay as handsomely as possible. Amateur boxers in the US don't make crap and a little $ would go a long way.

Good luck!

 

Papers I have worked for have done this before, before Internet and after Internet. Nothing beats boots on the ground, so have a contact in place in London, whether it's a PR person, family member, etc., that you can call or text just in case. And good luck. Sounds like you have some good ideas brewing.

 

on the local front, see if anyone is hosting a watch party during his fights. Also see if he can tweet pics from the opening ceremony that you can then re-tweet

 

At one time -- and I believe this is still the case -- Olympic athletes were not permitted to write (in the truest sense of the word, as opposed to calling in or e-mailing "diaries") for publications, with or without pay. Paying them for their writing services would almost certainly disqualify them from the Games and/or the next sanctioned competition if they're caught. This may no longer be the case, but considering the draconian rules being placed on Olympic workers and even fans for the London Games, it would be surprising if it weren't.

Your first step, as has been noted, would be to make contact -- if not fast friends -- with the press people at USA Boxing.

 

If you can wrangle any money for a stringer and you can hook up with someone over there, that would be a solid move. I have found the USOC to be worthless.

A local athlete I had covered since she was age 10 made the U.S. team one year. I got a nice sendoff piece on her and a promise from her and her mother (who was the only family member traveling with her) that she would do an email or skype interview with me in the aftermath of her events and that we would get together when she returned.

I wasn't able to get in touch with them while they were abroad, but I understood that. I was invited to attend a viewing party with her family and friends and got a story out of that.

When she returned? Apparently, she was too big for the local rag. My calls and emails all went unreturned. Meanwhile, she did interviews for every local TV station and the metro paper in the area.

It was pretty irritating since I had been covering her for about six years (she was that good that at age 10 or 11, it was already clear she would become an Olympian) and, to that point, had a very good rapport with the girl and her family, or at least so I thought.

I occasionally see her father out and he does not acknowledge me. Very odd. And, yes, I'm bitter.

 

Excellent suggestions, some I had thought of on my own, and a few I hadn't. So far, been playing phone tag with the rep, but do have another route toward getting the story. Also plan on dropping a note to our AP bureau chief as well.

 

I second all the recommendations to do as much homework beforehand as you can, whether it's the athlete, family members, agent, national governing body, etc.

Been there, done that -- and it was a lot more fun than you'd think! With all the live coverage planned on various TV networks and online, you might be able to watch the local guy fight at home and at least break that down.

If your paper is part of a bigger group, like Gannett or McClatchy, you might be able to get something special via the parent company. Gannett News Service (RIP) would take requests at past Olympics and other international events.

 

Well, we're Lee, so ... but looking for a viewing party is how I stumbled into a huge break in 2008. I'd only been on the job a couple of weeks and not only had my predecessor done much pre-Olympic work in advance, but the other half of the department was on vacation. But there was a flyer for a meet-and-greet thing they'd held before I moved back into sports, so, just as a shot in the dark, I call the number listed and end up waking up the guy's aunt the next morning in Beijing! No, nothing locally ... but she was going to see him later that day and did I want an interview? Hell yeah! Didn't get it until 1:30 the next morning (yes, we're a pm), but I got it!