...I was on a trip that would change my life-literally.
But little did I know that at the time. Everyone else knew it, except me. I was too busy working my fanny off to do battle with people who said they couldn't be taken to task, that they deserved the big prize, after Sydney beat them out.
They ultimately were proved wrong, in one sixty-second exchange, that sent 600 reporters running to their computers and the auxiliary media work room across town going dead silent. A buddy of mine was in there, and later on that day, we met up for a drink and I asked him what the reaction was.
"You could have heard a pin drop", he said. Another guy was overheard to say "She's nailed it."
When someone came up to me later and said that I "was quite prepared", I had to respond by saying that I had no choice. I was a one-man band, going up against people who had been doing this for ten, twenty or more years. With j-school degrees.
My qualifications? A passion for justice, spurned by the senseless beating of a dear friend of mine, which eventually required her to be on a medivac flight back to her home country. I didn't want it to happen to anyone else, and I wasn't prepared to toe the Party line either that so many folks here in this country were all to eager to appease.
I can't believe it's been seven years. I am still quite humbled at the years since. It's been an amazing journey, full of laughs, tears, and yes, sometimes puzzlement. But I wouldn't have done anything differently or said anything different in the years since.
Hey, I am even grateful for the jerks, because they teach me how not to present myself at IOC activities. No one is above anyone else, and no one is better than anyone else.
We're all in this together.
Stay safe, stay cool and most important, stay humbled. There is not enough of that in the Olympic media pool right now and it's desperately needed.
Thank you.
