So much has been going on over the past week or two. It's been nonstop, daily work and training. I’ve interviewed some of the world’s best water polo players and got to watch team practices for the Olympics. It is interesting to see how various teams practice and work with one another. The unique personality of each team really makes working at the Olympics so much more fun as you get to research, interact, and understand teams to the most specific details. 

Everything seems to be going by so fast these days too. I’m definitely having a life changing experience that is remarkable in every such way. I’m getting to meet not only Chinese people but people from all around the globe, mainly journalists. I’m only going to meet more people from the international media as the days go on and especially when the Olympics are just about to start. I’ve already seen signs at my Olympic Sports Center venue for the media— AP, Reuters, Xinhua, and AFP. And then there is of course the good ol’ ONS- Olympic News Service, where I work.

The group of people I work with are from all around the world. Countries represented include Russia, Italy, China, U.S.A., and Australia. Working for ONS has taught me a lot about working in groups and with people who have extremely different personalities and backgrounds than I do. I have had experiences that at the moment made me frustrated with the person I worked with, but then taught me more about people and getting to understand who I am better.

Our job as flash quote reporters is to interview the athletes for a few minutes and then get the best quotes we can possibly can and report them back to the ONS. So far, I got to interview members of the men’s water polo teams from Greece, USA, Canada, Germany,Italy, Montenegro, Hungary, and the list goes on. I interviewed Greece’s team captain Georgios Afroudakis, USA’s Peter Hudnut, and Hungary’s world class player Tamas Kasas. Afroudakis and Kasas are known in the water polo world to be some of the world’s best water polo players.

My first ONS interview was with George Afroudakis, which went well. I was nervous about it at first because he is somewhat of a sports celebrity. It is hard not to be worried about whether or not your questions may come off sounding a certain way.   
  
The Olympics have now officially started. The wonderful days I've been having interviewing Olympic athletes, meeting new people, exploring Beijing, and preparing for the Olympics have been great. Now I am ready and thrilled to begin work with more flash quote reporting and interviews.   

Beijing 2008 has begun! 

Sherry