Tagged: Sochi
Chance Encounters, Mindfulness, and Hippies
Today’s post came from a chance encounter I had walking home from work last week. Chipotle and dry cleaning in hand, I was crossing the street in front of my place when I ran into a gentleman searching for a bookstore. As I gently broke the news to him that there were no bookstores within walking distance (and wondered how on Earth I was still living in this intellectually-barren wasteland), we fell into a conversation about schools and careers and goals. Because Washington.
“Lost sidewalk man” was actually Kenneth Wesson, noted brain researcher and education consultant. Kenneth being a neuroscientist and me being in the veteran space, we organically hit on the topic of traumatic brain injury (TBI). I told him about Chris Clemens, a veteran I had worked with at the training center.
While deployed to Afghanistan in 2004, Chris sustained a traumatic brain injury when an RPG exploded in his camp. Still, that summer I watched Chris sprint, long jump, and train his way to the 2012 London Paralympic Games. Kenneth told me that adaptive sports are so effective at treating TBI because they non-surgically re-wire the brain.
That stuck with me. Non-surgically rewiring the brain.
Back in March, Rebecca Hiscott over at Mashable listed eight ways technology had started to re-wire the human brain. In the 1950s, people dreamed in black and white. Our memory and attention spans are worse. Our visual skills and creativity are better. And “phantom vibration syndrome” is a thing. A very annoying thing.
The point that we can train the brain the same way we train the body. Often times what separates a gold and silver medalist is…mindfulness. (Knew that religion major would come in handy someday!) And I think it’s a lot like that in life. Mindfulness before that interview or date or hard conversation.
During Sochi, Mike Wise at the Washington Post profiled snowboarder & gold medalist Jamie Anderson:
Asked what helped her cope with the pressure before the night of the event, music, candles or meditation, Anderson said, “All of the above. . . . Put on some meditation music, burn some sage. Got the candles going. Just trying to do a little bit of yoga.”
Ommmm
After she was through centering a group of stressed-out reporters on Internet deadlines, it wasn’t clear whether she had just swept the slopestyle snowboarding events for the U.S. or was set to open a restorative wellness center with a noon Ashtanga class.
Either way: Tell your children to breathe. Be present. Don’t worry about sending them to institutions of higher learning; take a walk in the woods. Chill-ax, it’ll all work out.
Freaking hippie might just be on to something.
Bolshoi, Basil’s, and Babushka: Just what is Russia’s Sochi Strategy?
Last week in class, to my utter delight, we talked a bit about sports diplomacy and the media. The course is Media & Foreign Policy, so basically take any subject you want, add media, and we could probably go for a couple hours if you let us. Last week, we started talking about the messages host countries send by hosting the Olympics, the World Cup, and though we didn’t bring it up, I’m going to retrospectively throw in world expos because I love them and it’s my blog. Diplomacy, for the most part, is half about knowing your audience and half about knowing your message. Forget the Socratic adage “Know thyself.” It’s more like “Know what thou wantest them thither to know.” Longer, but truer.
Textbook case would be Beijing 2008. If you watch television, read magazines at the doctor’s office, or are really just alive in any way, you would know that China kind of knocked those opening ceremonies out of the park. In the build up to London 2012, the question on everyone’s lips: how could Britain possibly top that spectacle of power, numbers, and strategically-placed LED screens?
Danny Boyle’s ode to Britain was the best thing London 2012 could have done. From a personal point-of-view, I thought it was highly enjoyable. I love the theater. From a Media & FP perspective, they succeeded. Because you know what, they knew their audience. China’s whole messaging was focused on introducing the world to China, demystifying an ancient land, and setting the stage for its arrival on the world scene. Britain’s been on the scene since Methuselah. People know Britain and British culture already, from Shakespeare to Rowling, Mary Poppins to James Bond. Danny Boyle was like “We may not have 2,008 frighteningly in-sync drummers, but darn it, we’ve got the Queen!…Let’s throw her out of an airplane!”
It’s all about knowing your audience, guys. So as news alerts about Sochi start to rush into my inbox, I have to wonder what Russia’s Sochi Strategy is. Will their display of history and culture jump from the tzars to Sharapova, or are we going to be honest and throw a little Cold War in there? Britain conveniently side-stepped that whole Imperialism bit, so I doubt it. I for one predict an opening of Matryoshka dolls…over and over again, some Sochi Smackdown: War & Peace vs. Crime & Punishment, all rounded out by the entire Bolshoi Ballet contorted into St. Basil’s Cathedral. Called it!
K.O. at Battle for US Olympic Broadcast Rights
Greetings and Salutations, dear reader (hah! two pop culture references in the first five words…I’m nice. 5 points if you can tell me where they’re from).
Anyway so sorry for the prolonged hiatus from Good Times and Gold Medals. I got caught up in the not-so-little business of graduating from college and figuring out the future, but it’s done! Undergrad is a wrap, and the future is looking bright, so with persistent kicking from two of my good friends, I once again delve into the world of sporting excellence and entertainment that is the Olympic Games. Well actually, I never really leave that world, but you do, so I’m here to drag you back.
This week on As the Torch Burns, the dust is only beginning to settle from the battle for broadcasting rights for 2014 and 2016. Ever since the January shakeup at NBC, the question of whether the network’s dominance could finally be challenged by a more confident ESPN or Fox Sports has been on everyone’s mind. New owner Comcast seemed much less gung-ho about committing to the Games than the guys at General Electric, especially in light of the $223 million lost at the Vancouver Games. Still it seemed promising that Comcast would use the Games as a way to validate their new leadership and maintain NBC’s close relationship with the IOC.
Plot Twist!! Less than one month before he was to lead the NBC delegation to Switzerland to do battle royal for the 2014/2016 rights, Dick Ebersol, the architect of NBC’s Olympic dominance since 1995, resigned from the Sports Division. Unable to reach a compromise with Comcast about his four-year contract, Ebersol chose to pack up and leave his 22-year career at NBC Sports.
Comcast took a moment to recognize Ebersol and the ending of an era, but kept it moving by appointing former head of Turner Entertainment Group Mark Lazarus as the new lead. Bringing in an outsider…interesting.
Continuing on, bidding began this past Monday at the Beau Rivage Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland (home of the IOC and the International Olympic Museum). The NYTimes claimed that the feel surrounding the meeting was one of “Lowering the Bar”. For the first time since the mid-1990s, ESPN and Fox stood a good chance to beat NBC, and it seemed as though all three delegations were calculating the least amount it needed to bid rather than the usual rallying of resources to deliver a KO.
Presentations were made Monday and Tuesday, followed by sealed bids and deliberation. The NYTimes reports, “Fox dropped in four envelopes, ESPN put in two and NBC dropped in a thin envelope and a noticeably thicker one.” Pins and needles, folks, pins and needles.
And the winner……Comcast NBC!!!
End of an era, my foot! Comcast NBC bid a KOoooo $4.38 billion for the US rights to the next FOUR Olympics. That’s right, 2014 Sochi, 2016 Rio, and two Games that we don’t even know the location of yet. For the record, Fox bid $3.4 billion for the next four Games, and ESPN $1.4 billion for Sochi and Rio only. The IOC breathed a huge sigh of relief at this sign of NBC’s continued commitment, with member Richard Carrion releasing the statement, “We were blown away by the NBC presentation and the passion the team has for the Olympics…I’d be less than honest if I said the dollars didn’t come into play.”
Here’s to another decade of Matt Lauer and Al Roker and their heroic (and hilarious) efforts to become Olympic athletes within a 3-minute news spot. Cheers!
Good Times & Gold Medals 