Much has been written about Montgomery Olympian Elle Purrier St. Pierre’s run for glory in this week’s 1,500-meter track event. But another Vermonter is making news by racing a marathon — not the official 26-mile one, but instead the seemingly nonstop schedule of a journalist covering Tokyo’s Summer Games.
Rutland writer Peggy Shinn — reporting for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s website, TeamUSA.org — is waking early and working late to commute as many as three hours one-way and chronicle sports as varied as cycling, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis and track.
Flying some 6,525 miles from Burlington to Chicago to the capital of Japan, Shinn discovered her first challenge wasn’t securing interviews with the likes of U.S. swimming sensations Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky — she just did that — but instead scoring food other than the boxed meals at her hotel (“Corn dogs for breakfast anyone?”) and press center.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused Japan to declare a state of emergency, with visitors prohibited from venturing outside Olympic venues and lodging except for short approved shopping runs.
“We have 15 minutes to run to the 7-Eleven next door to the hotel, decipher labels and buy something edible,” Shinn said in a recent email. “The first night, I almost bought dried squid while looking for cereal.”
Having found salmon and yogurt, Shinn’s now focused on transportation. Olympic organizers hoped to rely on public transit before the pandemic spurred them to switch to designated media buses and taxis. But that’s tricky when a reporter doesn’t speak Japanese and dispatchers aren’t skilled in English.
“We have to hope that my pronunciation of ‘aquatic center’ doesn’t get interpreted as ‘erotic center,’” Shinn said.
Such hurdles aren’t new for the Vermonter, who was reaping awards as a freelance writer for several major ski magazines when she began her Olympic Committee assignment upon its website’s inception in 2008.
Squeezing a computer, cellphone and clothes into a suitcase or two, she has covered the Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010, Sochi, Russia, in 2014 and Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018 and the Summer Games in London, England, in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.
Each spot brings its own stories. Arriving in Tokyo, for example, Shinn discovered her computer melting down, and her technician (spouse Andrew) sprang into action back home in the States.
“My husband dialed into my laptop from halfway around the world and fixed it.”
If only eliminating the thermometer-popping heat and threat of Covid were so easy. Covering rowing, Shinn found herself drenched in sweat and direct sun while wearing a mask.
“It feels like a blanket over our faces,” the fully vaccinated reporter said, “but at least I feel safe!”
Such can-do spirit is one reason why Shinn centered her story on a pair of rowers who demonstrated how to bounce back in the wake of loss:
TOKYO — During the Olympic Games, headlines are teemed with feats of medal-winning glory.
What we hear less about is those who fall short …
“While we don’t have an Olympic medal and likely never will, I promise you we would clean house in the resilience category,” Shinn quoted one athlete. “And maybe that’s our legacy.”
Unable to reach the cycling venue far from Tokyo, Shinn is following pandemic protocol by observing the action on a live stream.
“It’s a bit crazy to be here and have to watch on TV as if we are at home. But we are doing what we have to do.”
Stranger still is the fact the spectator stands are empty.
“There are some benefits — like in soccer, you can hear the players talking to each other on the field.”
Then again, reporters have to physically distance themselves from their interview subjects and hope their audio recorders pick up the sound.
“One nice thing — journalists are much more willing to work together. We are helping each other out.”
Shinn has covered her share of Vermonters in the Winter Olympics — so much so, she capped Stratton-trained Jessie Diggins’ 2018 historic gold-medal win with a book, “World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Ski Team.”
As for the Summer Games, Shinn hopes to see Purrier St. Pierre at the track but will have to log onto TeamUSA.org to catch her colleagues’ coverage of Burlington rugby player Ilona Maher and Vermont Academy graduate and rower Brooke Mooney.
Shinn then will return home — and then prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, where she anticipates similar pandemic precautions.
“But at least not as hot, and masks will keep our faces warm,” she said. “It’s always an adventure to cover the Olympics. I mostly try to go with the flow, just taking every curveball as an experience.”
