Monday 20 July 2015

Photographers view of the Pan Am Games

Having spent decades covering events worldwide, this being my fifth Pan American Games my observations are coming from prior experience and not a first time visitor.  I was there to cover the Canadian swim team, I only worked at one venue, stayed in a hotel 10 minutes away, so I can only comment on my travels to and from these places.  The transportation schedule changed five time in six days, the average wait times at the pool 15-45 minutes, one evening there were five buses, none of which were designated for my accreditation, they were for the athletes, on the final night of competition there were no buses for anyone.  The drivers had one schedule and the volunteers at the pool had a different one, some of the drivers didn't have a schedule at all, but just drove around, none of the buses had trackers of any kind, so no one really knew where they were.  A Games runs on the ability to move the athletes, officials and media around, these Games failed with that basic requirement.

Security at the pool ranged from none to stupid, teenagers with flashlights would look into the bags of visitors, their main concern seemed to be people sneaking water into the pool, unopened bottles were permitted, but other ones had to be dumped out and refilled inside.  The question that pops to mind was, if the contents of the bottles were dangerous, wouldn't dumping the bottles next to security pose a hazard?  There were two ways into the pool, I used both, accreditation was scanned once, other times I was waved through with a high five from the kids.  Security Fail.

Toronto wants to bid for a Summer Olympics and based on the one week I was there, it shouldn't, if they couldn't get a much smaller Games done right they certainly could never get the Olympics right.

I'm just saying.


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