Behind the scenes with the torch - Part 1
I have been to Iraq.
I was in Kenya just days after the bombs went off at the U.S. Embassy there and in nearby Tanzania.
I have scampered to escape raging wildfires in Southern California.
In none of those events in my working life as a journalist was my mother so worried that she felt compelled to call beforehand to warn me to be careful.
She called as I was on my way to San Francisco to run with the Olympic torch, an assignment I had put in to do months ago. In asking, I had figured I’d gain access to the behind-the-scenes workings of the international relay. Never did I imagine the relay would explode onto front pages around the world.
“Honey,” my mother said, “I think you ought to run with a bullet-proof vest.”
“Mom …” I started to say.
She interrupted. “You don’t know what kind of nut jobs there are out there. I’m just saying.”
You don’t know – which is why, even just hours before I, along with 79 others, was due to run with the torch, we had no idea where, when or for how long. Traditionally, torchbearers run about a quarter-mile apiece; the bearers learn the day beforehand when and where, so family and friends eager for photos can stake out the scene.
Not this time.
Obviously deeply concerned by the photos and news reports of the torch’s protest-marred journey through first London and then Paris, San Francisco police told us Tuesday afternoon, the day before the relay, that the situation was extraordinarily fluid. The route was perhaps in flux. Distances were maybe in flux. Family and friends would just have to be patient and flexible.
Us, too.
About half of us would-be torchbearers were crowded into a fourth-floor briefing room at a hotel just west of Union Square; the other half had heard the same speeches an hour before. “We mean for this to be fun,” San Francisco police lieutenant Dan Mahoney told us. “It’s a celebration, a celebratory event.”
A celebration, however, in which “your safety is paramount to us.” An event police had been planning for since last August and had “amassed a force unlike anything we have done before.”
Police were not aware, the lieutenant said, of any specific threats to any particular torchbearer or to the relay. Nonetheless, he said, “if something should happen,” whatever that might be, pay close attention to the police escorts who would – as they traditionally do – be escorting each torchbearer.
In particular, he added, “slow down or stop – they will encircle you,” meaning security personnel.
So if something happens -- we're supposed to turn into turtles.
“Hopefully,” the lieutenant said, “I didn’t scare the heck out of you.”
The San Francisco Chronicle would later report that one torchbearer, a teen-ager, bowed out of the event, citing security concerns.
No one in the room said anything about opting out.
I tell Kerri Walsh, the 2004 Games gold medalist in beach volleyball, who’s sitting right behind me, about my mom’s comments.
Kerri laughs. She’s not concerned. The heck hasn’t been scared out of her, either.
“Don’t trip,” she says.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Behind the scenes with the torch - Part 1.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.nbcsports.com/system/mt-tb.cgi/9838
4 Comments
Leave a comment
About this blog
NBC Sports contributor Alan Abrahamson brings a wealth of knowledge to his coverage of the Olympics and the sports world.
“I think you ought to run with a bullet-proof vest.”
Your mom's advice really manifested what some of the protesters have done to an event that meant to symbolize peace, honor and friendship: THEY STRUCK FEAR IN PEOPLE. Isn't that what the terrorists try to do to the American people?
What I've seen so far from the protests against the torch relay is anything but peaceful demonstration. Peaceful protesters would not try to rob the torch from a girl on wheelchair as seen in the picture here http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200804/news-gb2312-563391.html
They would not intentionally disrupt an event others have the right to participate and spectate.
While I understand the reasoning for the change of route of the torch relay etc., I really feel my rights as an ordinary citizen violated at the same time. Why couldn't I, after waiting for so many hours, watch and cheer for the torch relay, a sporting event?
To those pro-tibet protesters, I want to say that you do not deserve the support at least from me, because you showed little respect to other people's rights when you violently disrupted the torch relay.
Great story. You made me proud as an American.
Comparing pro-Tibet protestors to terrorists is so completely stupid because it shows how ignorant, uneducated and fear-driven you and so many other mindless sheep are. (Thanks George Bush and Neocons)
Why don't you take a look at China's Human Rights record before you bash the Pro-Tibet protesters?
It's sooooo unfortunate that they had to shake up your day by actually making you aware of an issue by disrupting your precious torch relay.
The very definition of the Olympics is respect for human life and human rights, for which the Chinese Government have none.
Please wake up and realize that there are millions of people suffering in Myannmar, Tibet and Sudan way more than you missing a torch relay.
This is free county, it is no problem to express yourself as like those Pro-Tibet protestors. However, what they do is not to express themselves, they are just like rioters, blocking buses, extincting the torch... do they really deserve the support of cheated Americans? Do we really know the Human rights record by just looking at the biased reports? Should we go to have a look in person before we support those Pro-Tibet protestors?