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World Games open opportunities for athletes and academics alike
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Rewarding. Grueling. Challenging.
“It’s probably one of the biggest events to hit Boise in a long time,” Trevor Hall, assistant professor in the Communications Department at Boise State University, said of the World Winter Special Olympics.
Multitudes of athletes, trainers and Special Olympics staffs are scrambling to create an experience its participants will remember for a lifetime.
The focus, without a doubt, will be on thousands of athletes. But there is much to be learned on the academia side, specifically the Communication Department at Boise State.
The games will be held at multiple venues in Idaho, stretching from Boise to McCall to Sun Valley, where students will earn academic credit in an attempt to cover every single athlete and have the content online for viewers to see their loved ones across the world. Events will stretch from Feb.7-13.
“I think this is a very intense, massive project.” Hall said. “We have thousands of athletes coming in to compete along with their trainers and all of the other people coming in to participate. We’re just one part of that . Just keeping up with all of the logistics is intense.”
Hall assists in the coordination of film crews who will shoot at the multiple venues.
Schools such as the University of Miami and University of North Carolina, not to mention the multiple aspects of global media, are participating in the endeavor to capture dreams realized during the games.
“I think [other universities] will be somewhat surprised at how good our advanced students are,” Hall said. “I think that is one thing that will be very nice for other professionals and other universities to see that we have some very talented people here.”
That talent is expected to perform, according to the internship description, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. during the games.
But Hall believes there will be work to be down around the clock.
“Somebody will be editing almost 24 hours a day just to get the content out in a timely manner,” he said.
Working under these strenuous conditions allows students the opportunity to build on their lessons learned and apply them to a real world setting. Issues of equipment placement, storage, supply, along with legalities present themselves to those who signed up for the internship. Students will also supply feeds to multiple regional news outlets.
“It’s going to be high-intensity and high-demand which is very realistic,” Hall said. “This is going to be one of the most intense weeks for many students.”
Crews will be a balanced mixture of advanced students and more novice and intermediate help.
“I think a lot of [the students] will be thrown into the deep end right at the beginning,” Hall said. “But I think a lot of them will end up swimming and will show some interesting talent there.”
Short notice to prepare for such a massive spread of coverage creates other obstacles.
“We are pleased with the number,” Hall said. “I think that ideally we could have at least 20 more people per area. But I think that we’ve got as many as we could. The big thing was just getting the word out.”
Staff sent out e-mails, flyers and used word of mouth with hopes that their call for assistance would be heard.
But another aspect of the games will stretch far beyond the boundaries of functional experience. Emotional intensity present at competitive events is bound to surface. The Special Olympics and its athletes tend to drill at those emotions, surfacing during the heat of the moment.
“I think in the end,” Hall said “the thing that almost everyone is going to walk away with, and is going to be the thing that they will remember the rest of their lives is interacting with these athletes. I think that it is going to be the profound experience that is life changing for a lot of people.”
The Special Olympics World Winter Games torch, carried by local law enforcement, made its way to the steps of Boise City Hall Feb. 4 between 4:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. MST. Opening ceremonies will be held at the Idaho Center in Nampa Feb. 7 from 2-5 p.m. It is a ticketed event. Visit www.2009worldgames.org for more information on how you can attend these events.
KIRK BELL
Sports Coordinator