"This is the greatest moment of my life."

This sentence was said to me countless times during my time working as a flash quote reporter for Olympic handball. That's a pretty loaded statement and no matter how many times I heard it, it never got old. The first time an athlete said that to me was when Jung Suyoung of team Korea scored a tying goal with seconds ticking off the clock to end the game. When I spoke to him after the game, albeit through a translator, he could not stop smiling and the joy on his face was enough to make me smile as well.

For an athlete like Jung to prepare his whole life for a shot at Olympic glory, scoring such an important goal for his team was the greatest feeling he could have achieved, and for me, being able to talk to him during that moment was an honor. Korea did not end up winning a medal in Beijing, but Jung Suyoung will never forget the goal he scored - the greatest moment of his life and I will never forget talking to him afterwards.

Another time I heard similar words, were from Iker Romero of the Spanish team. In the semifinals Spain lost to Iceland and Romero could not have been more devastated. Spain came to Beijing in search of gold or silver and now the best they could do was bronze. However, the relief that Romero felt when Spain upset Croatia, the defending Olympic gold medallists, was indescribable. Though winning the bronze was not necessarily the happiest moment of Romero's life the sense of accomplishment he described to me while I spoke to him after the match was incredible. Spain earned medals in previous world championships and European Championships and as Romero described to me, "I will take the three medals I have won in the past four years, put them in my room, and when I look at them I will think to myself, 'This wasn't so bad.'" I really thought that was a great way to put things in perspective.

However, the greatest moment had to have been from speaking with Iceland's Sigfus Sigurdsson after Iceland won the silver medal. Iceland was not expected to win a medal in this tournament, especially considering the last medal the tiny nation of 300,000 people won at a Summer games was in 1956. Sigurdsson is one of Iceland's emotional leader, standing at 6'6" and weighing in at 251 pounds. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and cried countless tears of joy as he was presented with his silver medal. Before Sigurdsson came through the mixed zone, the president of Iceland was speaking with some media and told us that this was the greatest sporting achievement in Iceland's history. When I told that Sigurdsson, his face lit up. He said he couldn't wait to get home because he thought the entire population of Iceland would be waiting for him at the airport. We were also able to share a laugh when he exclaimed, "Today I am the happiest man in Asia!"

As a journalist, capturing the emotion of a moment is one of the most important things. Being able to share the greatest moment of someone's life with someone is an amazing feeling. After seeing the joy on these athletes' faces as they achieved their own form of glory has proved to me that the Olympic dream is still alive. These athletes will undoubtedly never forget these moments for their entire lives and having the honor of sharing it with them is a memory that will stay with me forever.

The Men's Handball Gold medal matchup between France and Iceland was a crushing of sorts, but there was a hidden meaning behind the game. No one really expected Iceland to come out with Olympic Gold, yet no one really expected them to be playing for the chance to medal either. In order to get there, France beat Croatia and Iceland beat Spain in the semifinals.

Team Iceland was definitely the biggest shocker of the tournament. The country of Iceland had previously won three other medals since their inception to the summer Olympics. A Silver medal in Athletics, and a Bronze medal in Judo and Athletics. But get this, the Silver medal was won back in 1956. This story was unbelievable. In recent competitions, the Iceland men's team came in 9th at the Olympics in Athens, 8th at the 2007 World Handball Championships, and 11th at the 2008 European Championships. 

After their loss to France, their heads were held low and their coach were disappointed in their performance. But soon after the medal ceremony, when all of team Iceland was standing at the podium, tears of absolute joy ran from their faces. These medals mean so much to not only the players themselves, but for the country. It really is symbolic. 

I am so glad that I could experience this interaction first hand. Athletes train for the Olympics for four years so they can put on their best performance possible. This Olympics was no different. We saw triumph and we saw defeat. I can only look forward for the next coming Olympics and see how teams jumble around and who emerges top of the Handball world.

The culminations of four years of preparations and training bring out a wide range of emotions. At handball we are now a game away from awarding the gold medal.  Norway and Russia will be vying for the prize.  Behind them the two teams have left ten others who have walked of the court defeated, but not without controversy.

Waiting in the mixed zone to do an interview, I expect one team in tears and the other in absolute joy. It is very cool to witness the opposite reactions simultaneously.  It has become common place and I have learned to deal with both the winners and the losers. I greet the winners with a wide smile and a loud “congratulations,” the losers receive my straight face and a somber toned, “how disappointed are you right now” (like I really have to ask when the person I’m interviewing is balling her eyes out).

Then yesterday controversy struck and I got different kind of reaction from team Korea.  I had left the press tribune with two minutes left and Korea losing to Norway by three goals in the semifinal match.  I got to the mixed zone just in time to see the score change on the TV to from “27-28” to“28-28,” I didn’t even see the goal being scored.  I did see, seconds later, Norway score the game winning goal with no time left.  After the entire team finished dancing in a circle together Norway’s players ran of the court.  Korea went nowhere.  The head coach was talking with referees and officials, the players all sat together on the sideline.  The assistant coaches were all on their cell phones.  I stood in the mixed zone, waiting and waiting and waiting.  Eventually, the head coach left the court with some Olympic officials.  After coming back minutes later he spoke to his team, and then headed towards me with a grey haired Korean man in front of him.  The players came first and didn’t stop in the mixed zone.  They were upset but not defeated, just confused.  They ignored me and the rest reporters packing into the mixed zone trying to figure out what was going.  Next the grey haired man walked into the zone and spoke in Korean.  I dispatched the Korean translator I was working with.  “Forget about any of my questions,” I said, “write down everything he says in Chinese, we’ll translate it later.” Shortly after the grey haired left the head coach came in.  “Same thing,” I said to the translator.  As we left he mixed zone all the Norwegian reporters were hounding us.  “What did he say? Can anyone translate what the coach said!?”  I grabbed my translator and told him to follow me to the ONS office, “We have to impute it,” I explained, “they can all read what the coach said on INFO when were done.”

Turns out the Korea was protesting the last goal by Norway.  To paraphrase what the coach and the grey haired man (who was the vice president of Korean Handball) said - the goal was scored two seconds after time was up.  The assistant coaches were on their cells with Korean TV stations who were replaying the goal.  The coach asked to see a replay but officials told him he was not allowed.  He could prepare a document and file an appeal within nine hours, which is what Korea did.  The coach claimed the referee even admitted he wasn’t sure if Norway scored in time because the crowd was so loud he couldn’t hear the buzzer. Making things more complicated Korea handball has a history of being treated unfairly and has actually had matches replayed before. 

Apparently the appeal will do no good in the Olympics though, because if it was ruled the game should go into overtime than the Norwegians will fill a counter appeal.  There is no way the whole thing could be put to rest before the gold medal match is played tomorrow.

It’s an interesting situation I found myself covering.  No offense the Koreans (they happened to be my favorite team, I picked them to win it all the first time I saw them play) but it was the most exciting day at handball yet.  When I left the stadium at 11pm the IOC was having a meeting to determine what to do.  I’ll find out what they decide when I go back in tomorrow.  With little hope, I’m crossing my figures for Korea.

Well, we have reached that time where we had to say our goodbyes to four unlucky teams that failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the men's handball tournament. The teams that didn't qualify were China, Brazil, Germany, and Egypt. The biggest surprise was the failure of the German handball team. They had won the gold medal in the 2007 World Championships and were a big disappointment to handball fans across the globe. Not to mention, a key player, Pascal Hens went down with a knee injury early in the tournament. That definitely could have hindered Germany's procession as well.  As these teams lost, one could really see in the anguish and agony that these players were feeling.  Interviewing the athletes was very difficult because their Olympic dreams were crushed. They were at a loss for words and many were crying. Four years of training and preparation just ended much too quickly.  

The semifinals matches are as follows: Croatia v France and Iceland v Spain. The defending Gold medal champion from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games Croatia, beat Denmark on Wednesday.  Also, France beat Russia, Iceland beat Poland, and Spain beat Korea in the quarterfinals. The losing squads now must face each other to place for rankings five through eight. It will be very interesting how this "olympic puzzle will piece itself together", when all is said and done.

And with that, we are now moving from the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, a stadium which holds approximately 4,400 people, to the National Indoor Stadium, which holds nearly 20,000 people. The National Indoor Stadium was where gymnastics was held and lies on the Olympic Green.  But don't worry, the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium is not being shut down just yet.  It is now going to be the home of Wushu!

This blog is from Stephen Lauer, our University of Maryland student, affectionately known to all as "scuba steve."

After day three of handball group play, interviewing and writing flash quotes from the athletes is still as thrilling and stressful as the first day.  The great part about flash quotes is that, from the training sessions to the first couple games, we have developed relationships with the athletes.  The athletes talk about the incredible highs and devastating losses, it truly humanizes the athletes for people who have only ever been fans and seen them as pawns to be played or traded in order to win a championship.  That is incredible for me.  However, the downside to all of this that occasionally we cannot speak to the athletes.

Of all the teams that qualified for Olympic Women’s Handball, only Germany, Norway, Romania, and Sweden speak enough English to be interviewed without translation.  Rarely have I felt as ignorant as when we started and I realized that I could not speak directly to eight of the twelve teams; while a few players on each team would try to speak a few words of English, I didn’t even know where to start in Portuguese, Hungarian (yes, they have their own language), Russian, Korean, or Romanian (yes, them too).  Starting with France, I decided to make an effort, I said “bonjour” before the interview and “merci bo coup” afterwards, I got a smile and an appreciative nod from my interviewee Stephanie Cano.  From there I learned simple phrases in Korean (an-yo-han-sai-yo, hello), Hungarian (yo-napot, good afternoon), and Norwegian (bra kamp, good match).

However, my problem was not only could I not understand the athletes, but I couldn’t communicate with my translator.  Language Services provides ONS with many, very nice Chinese students who know the tongues of the competing countries; unfortunately, this means they speak Russian, Hungarian, or Korean, and Chinese, but only minimal English.  This means that, in order to interview the athletes, we need to go through a Chinese to English translator as well.  One can imagine that it is quite difficult to get the full quote when it goes through two translators, not to mention ask a quick follow up question.  In these first few days, we have identified which Language Services workers have strong English or can conduct interviews themselves (once given our questions), and found other multi-lingual staff throughout the building to help with our flash quotes.

All in all, this experience motivates me to learn another language after these Olympics.  With so many nations around the world struggling to learn English, I would like to return the favor by making an effort to learn their language.

Today is one of my days off and I finally have some time to write this blog.  I just worked back to back days at the handball venue where I arrived each morning at 7 am and left at 11:30 pm.  With an hour commute each way, sleep is limited.  Honestly, I don’t understand how my supervisors are going the entire Olympics without a day off.  When the time comes that I find them grabbing some shut eye in between matches I’ll make sure to let them be.

In three blocks of two we are cover six games a day (until the preliminary round ends then it’ll become only four games). Watch the game, form questions, confer with a translator if needed (it usually is), interview an athlete, impute quotes, get to the press conference if you have time, impute more quotes, head back up to the press tribune to catch the end of the first half of the next  game, and start forming questions.  It’s repetitive, but never exactly the same.  The routine gets old, but every game and every athlete is different.  The job can be a lot of fun when you’re interviewing Icelanders who speak perfect English after they upset the reigning world champs (Germany).  It becomes more challenging when you’re assigned to interview Kazakhstan, (who speaks Russian) after a second straight blow out loss.  The language barrier is the toughest obstacle for getting an accurate and interesting quote.  The Russian from the Kazaks (for instance) is translated by a Chinese translator into Chinese, which is then translated by a second translator into English.  It’s understandable how a minute long response from an athlete turns into, “I am very happy we won” – end quote.  With time our translated quotes are becoming better, as we are finding how to work best with each specific translator.  The more we work together the more accurate and interesting the quotes will be.    

It does help that handball is an awesome sport (no exaggeration).  I personally have fallen for it.  I watch six games a day and I think more of the sport with every match.  It’s like soccer with your hands, with basketball strategies (the games 6 v 6), on court the size of a hockey rink.  And its physical, every game has to stop for a couple of injuries.  Every goal matters too, but there is still a decent amount of scoring (usually between 25 to 35 goals per team).  If you see it on TV, stop and watch.  You can thank me later.

With this day off I’ll be watching some gymnastics in person, and then relaxing the rest of the day.  I’ll get to bed early and be back at the venue to be briefed on the morning’s games at 8 am (getting an extra hour of sleep – nice).  We are half way through the preliminaries now and the games are really starting to matter – should make for some good interviews.

On Tuesday night I finally got my first opportunity to interview some handball athletes.  Silje, our Sports Information Specialist, guided me over to the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium Training Hall to catch the end of the Russian men’s training session.  We did not have a translator with us and had no idea if any of the players or staff spoke English.  As they were concluding their session, we approached a couple of assistant coaches and asked if they, or anyone else, spoke English.  They both looked at one another with confused looks on their faces and began exchanges a few words in Russian.  This was not a promising start especially since I am going to be interviewing this team for another 16 days.  They pointed over towards the one player that remained on the sidelines and called him over to us.  Luckily, he introduced himself in English as Konstantin Igropulo and Silje and I both let out a sigh of relief.  However, he was quick to inform us that he was the only one of all of the players and staff that spoke a word of English, and he was not one of the four players I had on my list of interviewees.  But we were willing to take whatever we could get.

We waited another minute with Konstantin for their session to conclude and he called over one of the pivots(usually a big, strong players that plays in the middle of the offense and defense) for an interview with the intent of translating for me.  The 6’8”, 250 lbs beast, who will remain anonymous for now since I do not have a roster with me and Russian names are was too long and confusing to memorize, strolled over with an intense look on his face which fortunately turned into a smile.  I nearly soiled my pants by the sheer size of this man in junction with him hunched over me.  Konstantin’s English was less than exceptional, but I was still able to get a few good quotes from his translations.

The Russian coach Vladimir Maskimov then curiously walked up to our small huddle and began speaking to Konstantin and “the beast.”  To give you a little background, Maskimov was a successful player himself before becoming one of the most renowned coaches in the world.  As a player he won Olympic gold and a world championship, and won Olympic gold, a world championship and a European championship as a coach.  He carried a very intimidating physique of approximately 6’3” with broad shoulders and a significant amount of weight he had accumulated since retiring as a player.  Based on common stereotypes of Russians, I expected Maskimov to pull his players away thus not to reveal any strategic information to the media, but he did just the opposite.  His demeaning look he maintained for the training session soon turned into grin and he reached out to shake my hand.  Konstantin again translated for me as I accumulated a few more substantial quotes.

I did not expect to put so much effort into working around the language barrier in my first interview, but, to look on the bright side, it will only get easier from here.  The following day(Wednesday) I was assigned to Poland where I interviewed the 6’6” Lijewski brothers(Marcin and Krzysztof), but only one of them spoke English so I again was forced to resort to translations.  Later on that day, my third interview was with Bertrand Gille from France who also plays alongside his brother Guillaume.  This trend of interviewing brothers turned out to be very beneficial to a couple of my fellow flash quote reporters who used my quotes in their news story of siblings in handball.

I was not assigned to any interviews on Thursday, but I did spend most of my day familiarizing myself with the various teams and their players by watching training sessions.  This made me even more anxious for the games to begin, and fortunately today is 08-08-08, the night of the opening ceremony!

Well, the past two days have certainly been the most exciting for me so far because we have actually started the interviewing process of our duties as Flash Quote Reporters.  Yesterday, we were all gathered in our office and our ONS Reporter, Thomas and our Sports Information Specialist, Silje, were discussing what people should interview which teams.  They needed a few minutes to deliberate and once they came back in, they had their verdict.  Thomas announced that I would be interviewing Team Croatia.  The defending gold medal champions of Athens!  I was stunned because I had the chance to interview the world's best handball player.  Ivano Balic.  The man is a legend.  2-time International Handball Federation Player of the Year.  Perenniall All-Star Player. Kind of a big deal!

So Thomas and I waited patiently outside the training facility where Croatia had just finished a grueling practice.  I spotted some players along with their coach.  But then came Balic walking down the hallway and I asked him for an interview after he was done changing.  He nonchantly said yes and I was ecstatic!  I was thinking of questions in my head and writing down bits of notes about him to try to get some quality quotes.

I got my quotes and then decided to talk to him off the record about his support for the Boston Celtics.  We talked for a good 5 minutes about their championship run this season. We both chuckled as he threw up his hands and had a sigh of relief after 22 years of a championship drought for the Celtics.  He began to like the Celtics when Dino Radja played for them because of the hometown connection in Croatia.  Dino Radja. Wow. 

Today, Cory, Lucas, Berg, and Scuba were assigned to work the Press Conference after the women's handball friendly match of China v Hungary.  It was our first real test to see how a press conference goes.  There were translators and the head coaches for both teams and basically us, who ran the show.  We each had our individual questions that we had brewing up!  Then we worked on entering our quotes onto the database for publishing purposes!  

Tomorrow we will be watching a men's friendly match Denmark v France.  Potential men's handball final! 

            The venue is ready, the teams are here, and we are no longer going to work just for practice.  The last two days our questions were no longer falling on the ears of bosses or coworkers who waited to improve responses.  Now and until the end of the Olympics our questions will be posed to Olympic coaches and athletes.  Ten minutes or less from the time the Olympians speak to answer our questions their words will be sent off to be posted on INFO 2008.  Then journalist can read the quotes and reuse them at their preference.

            As the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium (OSC) prepares for the games to begin, we at the Olympic News Service (ONS) were able to get a taste of what working at the Olympics will be like.  Yesterday the entire venue: score board, cheerleaders, announcers, background music, ushers, security, referees, athletes (The Chinese women had a friendly versus Hungary), and press including flash quote reporters (that’s us) were in action at a full “venue rehearsal.”   With ten minutes left in the friendly I formed four potential questions for the Hungarian right wing.  With two minutes left I sped down to the mixed zone where I was introduced to a Hungarian translator; there we went over my questions, then we waited for players to file through the mixed zone.  After Hungarian right wing “Mrs. Verten” happily finished answering my questions I moved down the hall to the ONS office and relayed my quotes to a copytaker, Chelsea Fieg (another Ithacan) who passed them on to our Sports Specialist, Thomas.  After a quick proofread he sent them of to a sub-editor who at his or her discretion posted the quotes onto INFO 2008. 

Without time to rejoice at our first ever official INFO 2008 postings, the other flash quoters and I hurried to the Press Conference room where the Hungarian Coach (who had previously ignored one of my co-workers in the mixed zoned) revealed the reason Hungary’s star player didn’t play.  She was recovering from an injury to her hand which she sustained from a cooking accident.  He assured us Anita Gorbicz will be ready when the real games begin.

            The tense excitement continued today.  We watch Hungary in another scrimmage, this time versus Kazakhstan.  It was a Russian translator helping me ask inquires to the Kazakhstan players at my second live go around.  For what its worth, the easiest part of this job is asking questions to a player whose never been to the Olympics before (Beijing will be the first ever Olympic appearance for Kazakhstan women’s handball team).  Later in the day I posted quotes from the Swedes (also first timers) and the Koreans (silver medalist in Athens - they were defiantly more reluctant to talk).

            The eight of us covering handball are now immersed in the center of the handball world, a world that has gladly taken us in.  But there is no kidding ourselves – vacation is over. 

I’m very pleased to say that every time I watch another match, I become more and more engrossed in the game. Today, we were able to play another scrimmage match in the practice halls, but like the time before, my busted foot and I were unable to play. To say I’m extremely jealous of the rest of the interns who have been playing is to put it lightly.

I really, really, really want to play handball.

It’s strange to think of this game that I had never heard of before all of this Olympic-shindig began, is now something I think is amazing. There’s an extreme amount of strength, agility, and thought that goes into playing the game. Watching my 朋友们 play the game, I’m made even more aware of how hard the game is. In matches, when a player falls onto the mat, they leave a huge sweat stain that the “mop man” runs to clean up. I’m proud to report that IC kids have managed to accomplish the same thing . . . except we don’t have mops to use.

Gross.

Anyway, all the teams have arrived in China and tomorrow, I’ll get to watch a practice match and then interview some athletes. Did you know a lot of the men who play handball are gorgeous? Consider yourself informed.

I’m enjoying my job.

Well, it officially doesn't get any better than this. Today I finally interviewed Olympic handball players. I was given the opportunity to catch up with some of the guys from the Spanish men's team after a training session they had in the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium Training Center.

Our ONS reporter Thomas had requested that I interview one of the Entrerrios brothers to get information on what it's like to compete on the world's biggest sports stage with your brother. I recognized Raul, the younger of the brothers and quickly asked for an interview. He immediately turned me down because he does not speak English.

Not discouraged, I realized this would be a good time to put my limited Spanish knowledge to the test. 

"Espera, espera," I said as he walked away. Understanding I was telling him to wait, he turned back. I introduced the Spanish translator from Cuba who is working with the handball reporters and with her help, Raul and I had a nice discussion about how he feels about competing on the same team with his brother Alberto.

Next, I was instructed to interview Demetrio Lozano. Lozano is the team's veteran having competed in the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Olympics prior to coming to Beijing for the 2008 games. We talked about what he tells his less experienced team mates about the games and how Beijing compares to the other games he's competed in.

Now I feel that I am really ready for the games to begin. I cannot wait to finally get in on the action and do my interviews in the heat of competition.

            When you are an American student working in China about every other day you get the privilege of many first time experiences: first time in China, first trip to the Great Wall, first time fighting your way onto a train or bus, first time taking a squat in the bathroom with nothing to sit on, first time eating tongue, fried scorpion, or cow stomach lining, or the first time you enter an Olympic venue and interview an Olympic athlete.  The good, the bad, the fun, and the gross, the list of firsts goes on and on. 

            Today in a match up between American volunteers vs. International (Chinese, Australian, German, Norwegian, Brazilian, and Cuban) volunteers another first was experienced and I would venture to say it was one of the fun ones.  We’ve read about handball and we’ve watched a handful of handball (no pun intended), but today we decided it was time to learn by doing.  We went into one of the practice gyms and “had at it,” as Lucas, our fellow Australian flash quote reporter would say.  After the grueling handball match was over I am glad to report the American volunteers won the battle 10-9.  But don’t start to celebrate just yet.  There are already rumors of an upcoming rematch.

             After a short break to catch out breaths we went to work.  Note pads and pens in hand, we headed to mixed zone for more practice.  It was a little different to ask questions about a game I’d just played in, but the practice was needed and helpful.  Every day our question asking and flash quote taking skills are improving, as they should.  After typing up the quotes in the Olympic News Service (ONS) office, we kept to the format we will be following during the Games and we headed to the press conference room.  There our ONS manager (Juan from China), our two handball sport specialists (Thomas from Germany and Sijle from Norway), and a Chinese student (who goes by Frank to make it easier on us foreigners) waited to field our questions.  After we were done interrogating our bosses and co-worker we headed back to office to type up the quotes. 

        With only a week until the Opening Ceremony, I suspect the next seven days will be more of the same.  We will be watching scrimmages at the venue or game videos in the office and continuing with our mock interviews until the Games begin.  When they do and we watch our first Olympic handball match live, do our first Olympic interviews, and post our first Olympic flash quotes for the world to see, we’ll be ready.

Berg