Lovely Lake Placid

I can’t comprehend why anyone would want to live up here; I’m from south Florida and I don’t care what anyone says, it’s colder than the dickens. Anyhow, this internship has been an experience like no other, there is no doubt about that. Besides the temperatures I’ve never experienced before, it has been eye-opening watching the different and unique types of athletes at the Lake Placid OTC. When I first got here, I had no clue what biathlon, luge, or skeleton was, but over time I’ve began to respect the athletes within each sport as well as the technical skills and ability each athletes must posses to compete in their respective sport. It’s getting annoying having to explain to all of my friends what each sport is; I’ve dumbed down luge to sliding on your back, skeleton to sliding on your stomach face-first, and biathlon to hunting on skis.

In the weight room, it has been a test of wits and patience when the international athletes are around and a test of knowledge when the US athletes are around asking for help and advice. It has been both affirming and expanding of my expertise within the field to know such athletes trust what I know and have to tell them to help them to excel. And when there are no athletes around, I usually take the time to pick Jason’s brain about college, training, life, etc, or do my own research on things I’ve discussed with him previously. Between training the athletes, researching, talking with Jason, and cleaning there isn’t a whole lot of down time. No quarrels here.
It made my transition here much more tolerable when I knew that I would have a solid friendship with the other interns. We’ve had our fair share of fun within the legal limits of our internship (as far as I can remember) which has been just as rewarding as what I do while I’m on the clock. Between the festivals, bars, and sport events, there is usually something to be experienced and enjoyed in Lake Placid…some being more foreign and bizarre then others but that’s a horse of a different color.
I plan to make the most of my last month here while I continue to pray for the snow to hold off.
-Zac Nicholas

Hello everybody, I’m Dustin du Bois the operations intern in Lake Placid. I graduated from Lynchburg College in Virginia, and I am finishing up my last semester of Graduate School at Virginia Commonwealth University in Sports Administration and Management. In case you do not know much about Lake Placid, it is in upstate New York, 2 hours from both Albany and Montreal. Pretty much you could say we are in middle of nowhere out here. The closest airports are both 2 hours away, one being in Albany and the other in Burlington, Vermont. Many tourists come through Lake Placid to see the 1980 ice arena where the “miracle on ice” took place, and to see the many other Olympic sites. From the bobsled and luge tracks, to the ski ramps and jumps, there are many attractions that make this such an interesting town. It tends to snow a lot here as well, usually starting in December. Now a days the temperature is around 20 degrees in the morning but warms up to around 45-50 during the day. Enjoy the beach Chula Vista.

I have had a great time and wonderful experience living and working at the training center in Lake Placid. With the Vancouver Olympics less than 100 days away, many athletes are preparing for their World Cup seasons and Olympic trials. Every week we get different sports and new athletes, so there is never much down town. Last week figure skaters from all around the world came to compete is Skate America for 4 days. The day they left, over 100 bobsled and skeleton athletes checked in. Therefore, as you can tell we have been staying extremely busy. It has been fun to meet athletes from so many countries and learn about their sport and culture.

As the operations intern, I am mainly responsible for scheduling transportation and rooms for the athletes coming and leaving. Seeing that the closest airport is 2 hours away, it is not good when an athlete is left at either the training center or airport. Therefore, transportation is one of the most important jobs of the operations team here. I also make sure everything is working in our two Athlete Service Center’s, assist the Res. Life Coordinator in planning theme nights and activities, and making sure the roster and records are ready when the teams arrive.

I have really enjoyed my time spent here in Lake Placid, and is a place I would like to return to at some point. Everybody in the city and training center are friendly and great to be around. It has been interesting reading everybody’s blogs and sounds like everybody has had an equally enjoying experience. Best of luck to everybody.

Straight Outta Placid

Hey guys and girls. My name is Bob Landsparger, and I am the intern for the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (USBSF) in Lake Placid, N.Y. Before you even say anything, yes I applied for the bobsled and skeleton federation only because my name was in it. In case you forgot, I was part of that motley crew that caused a ruckus during the intern assimilation because we couldn’t hear the speaker. I graduated from Grove City College, a tiny school between Pittsburgh and Erie, in May with a B.S. in Marketing Management and a minor in Communication Studies. I’m planning on using my education and my experience with the USBSF to help me land a career in either the sports or entertainment industry.

When it comes to this blog, I was in a pickle because I also write a blog for the USBSF, so I didn’t know if I should write a new entry or use my latest USBSF post . . . I chose the second option. If you like this entry, and you want to read more, then visit bobsled.teamusa.org/. You could also read blogs from some of our athletes while you are there. Now who doesn’t like shameless advertising plugs?

U.S. bobsled and skeleton team trials took place here in Lake Placid during my little break from the blog. Instead of writing a little snippet in the summary post, I wanted to make one entry about team trials. Since we already have the press releases about the race results on the website, this post will be about the quirkier stories.

Bobsled and skeleton athletes usually have several training days to get acquainted to the track before completions over the next two or three days, so I attended one of the training sessions the week prior to the races with Josh Smith, the Medical Coordinator for the USBSF. I was excited because it was my first time seeing the athletes slide this season. I also had the opportunity to watch the practice runs on the track catwalk, instead of watching the sliders behind a wooden fence a couple feet away from the track. I was literally a couple inches away from the track. We were between turns 18 and 19, which is one of the most difficult sections of the track. It sounds like a recipe for disaster to have me, a very clumsy person, standing right by a very difficult section while bobsleds are flying down around 70 to 80 miles per hour.

On the first day of team trials, I arrived at the start house, where a three-foot tall snowman greeted me from the observation deck. As I made my way in, one of the first people I saw was 2009 World Champion Justin Olsen. I didn’t want to distract him before he started sliding, but he noticed me and said, “You can’t do it. You just can’t do it.” That statement confused me for the longest time until we had a heart-to-heart conversation during the intermission from the bobsled races. Now when I say heart-to-heart conversation, I do not mean we talked about politics, sports, life in general, etc. We discussed how I’m not able to go from a cold place to a hot place because my glasses will fog. You learn something new every day here in Lake Placid.

The next day started off normal as usual: helped out the staff, interacted with the athletes, acted like the paparazzi by taking a billion photos of the athletes and the scenery; you know normal stuff. Somewhere in the break between the skeleton heats, I noticed that I scuffed up one of my shoes. I said to myself, “Man, it’s my second day wearing these shoes, and one has already taken a beating. Wait a tick. I’m wearing two different shoes.” The shoes I wore were similar in color with one slightly darker and taller than the other one. I know my parents will be shaking their heads in disgust when they read this, so are you proud of me mom and dad?

My first instinct told me to have solid support system, so I told Adelle about my dilemma. Instead of consoling me, she wanted me to take a picture of my fashion faux pas, so I did. This is what I get for letting my roommate sleep in peace while I get ready for work in complete darkness. I had to come up with a story to hide this mistake, and I created two stories: My right leg is longer than my left leg, and I love to step in puddles with my left foot. The only highlight from this fiasco was when I tricked Noelle. After her second run, Noelle walked up to me and asked me if I’m having a better chance staying warm today than yesterday. I told her I had a bigger problem to deal with and showed her the shoes. What is her immediate response from seeing the shoes you may ask? “Awww. One’s drenched.” Noelle, thank you for making my day a tad bit better. At least someone bought my puddle story.

That’s all that went down during the first portion of the team trials. There was exciting competition and had some laughs along the way. After watching my first competition, I can’t wait for the World Cup this weekend. If you live near Lake Placid, come up and cheer on the team. If you can’t attend the races, go to Universal Sports and watch the competition online. I can promise you one thing: I promise I will not wear mismatching shoes during the races.

Is This Real Life?

Hi! Allow me to introduce myself:


That’s right. I split my time between writing press releases and organizing monster truck rallies for USA Swimming.

I graduated from UC Berkeley last year with a BA in Mass Communications and a minor in Portuguese. I’m currently a graduate student in Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership at the University of Washington. I am the lone Colorado Springs intern from California (!) – hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area to be exact.

As the Communications Intern for USA Swimming, I have been able to write press releases, create media guides, and various other responsibilities that interest the sports information nerd that I am. The most exciting experiences of my internship have resulted from my work with the USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash initiative, which seeks to teach water safety skills to children. I had the opportunity to work at a Make a Splash event in Denver featuring Olympic gold medalist, Cullen Jones. I also interviewed Cullen about his work with Make a Splash and his experiences since the 2008 Olympics for a feature in USA Swimming’s Splash magazine.


The opportunity to move out here and participate in the USOC Internship Program was one that I could not pass up. This year has been full of adventures, and I am excited to be living in Colorado and experiencing everything this internship and the area have to offer. I feel like I try or see something new every week.

One of the most exciting activities for this class of USOC interns has been the Intern Olympics. I can now say that I’ve tried judo, wheelchair basketball, team handball, and fencing. No calls from any national teams yet. I think I’ll hold on to my day job.


I am incredibly grateful to have been given the opportunity to live with all these great interns, interact with elite athletes on a daily basis, and immerse myself in the Olympic movement. I hope you are enjoying the Intern Blog!