bmx: day II.

After the rain yesterday, BMX was rescheduled for today, a beautiful and very sunny blue sky day. I was back at my previous photo position, though some changes were made... an area was now roped off just for photographers.

The good part of this: now photogs have space all to themselves; they don't have to jockey for space with everyone else allowed in this area. The bad news: I have to do some serious convincing to keep them in their cage, which is much smaller than the area they had to work with the other day. It is also much hotter and there are about three times the photogs out since today were final races.

My usual photographer friends head up and say goodmorning and start filling in the too small space we now have to work with. As more and more keep coming to this position (which they now know to be one of the coveted photo angles), I have to keep them calm and explain that yes, we now are confined in a roped off area and they can not leave that area or I will put them in time out. This works fine for the guys (and girl today) who get there early enough to stake a claim in the precious territory, but as more stragglers fill in, things get hectic.

I have already "modified" the barrier ropes to give them a little more space without encroaching too much into the athletes' zone. This seems to satisfy some of them. I also obtain some cold water and pass it out... keeping the peace. Additionally, I construct a sort of "gear check" area for them out of the way so they aren't tripping over their backpacks in the roped off area.

Then I meet the difficult photographer... he's standing outside the ropes, and is really pushing the limits on how far he is going into the athletes' area.

Me: Excuse me, sir, can I ask you to stand inside the ropes please?
Photog: There's no room in there. I'll stand right here.
Me: I'm sorry, I can't have you blocking that gate into the track. We need the area clear.
Photog: Believe me, if someone needs to get through, I'll be the first to move.
Me: Sir, I can't have you stand here. All photographers must stay inside the designated area.
Photog: Well, I'm just going to stand here next to this guy. If he can stand here, I can.
Me: He's designated as someone who can be in the athletes' zone. Photographers can not stand out here. I understand the area is crowded, there's nothing I can do about that.
Photog: (moving to the other side of the position) What is this empty platform? Why can't we stand up there?
Me: That's the BOB platform. It's only for the TV cameras.
Photog: The camera is all the way at the other end, can we use this side?
Me: Sorry, sir, you can't. The camera rolls back and forth, using the entire platform.
Photog: Can we at least climb on the railing behind the platform?
Me: No, that shakes the platform, and the TV camera. The only place photographers can stand is within these boundaries.

At this point, all of the other well-behaved photographers are giving me grins and looking at me out the corners of their eyes. They know they've been in that guy's position before... wanting a better position to get a better view. They also know that I've been busting my photo staff vest all morning trying to give them everything they've asked for to make their job a little easier.

The difficult photographer moves, a bit unwillingly, into the photo area. I extend the barriers some more and help him check his gear in my makeshift gear area. I apologize again for the conditions, and thank him for moving.

Two minutes later...

Photog: (turns around from where he is now standing inside my photo ropes) Hey you know, they were smart to put good English-speakers over here. You're tougher to boss around than those Chinese guys. (Smiles)
Me: Actually, that's exactly what they were doing.
Photog: (extends hand to shake) What's your name?

And so from there I felt like I had just survived a job interview. He turned out to be a really nice guy from Portland... and commended me on my ability to hold my ground regarding my super exclusive photo position.

Several other photographers, despite how crowded and hot it was, told me I was doing a great job keeping the mood positive and making sure everyone was getting what they needed (and getting along with each other). As it turns out, being a photo assistant is sort of a combination of negotiator, enforcer and elementary school teacher. It's simple stuff really, as long as you can communicate clearly and stick to your guns. No, you will not climb on my railings. No, you can not open the gate and walk onto the course. No, you will not be mean to each other. Or I'll take away all of your recesses.

Oh and today I reached a new level... "Sir, please get off that athlete's bike. You are not allowed to be riding it, nor are you allowed to be over here."

Not even kidding, this guy is, in the nicest terms, a pain in the ass. He made just about every photo assistant and manager upset the other day, and today I caught him riding around the athletes' prep area on a bike! His story is that he's an Italian journalist who somehow also got photo accreditation... and the right to make our lives miserable. He wouldn't listen to me; insisting that he needed to deliver this bike to the athlete and rode away. Why didn't the seven workers posted at the security check for this area stop him as he rode around? Why didn't the manager also standing there not seem to care when I told him the situation that this guy did not have clearance into the athletes' area? Because they couldn't be assertive enough; nor did they even understand what I was saying. Their only job was to make sure everyone that passed by them had the number 2 on their accreditation. This photographer only had a 4. Somewhere things got lost in translation and now I've got a photog riding an Italian athlete's bike around.

I let it go. There was nothing I could do. It wasn't my job to make the Chinese volunteers do theirs. But it was upsetting that even a manager didn't seem to care, especially after I explained the situation and asked him to do something about it.

Even though I was busy, I still managed to watch some races... especially the finals. USA took bronze in Women's, silver and bronze in Men's (a crazy wipeout in the second turn mixed things up a bit... taking out a couple guys who were in the running for top three and allowing the Latvian guy to take over and go for gold). But once again, as soon as the races were over, it was back to making room for the photographers to shoot the medal ceremony (this involved asking about 12 volunteers to put away their cameras and move so that people who were supposed to be taking pictures from those areas could do their jobs... I know, I'm abrasive, but you'd have to be here to understand what it's like to feel as though you are the only one concerned about keeping things organized).

This also involved a bit of American pride on my part when the volunteers wouldn't let Mike Day's family through to the medal ceremony. The volunteers gave their standard answers of "I'm sorry, you can not go through here. Please wait a moment until after the ceremony." I heard this followed by Mr. Day telling them that they were the athlete's parents. At this point, I'm ready to help an athlete's family see their kid accept a medal more than I am willing to help this volunteer block an entry.

With some firmness and some smiles, the volunteers understand that the family needs to get though, and let's them. They all said thanks and ran to greet their son/brother/boyfriend. A few other Team USA affiliates saw what I did too and smiled and said thanks. Not going to lie, it felt good to not only help a family, but to make the rules work how I wanted them to. There was no reason they shouldn't have been let through. Later, in the elevator the sister/girlfriend saw me and said, "Hey, that's the girl that got us through!" The entire Day family thanked me again and again, and I congratulated them on their good day.

Honestly, if you're not willing to be flexible and bend the rules for justified reasons, you're just going to make things difficult for everyone. I made the Day's day (ha) just by reasoning with some other volunteers. Everyone was happy in the end... and it all worked out. Isn't that what managing events like this is all about? I've said it before, but my trip here was less about working for the Olympics specifically as it was about learning how a major event like this is organized and managed. I've learned a lot about that as well as cultural communication. I'd say those are two pretty valuable skills, best learned in real-life situations.

Even better than having photographers thank me for keeping things under control today was when my bosses told me the same thing. I think they realized that BMX was far less organized than track cycling (after all, it was the first year) and were happy that I was willing to be assertive with some feisty photogs.

I even saw Oliviea (the UCI head honcho) after the races. He came over to say hello and ask what I thought. I congratulated him on the first year of Olympic BMX running about as smooth as anyone could ask for, and told him I had a great time being there. I really hope that BMX gets picked up for the next games... the venue was so fun, with so much energy... everyone was so sportsmanlike and really looking out for each other... things that I think are important in the next wave of Olympics.

We've had a lot of discussion this trip about the sports in the Games... what we think are "sports," what we think involves true "athletic" ability, thoughts on venues and spectators and what the Olympics have really become. Our group agreed, almost without question, that BMX is a good addition to the Games. We hope it sticks.

If it does, I'll be able to say I was at the very first running of Olympic BMX ever. If it doesn't, it won't change the fact that I had such a great two days working the venue. Mountain bike is tomorrow, our last day of work. Let's make it good.