VIEW FROM THE PRESS BOX

AW EDITOR JASON HENDERSON LOOKS BACK ON A DOZEN DAYS OF COVERING THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN RIO DE JANEIRO

RIO OLYMPIC GAMES DIARY

AWAY from the actual athletics action, here is a behind-thescenes, light-hearted look at how Athletics Weekly brought you our magazine and website coverage from last month’s Olympic Games in Brazil.

Behind the scenes: Rio was AW editor Jason Henderson’s fifth Olympics and photographer Mark Shearman’s 14th summer Games

MAIN PICTURE: MARK SHEARMAN

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 10

The AW team of web editor Jess Whittington, photographer Mark Shearman and I arrive in Rio after a 30-hour journey. It’s my fifth Olympics, but Mark makes me feel like a rookie as this is his 14th summer Games, which is a record, we believe, when it comes to longevity among British press out in Brazil.

The airport is clean and impressive and our accreditation is stamped and sorted in superquick style. Our bags have also survived the trip, which is a relief as I’d heard horror stories about bags going missing and hotels telling journalists they had no record of their booking.

Mark has been to Rio before for the IAAF World Half-marathon Championships but Jess and I have never visited the country and we soak in the surroundings on the trip to the city centre. Our first impressions include the graffiti, which is literally everywhere, crumbling buildings and overhead clouds. During a two-hour journey from the airport to the Main Press Centre it starts to rain, too, and we miss a press conference with Greg Rutherford, Dina Asher-Smith, Tom Bosworth and Jo Pavey, which is a frustrating start to our coverage campaign.

bright graffiti covers the city

AW editor Jason Henderson’s food ‘staple’ McDonald’s

stadium signage

more graffiti near the Estádio Olímpico

track lanes to greet fans at the train station

plus a fridge full of Coca-Cola, which sponsors the Olympics and fuels AW’s journalists

THURSDAY AUGUST 11

Our hotel usually costs R$29 (a mere £6.80) per night, but during the Olympics the prices have multiplied about 20-fold. Still, this is not surprising and it’s in a decent location and we soon decide that a 10-minute trip to the athletics stadium in one of the city’s many cabs for about R$20 is better than a one-hour, round-the-houses trip on the Metro.

It’s slightly odd that the opening and closing ceremonies are held at the Maracanã, which is even closer to our hotel, but the athletics is at the home of Botafogo football club in a district called Engenhão. It’s a decent stadium, but there’s no cauldron – the symbol of the Olympics and something which surely belongs at the athletics stadium – and the food is expensive and poor. A small slice of rubbery, cheese pizza and Coca-Cola sets us back more than £6. The good news is that our hotel backs on to a smart shopping centre, though, with McDonald’s – the staple diet of journalists at a major championship – and plenty of other eateries.

Food aside, the anticipation is building for the athletics to begin. We have plotted and planned our coverage for the magazine and website and it’s now almost time to begin.