I learned some things covering the
Calgary Winter Olympics for ESPN.
1. Ski jumpers Do NOT fly!
They FALL!
I know that it looks very "birdlike" when you watch on television, but the reality is that once the skiers launch off the ramp, they are prisoners to gravity & simply drifting down a snowy slope .
2. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are not all on horseback and they can be very friendly.
As in Sochi, the alpine events for the Calgary Games were held more than an hour away from the Olympic village. Our crew went to Nakiska to cover the men's downhill and to interview Pirmin Zurbriggen after his victory. Unfortunately for us, "Z" took a really loooong time to complete his drug test after the race and that pushed us up against our deadline to get back to Calgary for our live satellite hookup back to ESPN.
By the time we got on the road, it was obvious that, even if we exceeded the speed limit, we were not going to make it back to the TV station on time.
Our producer, Tom Reilly, decided we needed help, so when a Royal Canadian Mounted Police car passed us, Reils stepped on the gas and started flashing his lights and beeping the horn. That's right. He pulled over the police and explained that we were with American television, ESPN, and in a race with time to make our deadline.
The officer said, "Pull in behind me. Let's go!"
He got in his car, sounded his siren and started flashing his lights. In seconds we were flying down the freeway with a police escort and as we passed other RCMP cars along the way, they joined our caravan.
By the time we got to our exit, we had two police cars in front of us and two more behind us. It was incredible and our photog, Jeff Israel, recorded the entire scene from the back seat.
Thanks to the "mounties", we made it back to our TV headquarters just in time for our "live shot"
and had a unique story to tell, as well.
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