About Us

KIDS' QUESTIONS

April 2005

Behind the scenes at the U.S. Championships - a kid's perspective
by Alex Shibutani

More than 150 reporters were on hand for the 2005 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships covering the event for newspapers and magazines around the world. And working with these professional journalists was 13-year-old Alex Shibutani, who lives in Connecticut. Alex, who with his sister, Maia, forms a talented juvenile ice dancing team, is an aspiring sports reporter and spent one day behind the scenes at the U.S. Championships working alongside one of the sport's top writers. Here is the account of his experience.

I have attended skating competitions as both a spectator and a competitor, but little did I know how exciting, and exhausting, it would be attending the U.S. Championships as a member of the media.

My experience actually began at the 2005 U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships in Jamestown, N.Y., in December 2004. My sister, Maia, and I finished second in the juvenile ice dancing competition and were interviewed by a journalist named Michelle Wojdyla. Michelle is a reporter and photographer whose work covering figure skating is carried by several different publications and web sites, including SKATING and www.usfigureskating.org.

Alex Shibutani with ice dancers Julia and Philipp Rey at the 2005 U.S. Championships

During the interview I mentioned my interest in becoming a sports journalist. After the interview, Michelle submitted a request to U.S. Figure Skating asking if she could get a credential that would allow me to accompany her for one day during the U.S. Championships. Credentials to attend the event as a working member of the media are difficult to obtain, but Michelle was granted a pass and before I knew it I was in Portland. Frankly, I didn't think I would be doing much, just watching her do her job and seeing what it was like to be a member of the media. Boy was I wrong.

first stop — the media room
My day “on the job” started at 11 a.m. when I met Michelle at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland. Michelle whisked me down to our first stop — the media room, which is essentially the mission control room for the hundreds of journalists covering the event. Unlike the fancy high-tech setting I had imagined, the room was filled with large tables cluttered with laptops, papers and cords. There were also several television monitors set up so the journalists could follow the event. My favorite area, however, was the media hospitality room — the place where members of the media could get free food.

my first, and possibly last, assignment
Our first assignment was to cover the junior men's final, and one of our primary responsibilities was to get quotes at the medalists' press conference. One of Michelle's colleagues, Lynn Rutherford, who writes for Spotlight on Skating magazine, needed quotes for an article she was writing, so I offered to record the press conference using my laptop. Unfortunately, when it came time to retrieve the recording, I couldn't find the file. I was horrified and completely embarrassed. My career was over, and I was just barely getting started!

Lynn was super gracious and told me not to worry. I decided I would try to make it up to her by typing up some of her notes. While I was able to pull off this task, I still ended up breaking into a sweat trying to come up with correct punctuation and spelling. Thank goodness for spell-check.

As we hurried to our next task — photographing the senior men's practice group — I grabbed a cereal bar from the media hospitality room. Once we arrived at the arena, Michelle settled in by the boards at one corner of the rink and started clicking away.

After the practice we returned to the media room and began to prepare for the final dance event. We also took the opportunity to grab something to eat because, as Michelle said, “When you find a spare moment, and there happens to be something available to eat, EAT IT! You never know when you will be able to eat again.”

lessons learned
While we ate, I met a woman named Julia Radlick, a television reporter with KATU (the ABC affiliate in Portland). Julia told me that it is important for a sports journalist to know as much as they can about the events they are covering — the athletes, the statistics, past results — but the best in the business go a step further. They try to understand the personalities of the people whom they cover and try to understand not just what goes on “on the playing field” but behind the scenes as well.

One key lesson I picked up during the day is that it is just as important to know what questions NOT to ask as it is to know what questions to ask. In other words, a good reporter should do his or her research before asking questions. The best questions are open-ended (ones that don't just elicit “yes” or “no” answers) that focus on the “tough issues of interest” but do not put the athletes on the spot in a negative way.

As soon as we had finished eating, we rushed to get to our seats for the ice dancing event. Halfway through the competition we had to rush back downstairs so I could interview Julia and Philipp Rey, a brother-sister dance team who live and train in Delaware.

At first I was a bit jittery. I must have been asking questions at a hundred miles an hour. But once I gave the skaters the chance to respond, they were kind and generous with their time. When I finally started to calm down, I ended up having a lot of fun speaking to fellow ice dancers.

I asked them if they argued a lot when they trained. After sharing a laugh together about my question, Julia explained, “We used to argue a lot when we were younger, but you need to remember that you still love each other and that you work hard together.”

“But you always listen to the girl!” proclaimed Philipp. “And you never, never fight back!”

With these words of wisdom I thanked Julia and Philipp, and Michelle and I returned to our seats in the stands.

Attending an event as part of the media is much different from attending as a spectator. We took extensive notes throughout each program, and at the end we did not clap for any of them. According to Michelle, it is “against the (unspoken) rules” to clap or to show that you have favorites when you are “on the job.” The only time that we broke protocol was when Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto made history, lighting up the scoreboard with a straight row of 6.0s for artistic impression. With the rest of the crowd still celebrating the moment, however, we hurried back downstairs to prepare for the press conference.

that's a wrap
During the course of the day, one of the key things I learned is that a good journalist has to be prepared for anything. You never know what is going to happen and when you will be required to change your plans.

Shortly after the ice dancing competition ended, Michelle was asked to cover the pairs event, which was starting next! So, after the press conference, we watched and took notes on the first two groups of pairs. When it came time for the ice cut, sometime after 9 p.m., Michelle had a deadline to make so we decided that it would be good time to wrap up our day together.

When I finally went to bed at 1 a.m., I was totally exhausted. But no question about it, given the chance, I would gladly do it all over again.