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Reports from Belo Interactive contributors at the Olympics in Sydney, AustraliaJohn Miller: Diary from Down Under Kiss logic goodbye!
09/28/2000 By John Miller / KTVB-TV, Boise, Idaho Sometimes when Mark and I find ourselves
in a huge moment of excitement and pandemonium, all logical thought goes
right down the toilet (though I'm STILL not sure which way it spins down
here in Australia). The latest episode of such spiraling chaos occurred in
the hours after Stacy Dragila won gold.
We found ourselves waiting
outside Olympic Stadium (Mark's "B" pass couldn't even get him into this
one), waiting for Stacy to come out. This would be our only chance to get
a post-victory interview. There we were, outside the big stadium wall,
waiting for Stacy to finish her mandatory drug test, her closed-door press
conference (there's a new one), and her medal ceremony. No news cameras
allowed.
This all takes an insanely long time when you're not watching the
edited NBC version 24 hours later. We waited and waited and waited. We
heard medal ceremonies for event after event. Go ahead – dare me not to
recite the entire Lithuanian national anthem.
In the three hours
we waited, Mark and I planned every single detail of the interview. The
tactics in catching up to her. How long to stand back and wait while she
greeted her friends and family. What questions we'd ask her. How wide we'd
shoot the interview. What we'd have in the background.
When Stacy
finally showed up – we forgot to even plug in the microphone.
Mark
and I were as awestruck by the whole moment as every bug-eyed fan that
showed up to welcome her. By the time we'd realized it and corrected the
problem, Stacy had been sucked into a mob of adoring, screaming Aussies.
Flash bulbs popping, hands flailing with pens, pictures, programs and
scraps of paper. ... It was chaos. It was a mob of crazy Australian autograph
hounds scrambling for Idaho's golden girl, and she jumped at every
request.
And it was awesome. Stacy Dragila had just set an Olympic record,
won a gold medal, and become a world star. And it was as though she had
just aced an algebra midterm. Sweet and simple joy.
We got our
interview and went back to our room, laughing all the way. I don't think
either of us has ever forgotten to plug in a microphone. Then again, I
don't think we've ever met a winner like Stacy either.
John Miller and Mark Johnson are reporters for KTVB-TV in Boise, Idaho, a Belo Interactive affiliate. They are writing a daily notebook column from the Olympics.
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Track star 
1996
swimming gold medalist Ryan Berube 
