My father has gotten very popular all of a sudden...
So my father is having his ten minutes of fame, as they say.
Some of you may have heard of the problems that the Commonwealth Games are having at this point in time. There are stories about a collapsed pedestrian bridge, unfinished Athletes' Village accommodations, terrorist threats, etc.
My father is going to be attending the games in Delhi as a rapid-fire pistol shooter, among other pistol-related competitions. This morning, a few hours before he was going to head off to the airport, he got a call: they're putting off sending any athletes in until Sunday. My father: sad face.
He had already had an interview with CTV scheduled for that morning: a "look, local man off to compete for king and country in the commonwealth games!" kind of thing. Well, it was a bit of a different story when they got there, but my dad went with it. They took some shots of him zipping and unzipping his luggage, and some shots of his "Canada" hat (the one that he was debating with me this morning over bringing) and he actually spoke in a calm and reasonable manner about the whole thing. Mostly how the organizers know best, and the sporting facilities themselves were pretty high quality when he went to compete in Delhi three years ago at a separate competition. He refused to diss India on screen, and I believe he really does think that some of these concerns are overblown. Still. Woo.
He also did a phone interview with the Edmonton Journal, a newspaper we subscribe to, and another video interview for Global news. They shook it up a bit; one filmed in the front room, the other on our back porch. Whatevs. Each one focussed on slightly different things, and dad thinks that they were fair in their 30-second selection of the five or ten minute interviews he did for each. Sometimes they can completely misrepresent what the interviewee said in the editing process. Not so this time, so that's good, at least...?
Now it's after supper and the CBC called. (That's the national channel - the Canadian version of the BBC - for those not in the know.) They're sending someone over in less than half an hour to interview him. Mum and I have been frantically cleaning up our living room.
I wonder why they haven't been going to that lovely runner and the swim guy for these other interviews? Maybe my father is just reasonable and logical in the interviews, and isn't just nattering on about all of the illnesses you have to get inoculated against to visit India...? He's mostly like "calm down, guys, the Indians probably have like a bajillion guys working on fixing this," only phrased in a way that sounds more like my dad.
The news sources keep emphasizing that "oh noez, the games start in X number of days!" It's actually WORSE than what they're representing, for once (normally the news talks like the world is ending, to the point of exaggeration). You see, the athletes like to do some training in the week before the games actually open in the actual venue that they'll be using, so they won't be thrown by the strange location, and will have time to get over jet lag and such. So this delay could cost the athletes in terms of performance.
Anyway, word is that some of the athletes have cancelled their trips to India and won't be competing. Dad doesn't want to cancel, and probably won't. If he does well in this competition, as well as one in October in Rio De Janeiro, then he could qualify to represent Canada at the 2012 Olympics in London.
You can do it, dad! I believe in you!
EDIT:
"Can we get a shot of you doing up those last two latches again? I'm thinking, 'And he's packed up and ready to go.'"
Some of you may have heard of the problems that the Commonwealth Games are having at this point in time. There are stories about a collapsed pedestrian bridge, unfinished Athletes' Village accommodations, terrorist threats, etc.
My father is going to be attending the games in Delhi as a rapid-fire pistol shooter, among other pistol-related competitions. This morning, a few hours before he was going to head off to the airport, he got a call: they're putting off sending any athletes in until Sunday. My father: sad face.
He had already had an interview with CTV scheduled for that morning: a "look, local man off to compete for king and country in the commonwealth games!" kind of thing. Well, it was a bit of a different story when they got there, but my dad went with it. They took some shots of him zipping and unzipping his luggage, and some shots of his "Canada" hat (the one that he was debating with me this morning over bringing) and he actually spoke in a calm and reasonable manner about the whole thing. Mostly how the organizers know best, and the sporting facilities themselves were pretty high quality when he went to compete in Delhi three years ago at a separate competition. He refused to diss India on screen, and I believe he really does think that some of these concerns are overblown. Still. Woo.
He also did a phone interview with the Edmonton Journal, a newspaper we subscribe to, and another video interview for Global news. They shook it up a bit; one filmed in the front room, the other on our back porch. Whatevs. Each one focussed on slightly different things, and dad thinks that they were fair in their 30-second selection of the five or ten minute interviews he did for each. Sometimes they can completely misrepresent what the interviewee said in the editing process. Not so this time, so that's good, at least...?
Now it's after supper and the CBC called. (That's the national channel - the Canadian version of the BBC - for those not in the know.) They're sending someone over in less than half an hour to interview him. Mum and I have been frantically cleaning up our living room.
I wonder why they haven't been going to that lovely runner and the swim guy for these other interviews? Maybe my father is just reasonable and logical in the interviews, and isn't just nattering on about all of the illnesses you have to get inoculated against to visit India...? He's mostly like "calm down, guys, the Indians probably have like a bajillion guys working on fixing this," only phrased in a way that sounds more like my dad.
The news sources keep emphasizing that "oh noez, the games start in X number of days!" It's actually WORSE than what they're representing, for once (normally the news talks like the world is ending, to the point of exaggeration). You see, the athletes like to do some training in the week before the games actually open in the actual venue that they'll be using, so they won't be thrown by the strange location, and will have time to get over jet lag and such. So this delay could cost the athletes in terms of performance.
Anyway, word is that some of the athletes have cancelled their trips to India and won't be competing. Dad doesn't want to cancel, and probably won't. If he does well in this competition, as well as one in October in Rio De Janeiro, then he could qualify to represent Canada at the 2012 Olympics in London.
You can do it, dad! I believe in you!
EDIT:
"Can we get a shot of you doing up those last two latches again? I'm thinking, 'And he's packed up and ready to go.'"