I’ve been fortunate to attend the London Olympics but I haven’t missed watching them since I was a kid. I love watching the Olympics for a number of reasons:
1. To watch the best of the best compete at sports I love and ones I rarely watch.
2. To see and learn about the host city, which is usually a dream destinations like Tokyo, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and Paris.
3. Most of the commentators, namely host Mike Tirico, are soothing and interesting to listen to, to hear their perspectives and learn from their knowledge.
4. To get to know the athletes and hear their backstories.
Yesterday, the pole vault competition caught my attention, even though I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than a minute of it. But Swedish athlete Mondo Duplantis won the gold and kept going to break his own World Record in front of the sold-out crowd inside the massive Stade de France.
Mondo told Olympics.com after he vaulted over the bar at a new World Record height of 6.25m (20.5 feet), “What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. [My] biggest dream since a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.”
Here’s the video and the Swedish call of Mondo Duplantis’ world record.
What made it even more appealing was the fact his top competitor, Sam Kendricks, an American who came in second, stayed by his side to cheer him on and get the crowd pumped up. I later saw this post on Threads which pretty much sums up how I feel: “Gotta love the pole vaulter from the USA leading the cheers while his Swedish competitor attempts to break the world record. Man, the Olympics is the absolute best.”
Post by @robmackennaView on Threads
I then came across this Yahoo Sports story titled: “Pole vaulters’ biggest challenge: Getting their poles to Paris.” The story was about a U.S. Olympic Track and Field star from Rochester New York, who, earlier this summer began researching how to transport her poles from Rochester, New York, to Eugene, Oregon for the Olympic trials.
Brynn King said the least inconvenient flight option that she found departed from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, a three-hour drive from her home and across the border in Canada.
King booked an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Portland “only after verifying with the airline that they would take her poles as checked luggage.” However, when King and her coach went to check in at the Air Canada desk, “the agent who greeted them steadfastly insisted that King’s poles were too big to fit on her flight. Then another agent approached and tried to charge King for each of her 14-to-15-foot poles individually rather than requesting a single sum for her 100-plus-pound bag.”
What travelers can learn is that it wasn’t until her coach, Jenn Suhr, stepped in and spoke up that they began making headway. According to the Yahoo article: “Suhr, a former longtime pro and two-time Olympic medalist, demanded that the agents send for Air Canada’s highest-ranking executive on the premises.”
Suhr went on to say, “This is what you have to learn. They’re always going to tell you no. You have to ignore them and find the person the highest up that knows everything.”
This is precisely what Peter Greenberg, intrepid traveler and CBS News Travel Editor, who fliers over 400,000 miles a year, has told me numerous times including in my Travel Style interview with him. Peter said: “Never take a no from someone who is not empowered to give you a yes in the first place.”
This has been my experience as well, traveling over 3 million miles in the air and visiting close to 100 countries. But remember: You have to do it politely but sternly.
FYI: For those pole vaulters looking for advice on how to check their fiberglass or carbon-fiber poles that range in length from 14 to 17 feet and cost up to $1,000 apiece: According to Yahoo Sports, “Delta, American, United and JetBlue have stopped accepting poles on flights, pole vaulters said. Among major domestic carriers, they say Southwest is one of the few that still does.” It appears that when flying overseas, there are more options.
KEEP READING
–Olympic surfer shares athlete’s accommodations on cargo ship almost 10,000 miles away from Paris
–Did you know your electronic devices should always be charged when going through security?
–10 airport security hacks every traveler needs to know
–Mom shares hilarious reason she’s not getting TSA Precheck anytime soon
–How to get a full bottle of water through airport security
Want more travel news, tips and deals? Sign up to Johnny Jet’s free newsletter and check out these popular posts: The Travel Gadget Flight Attendants Never Leave Home Without and 12 Ways to Save Money on Baggage Fees. Follow Johnny Jet on MSN, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube for all of my travel posts.
