Off the Record
with Jill M. Geer
Monday, February 6, 2007
During my childhood in the 1970s, I was a big fan of Leonard Nimoy's trashy TV show. No, not THAT show, the other one. "In Search Of..."
I hadn't thought of "In Search Of ..." for quite some time, but that changed last Friday evening at the 100th Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden. It was a fantastic meet with a big crowd and great performances, but the fans don't have an inkling of what goes on behind the scenes and in the bowels of the Garden. And the #1 thing that goes on is: searching for a direct path from the athlete interview area to the media room.
I estimate that such a path will be found by the Loch Ness Monster himself, shortly after Bigfoot finds the long-missing Mars Space Probe, aliens from another galaxy negotiate peace in the Middle East, and Donald Trump gets a hairstyle that doesn't make him look like an orangutan who styled his hair with a pitchfork, while blindfolded.
The problem is that to get from the interview area to the press room, one must traverse a stream of athletes exiting the track, walk up half of the stairs in the MSG stands, walk exactly halfway around the concourse, then duck into the press room. Not a problem in and of itself, but when a person (read: me) has to do it roughly 2,104 times while still hosting press conferences with every winner, transcribing quotes and writing the main meet story, it can be quite the wind sprint. On the bright side, it burns loads of calories and gives me something legitimate to whine about, so I've got that going for me ... which is nice.
Prior to Millrose, I was also "In Search Of" a toddler who could sit still for 22 seconds or more. My own 15-month-old son, Hayden, has a PR of roughly 1.7 seconds, so I wasn't convinced that such a creature could be found.
Bernard Lagat stepped up for his press conference at about 10:30 p.m. with his year-old son, Miika, who sat calmly while his father spoke extensively about winning his fifth Wanamaker Mile. Miika is a great kid who has been a good luck charm for his father, since Daddy Lagat has won every race that his son has seen. Just as amusing is that Miika is already about half his father's size. How a child as tall as Miika results from Bernard and his wife, Gladys – who combined weigh about as much as my computer bag – is a mystery worthy of Mr. Nimoy.
Imagine my envy when Gail Devers brought her 18-month-old daughter, Karsen, to her press conference, and Karsen sat still for about 22 MINUTES. If you haven't met her, Karsen has at least as much energy as her mother, as well as all her personality. At the USATF Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Karsen had a dance-off with my son and shamelessly kicked his butt. She had moves that indicated she was ready to head straight to the Soul Train Music Awards, while Hayden looked something like a Microsoft engineer trying to mimic the moves of Justin Timberlake.
If the world's most gregarious toddler can hold still at a press conference, why can't mine let me put his socks on?
And when will teleportation become possible within the Garden? Beam me up!
Jill M. Geer is Director of Communications for USA Track & Field.
