From the Field
with Lewis Johnson
Monday, January 29, 2007
I've often said that I would love to give a few people the chance to see what's really going on behind the scenes of any broadcast I've worked over the last 13 years. Controlled chaos! And when you broadcast an Indoor track meet it really gets crazy. Loud music! The crowd! There are multiple events under way at the same time. As the reporter I'm in a constant state of multi-tasking, handling athlete interviews while keeping an eye on other events. I also must listening to the other announcers in my ear so that I know the storyline of the next race to have an intelligent question or two to ask the next person who stands next to me. Get the picture? I'm really looking forward to giving you the inside scoop each weekend during this indoor track season. Here are my reflections from the Boston Indoor Games.
WHAT A START!
If Boston is the benchmark for the indoor circuit this season, then we are in for one heck of a ride! One World Record, Five National Records, and multiple top performances in the world made Boston a hot start for the season. At track level, I could feel the energy of a World Championship and Pre-Olympic year. For those of us who will be lucky enough to broadcast those events, meets like Boston are very important to discovering the new blood of the sport and how they operate in an environment that was electric like the Reggie Lewis Center.
ATHMOSPERE!
I will never forget the first international track meet I ran. Just outside Brussels, Belgium is the small town of Hechtel. We were driven into a wooded area where all of the sudden there was a track, several tents for food and beverages, a small tribune and a few sets of bleachers. The place was packed! I was scared but determined to do a good job "rabbiting" my first race overseas. When we prepared to run, I noticed speakers all the way around the track because the music was blasting. Disco! They brought the music down, the speaker introduced us (in Flemish), the gun went off, and the volume went back up. Full tilt! "Turn the beat around…..got to hear percussion…." Donna Summer baby. I thought to myself, "This is unbelievable"! I'll never forget that athmosphere.
Meet Director Mark Wetmore knows how to create an environment for competition! He has taken the cues from the European meets for entertainment value for the fans, as well as setting the tone for the athletes to feel good when they compete. He and his staff have carefully orchestrated the "mood" for the meet. No dead air! As a past competitor, I can't tell you how cool it is to have music blasting, the crowd cheering different performances as they occur, all over the indoor field. There's always something happening and a good in-field announcer will keep the crowd informed and engaged in each attempt, each event. Did you know that during the Men's Shot Put, the throwers had previously chosen their music so that when they got to the ring for their attempt, their song blasted throughout the facility. How cool is that! Way to go Mark and Rich.
PROMOTION!
Global Athletics did not stop in the atmosphere department. They tried to change someone's bank account. You've seen the "kicks for cash" in football games, right? How about guessing a World Record time for cash? Any athlete that breaks a WR in Wetmore's meet receives a $25, 000 bonus. But get this. One fan was chosen to guess the new WR time before the Women's 3000m run. They had to guess to within 1/100th of a second . Tough…yes, but if they got it right the fan would receive the same amount as the athlete. $25,000! No winners this year but I would never miss another meet in Boston. Just for the chance!
ETHIOPIAN EXPECTATIONS!
Every year in Boston we see a strong Ethiopian fan base, and for good reason. Turinsh Dibaba (5K) and Meseret Defar (3K) have ignited the Reggie Lewis Center with scorching performances the last several years. I talked to one gentleman who is the President of the Ethiopian Sports Federation in the Boston area, and he told me of the organized effort to grab tickets for the event the day they become available. I would guess there were somewhere between 300-400 Ethiopians there, waving flags, dressed in the colors of their country, genuinely excited to have the stars of their homeland in Boston right in front of their eyes. The two did not disappoint. The second event in the televised portion of the meet, Dibaba smashed the existing Indoor World Record at 5000m by over 5 seconds! The place went wild! It sounded like a jet plane was taking off in the building! The only frustrating part for me was that Tiru does not speak English, so I could not interview her. But sometimes we in TV have to remember that a picture really can say a thousand words. Her face said it all!
Dibab's countrywoman, Meseret Defar had the place on its head as she lapped the track in the 3000m in another world record attempt. She missed by a little over three seconds, but that's not the story. Defar took a 14 hour flight from Ethiopia to Washington on Wednesday, followed by a quick hop to Boston to complete her trip. The temperature in her home country was in the 70's, and upon her arrival in Boston, she was welcomed by single-digit arctic conditions. We understand that on Thursday Defar went out for a run and caught a head-cold, the sniffles, you know the drill. This lady was sick when she toed the line Saturday evening, but that did not stop her from running with purpose and determination. She made every attempt to get that WR but just missed. Based on those facts, she had a spectacular performance, and pulled another young lady to a surprise result.
SURPRISE…SURPRISE!
As a reporter, every now and then you look into the face of someone who is genuinely surprised by their performance. That's what I saw when I interviewed Shalane Flanagan after she set a new American Record for 3000m Indoor. Flanagan had what she described as the race of her life, following just behind Meseret Defar for most of the run. Defar was attempting to break the WR. Larry Rawson mentioned at the end of the race that Flanagan's mother and father had both been successful runners in their lives and that now her mom was a photographer covering track. Well, I saw her mom snapping pictures of Shalane from a distance, with that look of a pride in her eyes that only a parent can understand. Several times I waved for her to go join her daughter by the clock that displayed her AR time and name. She kept signaling back to me, no. After the meet we spoke for a moment and she said to me that her and her husband had experienced their "moments" in track and field, and now any success that Shalane has should be "her moment". I thought that was simply great. Let's see how far the Flanagan story goes. She's on the map.
ON A MISSION!
Don't take your eye off Alan Webb this indoor season. He told me that he is running the indoor mile with a purpose. Webb has his rabbits going out at a blistering pace to get as close as he can to simulating the outdoor mile and 1500. He said he wants his body to know exactly what it feels like to run that hard fast pace every time! That's the hard pace he'll have to run to medal at the World Championships and ultimately at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It's Webb and Lagat next week. Webb is on a mission. I bet Lagat is too. Can't wait for that interview!
NEXT WEEK!
So we're off to NY next week for the 100th running of the Millrose Games. Everytime I walk into the Garden I think "Big Event". Haven't you seen the Rolling Stones concert at MSG on DVD? After they rock the crowd, Mick Jagger is escorted from the back of the stage to his limo. His car its on a ramp that curls down to street level where a back garage door puts him out on the street of Manhattan. Each year I walk up that ramp into the building, thinking about all the famous acts and athletes that have passed that way over the many years of its existence. Well, on February 2nd, many of the best track and field athletes in the world will walk that ramp to enter one of the most famous venues in the world. All will be hoping to have a performance that matches the magnitude of the venue and the history of the event. The 100th will be great. See you on ESPN and NBC!
Throughout the 2007 Indoor Track season, Lewis Johnson, a broadcast vet, will pass along his reflections from the previous weekend. He will handle the interviews and reports from field level, which allows for a unique impression of the "circus-type" atmosphere of the Visa Championship Series.
