Sochi 2014: January 2014

Map of the Villages, the Olympic Park and the Mountain Venues

I made it to Sochi!

Things here are very busy so I will have to keep my blog post somewhat short. For the last few days, I have been living in a bed and breakfast type hotel that the USOC has rented for the duration of the Games as the outside-the-coastal village Operation Center. The location is very convenient and only about a mile away from the coastal village and the Olympic Park (see the map below for a visual of how the villages, the Olympic Park and mountain venues are laid out). During working hours, I have been using something called a ‘bump-in pass’ to the coastal village which allows me to get into the village to begin preparing for my responsibilities.

Today, January 30^th, is the day the villages officially open which means I get to move-in this morning and also our first teams arrive! Both the long track and short track teams will be joining us in the coast and we are all very excited to for the villages to start filling up with people and energy! Over the last few days, my colleague, Amanda, and I have been working towards getting our motor pool and BMW bikes organized, meeting and scheduling our NOC (National Olympic Committee) Assistants (volunteers specifically assigned to help Team USA), meeting the majority of the key Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee NOC Services staff members so that we can now go to them with requests and issues, and getting a general feel for the village and how everything will operate.

First impressions of the coastal village: the buildings are nice and I especially love the color choices of finishings (lots of beige and chocolate), it is very spread out so there is a lot of walking involved (I plan on using a bike today!), but it is also very, very close to the Olympic Park (where the venues are located) so hopefully that fact plays to the athletes’ favor. In addition, I love being able to look towards the Olympic Park and see all of the giant venues lit up at night. It is quite spectacular!

I’ll write again when I have a few spare minutes…only 9 days until the Games begin!

The Olympic rings at the airport!

A cruise ship passing by our window in the Coastal Village. Many spectators are planning to stay in the cruise ships.

The Fisht Stadium (site of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies) at night. This is the view from my temporary bed-and-breakfast type hotel room.

My trip to Sochi has already begun and this past week I have been very busy shopping, packing, organizing, spending time with family and friends and re-packing! You may be wondering: ‘Julie: How the heck did you even get started in all of this Olympic stuff?’

So here is a little re-cap: First and foremost, the credit goes to my parents, Doug and Kathy Schmitz. My parents are both retired teachers in Hibbing, MN where my sisters, Katie and Jodi, and I were born and raised. My mom and dad have always been big Olympic fans and even went to the 1984 Los Angeles Games as spectators. So when Atlanta got the bid for the 1996 Games, they didn’t hesitate in planning a big family trip to Georgia. The Atlanta Games were my first official look into the Olympic Movement. I was 14 years old and I can remember almost every detail like it was yesterday. From that point on, I was hooked!

As my high school and college years flew by, a number of unique opportunities presented themselves and looking back, it is amazing how my experiences were weaved together to get me to where I am today. In 2000 and my freshman year of college, I signed up to be a student manager for the women’s basketball team at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. Low and behold, the team was awesome and four years later, I was supporting them at the Women’s Final Four! This experience lead to a two-week stint volunteering for USA Basketball at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs, CO. Anyone who has ever visited the OTC knows how impactful it can be and my short time there told me that I was definitely on to something.

Concurrent to my student manager years, I was studying Kinesiology and Coaching with the goal of obtaining my master’s degree in Health and Physical Education. During my sophomore year of college and as part of my Kinesiology studies, I had a profound experience studying abroad in Greece, specifically with a focus on the Ancient Olympic Games. Traveling to all of the ancient Olympic sites and staying at the International Olympic Academy forever shaped my view of the Olympic Movement and gave me a whole new perspective as to what the Olympics are all about.

After the trip to the OTC, things started to escalate fairly quickly. My sister, Katie, and I volunteered for the Athens Organizing Committee and we had a fabulous time supporting the 2004 Games as spectator ushers at the Helliniko Olympic Complex. I actually remember the day when I was standing there telling someone ‘Eisitiria Parakola’ (Tickets Please) and thought to myself, ‘There has got to be a way to make these Olympic experiences into a career!’

So upon my return from Athens, I started doing some research and realized that probably the best place to start would be to intern with the United States Olympic Committee. In 2006 and upon completion of my student teaching, I moved to Colorado and interned with the Operations Division at the OTC. I fell in love with working for the Olympic Movement and specifically supporting Team USA. I knew that I had really found my niche and decided to stay in Colorado Springs and start looking for a permanent job.

It took me awhile but eventually, I was hired as the U.S. Teams Coordinator at U.S. Figure Skating (also located in Colorado Springs, CO). In a very neat way, my job there was like a combination of being a student manager and being a teacher (lots of logistics, service support and relationship building) and it truly allowed me to hone my skills and broaden my perspective. In 2010, I was assigned the honor of serving Team USA’s figure skaters at the Vancouver Games where I helped coordinate the Friends & Family program and helped manage the off-site safe house and office.

While working at U.S. Figure Skating, my sisters, brother-in-law, Chris, friend, Kelli, and I decided that OF COURSE we needed to go to the 2008 Beijing Games just for fun! So sure enough, I was able to take a few weeks off from U.S. Figure Skating to attend the phenomenal Beijing Games as a spectator. We had a fantastic time and walked away with some great stories!

All of these experiences finally lead me to today. I have been employed by the United States Olympic Committee for three years. I am a manager in the Sport Performance Division which, in a nut shell, means that my colleagues and I work closely with a portfolio of sports (I work with Curling, Wheelchair Curling, Figure Skating, Ice Hockey, Sled Hockey, Speedskating, Track & Field, Shooting and Paralympic Shooting) to try to figure out how to maximize success at each and every Olympic Games. We do this in many different ways and a few of the ones I specifically support are the distribution of resources (funding, service provision and access), the development and execution of quad and annual plans, and simply building strong relationships between the USOC and each National Governing Body…and when the Games come around every few years, we might even get the honor and privilege of being assigned a Games role!

Games roles are extremely gratifying, fun, amazing, memorable and incredibly tough! We take 1-1.5 months out of our daily jobs to provide 24/7 support to Team USA on the ground at the Games. It is definitely a marathon – not a sprint! But when you’ve been dreaming about having this type of role for years, you’re able to put it all into perspective and realize that you have one of the coolest jobs in the whole world…which gives you the perseverance to tough it out even in the midst of continual chaos! So with this in mind, I will have the same responsibilities in Sochi that I had at the 2012 London Games which will be coordinating transportation in the Athlete Coastal Village. I’ll tell you more about my job details later!

My story wouldn’t be complete without telling you a little bit about my husband, Justin, and the life we are now building in Colorado Springs, CO. Despite the crazy schedule explained above, I was blessed to meet Justin while out with friends in 2010. It was pretty much love at first sight and two years later, we were married in Buena Vista, CO. This year, we’ve welcomed a new puppy, Honey, into our family, purchased our first house and are expecting our first child in June! We could not be more thrilled and thankful! Justin is a wonderful, hard-working man (who until he met me knew nothing about the Olympics! ) and is extremely supportive of my goals and ambitions. Justin works for a company called ETTower building communications systems around the country. With that in mind, we don’t get to spend nearly as much time together as we would like but by divine grace and a whole lot of patience, we are happy, healthy and looking forward to all of the adventures life has ahead of us!

So the bottom line is this: The Olympics are epic. There is nothing else like it. Go to a Games! And if you are like me and dream of working for the Olympics someday, don’t give up! Have faith, surround yourself with your dream team and enjoy the ride!

Next stop: SOCHI!

P.S. I would like to give a shout out to Mrs. Adams’ class (Room 212) in Cambridge, MN! Thank you for writing on my blog! To answer your question: I love watching ALL of the winter sports so it is hard for me to choose just one. But I will say that one of my favorite events to watch right now is ice dancing which is a part of figure skating. Team USA has one of the best ice dancing teams in the world right now (Meryl Davis and Charlie White) and I can’t wait to watch them perform in Sochi! They are spectacular performers and I hope you get to watch them too on TV!