Red Tape & Lagat

[EPelle]

Ok, Kenya says NO WAY Buddy, good luck in your new home.

Rats.

What is the biggest red-tape you have had to cut through, yourselves?

[gh]

At the Atlanta Olympics, to get into the Announcer's booth you had to have a 5 on your credential badge. A 5 was a very rare number and you had to have mega-special clearance to get one. So the crew felt very special. But wait!

Accredited journalists had a 4, but the announcers weren't considered media, so they didn't get a 4. But the only way you could get to the announce booth was by going through the press area. There was, as I recall, even an official ACOG schematic which showed 5 as an island in the middle of 4.

Even confronted with this bit of information, getting somebody to sign off on the addition of a 4 to our badges took 3 days of visits to ACOG headquarters, each of 3-4 hours duration, being bounced from functionary to functionary. Everybody had the same answer: "I don't have the authority to do that, and I don't know who does."

Fortunately, we started the process 4-5 days ahead of time and managed to get into the booth just in time for the first rehersals.

Postscript: for Athens, we got even better credentials, with a "VVIP" sticker that even allowed us to go into the IOC lounge and plop down and have a beer with Jacques Rogge and the boys. But once again no press access! Aiyeeee!

[EPelle]

You must have a lot of patience, GH.

[Zat0pek]

You must have a lot of patience, GH.

Agreed. My digits would have been clamped firmly around somebody's carotids after the second "I don't have authority to do that and I don't know who does."

[dkny]

Credentials

I worked for Mondo at the 96 Games. When I went to get my credentials, I asked the nice lady where where I would have access to. She said "wait one moment while I look up your file'. Then she said "Oh my God, who do you know?" Looking suprised , I asked why and she replied "you can go everywhere!". I then remembered that Mondo did all of the flooring for the Games.

I have a great pic of Bob & GH in the booth on the last day. Well maybe not such a great pic of GH....It was very early on Sunday morning

[gh]

Also known as very late on Saturday night :-)

[EPelle]

1996. Married 1 year. Wife and I make due on one of our wedding presents, and cash in on two tickets to paradise. The persons who booked the tickets for us used our original last names, and we tried exiting USA on our new last name. Didn:t fare well by any means. Passport didn:t match tickets. Stuck with ever-so-friendly INS agents for six hours. Attempted calling embassy in New York to no avail. Called Stockholm and got an answering machine. With every passing minute we grew more tired of the American Dream. My wife finally shouts, "You can keep your damn trip, we are going home... to Sweden."

Give her credit for her tenacity. Problem was that the INS guy says, "You leave this area, and you get arrested."

Never had six hours of my life been longer than that day. We finally got through, btw, but got stopped at London-Heathrow. Almost same problem, but shorter wait-time on Swedish immigration service.

[dl]

EPelle - You should be thankful that whole episode didn't happen post-9/11!

[EPelle]

Yes, thankfully.

Look for mail this coming (or early next) week. Some Göteborgs-Posten articles on Christian Olsson and Emma Green... brush up on your Swedish a little! Sent today.