All My Nonsense From Rio 2016

23 Aug All My Nonsense From Rio 2016

Posted at 15:10h in Sport, Uncategorized by Greg Wyshynski
Rio

Rio

You know, it’s the little things you miss when you’ve been covering the Olympics for nearly a month. Your family. Your dog. The Food Network. A bed that isn’t two double beds crammed together in a generic hotel room, where they had last night’s dinner on the breakfast buffet (seriously, fried shrimp and pizza). Cabs you can take without worrying they’re part of a network of criminals determined to steal your iPhone. Water you can, you know, drink and stuff.

I arrived back from Rio De Janeiro this morning. It’s my fourth Olympics with Yahoo Sports, and I’m in constant awe of how much quality work our staff creates in such a short period of time. And it’s not just event coverage. It’s Eric Adelson going to the bathroom where the Ryan Lochte incident occurred, or any number writers overcoming language barriers to spin incredible tales.

For me, the thrill of the Summer Olympics (this is my second, along with London) is learning on the fly. About athletes. About sports. About storylines. It’s like an ever-changing coverage, and reminiscent of my newspaper work on high-school sports vs. my hockey work. I pretty much know the particulars when I walk into an NHL press box. I’m plugging into the Matrix to download “Rugby 7s” when I walk into that Olympic venue.

And the pace … wow. Eighteen-hour days from the moment you get on site. I wrote more stories on buses in between events than I did at actual events.

I’m proud of the work I do at the Olympics, because I’m striving to provide coverage that goes beyond what you’ll see on NBC. To transport you to the host city. To give you a sense of the ridiculous, but also of the reality of the Games’ problems — cover the goofy hats at the Megastore, and then cover the IOC’s corrupt ineptitude, sometimes in the same morning.

Above all else, I’m proud to have told some really great fucking stories.

Here are all the pieces from the Rio Games, including some videos and podcasts. In total, I wrote or videoed or podcasted 81 things while in Rio. Which, I believe, was more than my total number of hours of sleep during the Olympics but sightly less than the total pounds of red meat I consumed.

Thanks for reading and listening, and supporting my non-hockey work. Now, back to pucks!