The canoe/kayak national championships at the Lake Lanier rowing venue near Gainesville this past week had me recalling those 13 days in July and four days in August 15 years ago that brought the world to our community.<br />
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I very well recall the skeptics who gave Billy Payne little or no chance of selling the world on Atlanta as the site for the 1996 Summer Games but sell it he did and the announcement came from Tokyo in September 1990: It's Atlanta!<br />
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A few years later the headlines screamed: It's Lake Lanier!<br />
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The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) had chosen Lake Lanier for the rowing and sprint canoe/kayak competition.<br />
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The announcement came just an hour or so after local reporters had met with the Gainesville/Hall County organizing committee for a background briefing (off-the-record), bringing us up to date on the group's work in trying to attract the rowing and canoe/kayak events to Gainesville, which was actually the second choice. The first had been the equestrian competition.<br />
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Another few years later and I found myself working for about 17 straight days, covering the events at the venue on Clarks Bridge Road. <br />
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I did manage a couple of days off, one take in the competition on Lake Lanier as a spectator with my family and another to visit Atlanta, again as a spectator, and take in some volleyball and basketball.<br />
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That trip to Atlanta followed by one week the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. That happened on a Friday night and I was supposed to make my "off day" trip to Atlanta the next day but, of course, wound up working instead after a middle-of-the-night phone call alerting me to the bombing.<br />
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Covering the rowing and canoe/kayak events involved catching a bus at Sherwood Plaza every morning about 8:30, undergoing two personal security checks (one at Sherwood and one at the venue), not to mention the scan of the bus just a few blocks from the venue. Those, of course, intensified after the bombing in Atlanta.<br />
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The events were held in the morning hours to try to avoid Georgia's frequent afternoon showers and thundershowers and at a time when calms winds usually prevailed. But it was still plenty hot and the media was seated outside with no shade of any kind. <br />
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I always packed sunscreen and a broad-brimmed hat and very well remember the young journalist from either Sweden or Switzerland who was sitting next to me one especially hot day who turned to me and in his broken English asked if I had any sunscreen. I was glad to share with my fair-skinned colleague.<br />
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He was just one of the interesting people I met during the coverage of the Olympics. It was not an easy assignment but one I will always remember and treasure as one the highlights of my career in this business.<br />
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<I>(Ken Stanford is the Newsroom Manager for WDUN-AM, WDUN-FM, 1240 ESPN Radio and AccessNorthGa.com.)<I>
