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| Our man in the crowd, John Bauernfeind, at last night's swimming finals |
John Bauernfeind, a staff writer for SportsBusiness Daily, will be filing a travel blog called “In The Crowd” from the Rio Games. The Indiana University grad is in Rio with his family on behalf of BP, a USOC sponsor.
Finding a solid Internet connection is, if you can believe it, tough to come by in Rio. That is why I’m hustling to type this up, and why it is erring on the short side.
Getting my one American gripe out of the way, Rio is a beautiful, breathtaking city, and the Olympic atmosphere -- specifically inside Barra Olympic Park -- is booming. Even on Wednesday, when it was raining for most of the day and night, people were out sharing in the fun.
I was lucky enough to land tickets to Wednesday night’s swimming finals, featuring Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Ryan Lochte and most of the other big names. The crowd was electric. It seemed that the PA announcer had to tell people to be quiet before the start of every race.
Because this is a sports business publication, I’ll come clean with a quick note about infrastructure: I broke two chairs at the swimming venue. Apparently, one was not enough for me. There is surely someone or some way to better put this, but when I leaned forward in my chair(s), the hinges that held them down would pull. The chairs weren’t necessarily ripped straight from the seating frame, but it made for an uncomfortable stance. Oh well.
Keeping things short and to the point, I’m off to an SBJ assignment now, helping our Olympics beat writer, Ben Fischer, put together a huge roundtable interview. Tchau.
