SPORTS | Striving for excellence
16 April 2008
A Journalistic Marathon
A Brazilian journalist recalls the hectic pace of the 2004 Athens Games
By Claudio Nogueira
Claudio Nogueira covered the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens for Rio de Janiero’s O Globo newspaper. He recalls the assignment as a test of skill and endurance not so different from what athletes experience.
Nogueira has been a journalist for O Globo since 1987. He will cover the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
When I arrived in Athens to cover the 2004 Games, I felt like I was meeting the whole world in one city. Just as every athlete dreams and works hard to participate in the Olympics, the same is true for sports journalists. Covering this event is one of the most important assignments a reporter can have, and one of the most demanding.
Covering the Olympic Games is hard work. Right after breakfast, I would rush to the media transportation shuttle to get to the competition or training venue on the day’s agenda. I was usually covering one event in the morning, a second one after lunchtime, and probably a third in the evening. In the intervals between interviews or competitions, I tried to write with as much speed, skill, and creativity as I could bring to the task.
Being at the Olympics as a reporter also makes you an athlete in a way. You start early and move fast every moment each day. You’re coordinating with colleagues about different events to cover, running for shuttles between the venues, and carrying a laptop and other equipment that becomes heavier each hour. I also had to find time to record a daily audio bulletin to O Globo´s Web site [www.oglobo.com.br] about anything I had covered that day. Somewhere in that schedule, I also tried to eat and call my wife, Vania, at home.
The day ends sharing dinner with colleagues, and then on to sleep to ready for another day in this journalistic marathon.
When I arrived in Athens, I already had a list of events to cover, based on my reporting background and on the sports in which Brazilian athletes were expected to shine.
My first priority was the floor exercises event in gymnastics. Brazil had gold medal hopes for Daiane dos Santos, who had been world champion in 2003. Unfortunately, Daiane had a leg injury and ended in fifth place at the finals, losing the so-desired gold medal. That was the greatest disappointment of those Games for Brazilians.
After the frustration of gymnastics the first week, my main assignment the second week was covering the Brazilian men’s volleyball team. At that point in the competition, Brazil was on its way to the finals, playing against Italy. The stakes were high for the team. Brazil had taken the gold medal in men’s volleyball in Barcelona in 1992, and everyone hoped for a repeat of that performance. It was a very tense match indeed, but Brazil won the final -- 3 sets to 1 -- and took the gold.
I had covered the Pan-American Games in 1999 and 2003, and I had watched my country’s competitors win many gold medals. But Athens was the first time I’d covered a Brazilian win for an Olympic gold. I must confess, an Olympic gold is a different experience altogether. That is the top, the maximum.
That story reveals one problem all sports journalists must deal with during international competitions – the balance between my professional responsibilities and my own emotions. I am a journalist, but I am also Brazilian. So, when I am covering an event, I obviously hope that the Brazilian athletes will win. At the same time, I am not there to cheer. Through the course of my career, I have learned to keep my cheers quiet and to watch a competition as an observer, accredited by a newspaper to write about what I saw. Writing is my duty. When I write for a newspaper, I am somehow part of history and part of my nation’s story in the global celebration that is Olympic competition.
