Radio-Canada sports is Olympics-bound. One hundred and seven people are off to Beijing. However, their anchor desk is staying right here - like it did for Athens in 2004 - surrounded by a core team of about one hundred.
The one anchor of theirs I'll be following closely is Marie-José Turcotte, one of those amazing TV people who most often stays cool as a summer salad even as she conveys the thrill of the sports she is covering.
She has, of course, experience - is, indeed, a pioneer and a 20-year veteran of sports and Olympics coverage: Atlanta, Nagano, Athens, Turin and soccer with L'Impact. She's won nine Gémeaux awards and is recognized as one of the most capable sports broadcasters on the continent, but, she tells me, "It's always exciting and you can't help but get wrapped up in it."
Exciting yes - but this may be one of the most controversial games in a very long time, and I wonder if Radio-Canada and its team is preparing their doomsday scenarios if everything in China goes wonky. "Not really," says Turcotte. "We are talking about the Chinese after all. They will be maintaining utter control over the event. But that is the nature of the event now, you know. I remember back to Seoul, for instance, where the security was enormous, and everything went off without a hitch despite the fact there were workers in the city who were using the Games to protest. In Salt Lake City, too, remember, it was just a few months after 9/11 and everyone was scared, and, yes, we were prepared with our scenarios then, but again there was so much security that nothing happened. So imagine China."
So where might trouble come from? "Not from the athletes. They have been warned about any kind of protest by the International Olympic Committee. And don't forget: Athletes have been preparing for years for this event, and they're not going to want to ruin it. Finally, too, the earthquakes and the floods in China have taken some of the focus off the Tibet controversy."
Bottom line: Turcotte likes the Olympics, and although she has had many, many highs and lows, she particularly remembers the high in Albertville when she was commentating on women's Alpine skiing and Kerrin Lee-Gartner's gold, "I was pretty excited, I have to say. I saw the tape after and said, 'My Lord, I was crazed!' But it's hard to stay neutral sometimes." But, of course, she also remembers the low of Seoul and Ben Jonson: "Three days before the Canadian team were heroes. Then it was a huge loss for everyone."
Turcotte is not alone. Radio-Canada is throwing an impressive galaxy of stars at these games including former athletes like Jacinthe Taillon and Annie Pelletier as well as the usual brilliant co-
anchors: François Faucher and Guy D'Aoust. And the prep? "It starts for an Olympics the minute the last one is over. The closer we get to the date, the more people who are involved."
Finally, is it a joy or just one massive pain in the ass? "It is happiness," says Turcotte. "It is a level of happiness that is actually multiplied each time I do it. This is the event of the planet, and when you're in the work, you really do have the sense you are in the middle of the universe. It is a marathon, and by Day 11, like runners, you hit the wall. Twelve- to 16-hour days are part of it, and you finally love it and you love the athletes and you love their stories and lives."
Radio-Canada sports programming will be from 6 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. most of the two weeks (Aug. 9-24) with some space left over for news broadcasts. (As you can imagine, a lot of news will be originating in Beijing.) Consult Radio-Canada's separate website for the event: pekin.
radio-canada.ca/pekin/ already up and working and packed with info.
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