World Cup

I am ashamed to admit this but in all the years that I have worked at the Oval {~5 years} I never made it to a World Cup competition.  Now that I work for US Speedskating I spent all weekend at the Oval working with sponsors, media, and athletes.  It was really cool to see the sport in a competition setting.  Long Track is such a graceful and elegant sport however it is not the fast paced action of Short Track so it hasn't gained the traction in the United States that short track has enjoyed.


We got to see a new World Record set in the 5000m.  Martina Sablikova broke her own record by a little less than three seconds!  It literally gave me goosebumps {I know that's dorky} this is one of my favorite things about working within the Olympic Movement, you get to see people achieve goals that some have been working their entire lives to get to.  It is such an amazing thing to experience!

The competition ran from Friday-Saturday pretty much all day.  They only competed the longer distances here in Salt Lake 1500m, 3000m, 5000m {ladies} and 10000m {men}.  There was also a cool demonstration event, the mass start race.  Normally in long track the athletes race in pairs and against the clock so there usually no more than two people racing at the same time.  The mass start has many skaters all going at the same time, it was really cool to watch.

Here are some of the pictures I took this weekend...

Heather Richardson starting the 1500m

Heather Richardson

 

Jilleanne Rookard racing the 1500m

 

Men's mass start event

Patrick Meek and Josh Wood (who ended up getting 2nd place in the event) during the Mass Start

Ryan Bedford 

Ladies getting started 

Heather Richardson and Maria Lamb

Heather Richardson after winning the mass start event

Coach Ryan helps Richardson off the ice

Podium for the Ladies Mass Start

Life in Lycra

So Jenny (former US Figure Skating Intern) has moved to Utah and is now living and working with me at US Speedskating as our Social Media Intern.  We have been working on a series called Life in Lycra, it follows the skaters in the National Training Program through their daily lives and we've started to incorporate more questions from fans and trying to get answers from skaters.

It's pretty cool!  Check it out on the US Speedskating YouTube Channel {here}

Welcome Back!

Initially, this blog was going to be about my summer as an Intern with the USOC.  Two days after I got home from my internship in Colorado Springs, I started school and another internship with US Speedskating.  By no means am I an expert on how to get a job or an internship, but all I did was ask for a meeting, went in, and pled my case as to why they should hire me {for free}.  The work started slowly but gradually increased as the NGB started to pull itself together {there was massive turnover after the 2010 games}.

I have decided to start this blog again to chronicle my adventures as an intern for US Speedskating, and as I try to find a post graduation job!

Meet Bob...

This is Bob the Bronze, my final intern project.  My very last day of my internship the managing director of my department walked into my cube about 30 minutes after I got to work and said "So are you taking the gold medal home?"  At that point I was super confused, which I am sure I conveyed to her by the look on my face.  She asked me if her assistant, my cube neighbor, had asked me about taking Lindsay Vonn's medal to US Ski and Snowboard (USSA) in Park City.  She had not asked me about that, but of course I would be happy to do that...  I had to drive right by Park City anyway, right?

She then told me that I had to sign the chain of custody paper and then not let the medal out of my possession until I dropped it of at USSA.  That was somewhat problematic it being my last night in Colorado Springs with my friends.  I drove home Saturday without incident, thank goodness!  First thing Monday morning Bob was dropped off at USSA, the VP of Athletics signed the chain of custody and my mission was complete!  I felt like my internship was complete with this project, and I was very honored that my department felt I was trustworthy enough to take on this "mission"...

Here are a few more pictures of Bob for good measure:

I cannot wait to get back to the USOC one day, hopefully sooner rather than later...  For now, I am going to go back to posting on my "normal" blog: haleyelizabethsmith.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!

Final Intern Project

Get excited about a post on my final intern project!  For those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter.  I am going to reveal who/what Bob is...

Winding Down

This has the potential to be the most emotional week of my entire time here in Colorado Springs.  For example, I've cried twice already today and its only 9:30 in the morning.  It doesn't help that I am terrible at goodbyes, always have been.  But it also doesn't help that I have become so close to these girls over the past three months

I'll admit that when I first got here, I expected to have a great experience at work, but I didn't expect to meet people that I know I will be friends with for the rest of my life.  These girls are so amazing and I cannot imagine what my internship would have been without them, probably boring!

This morning I had to say goodbye to my roommate as she goes back to Oklahoma to get ready for her last year of grad school.  This relationship especially surprised me.  I haven't had to share a room with someone since I was a freshman in college, and for those of you counting, that was 7 years ago.  So I was worried about what was going to happen...  Needless to say we became friends so quickly and by the end it seemed like I was saying goodbye to one of my best friends.  I could/can tell Chelsea anything and I know that we will be friends for a very long time, I love you CHELS

I am very grateful not only for the opportunity to further my career and find out that the Olympics and the Olympic movement is really where I want to be in my life, but for the fantastic people that I got to meet along the way!

Next Saturday, when I leave to drive home, I'll probably cry until I get to Denver, or maybe all the way through Wyoming...

A little update

I have been terrible at updating this!  Sorry faithful readers (if there are any)...

I thought that I would write what I did everyday but its kinda boring after a while, but now I will update you on a few things that I have been working on.

Youth Olympic Games
Currently, my main focus is the Youth Olympic Games.  I am helping with Registration for the games.  Making sure that each of the athletes forms are filled out correctly and organizing/keeping track of them.  I am also working on the apparel.  Most of it arrived today, tomorrow we are going to count and organize it so that we can send all of the apparel off to the athletes before they leave for the games in Singapore in August.  I have also been helping with the ticket order.  I have organized all the envelopes so when the members of my department get to Singapore all they will have to do is look at the envelopes and add the appropriate tickets and hand them off to the families.

Vancouver 2010
Each athlete and staff member receives a number of commemorative items after the Olympic Games.  I have been working on preparing to send out the watches that were ordered in Vancouver in February.  Its a lot of pieces to coordinate, and of course the watches are arriving the same week as the YOG apparel, so they are going to be put on the back burner for now, but as soon as the apparel is out to the Singapore kids we are going to send out those watches, and we are ready to do it!

Guadalajara 2011 (Pan American and Para Pan American Games)
I've been working on helping make the accreditation process better, through modifying and helping to organize the spreadsheet where we keep track of everything.  Guadalajara is not super prepared, they just started building the village in the middle of June, and the PanAm games are only a year away!

London 2012
My supervisor started working here almost a year ago, and she inherited some pretty interesting spreadsheets from the people before her.  She asked me to review them, and they were pretty hard to use.   So I took the ones that they used in Vancouver for the Nike and Polo Ralph Lauren apparel given to the athletes and coaches, and retooled them so they are ready for use for the London 2012 Summer Games.  I've also been in a few planning meetings for PRL and Nike.  It's exciting to work on Games that are so close.  I really hope to be in the organization full time by London 2012

So that is a little bit of what I've been doing this summer, plus, other duties as assigned :)