Charlottetown’s Robbie Doherty has been having the time of his life being the eyes and ears these past two weeks for Olympic broadcasters in Pyeongchang.
Doherty was hired last summer by CBC to work as a spotter in the curling venue at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
That means he dons a headset and is in constant communication with producers and directors for the Olympic Broadcasting System (OBS), which includes networks such as CBC and NBC.
“I thought it was the chance of a lifetime so I thought I better do it,’’ Doherty told The Guardian Thursday.
“Basically, I’m with a TV crew. When you go to a Brier, there’s one TV truck for the whole event. At the Olympics, there’s four TV trucks, one for each sheet and they have four separate crews because the OBS does the broadcast, but they dish it out to whatever countries are being shown.’’
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The 29-year-old is a well-seasoned curler at home, and his curling knowledge is put to use for broadcast crews. He can explain, for example, why a team has selected the shot it’s making.
“People are just really TV people. They’re not really curling people, so a lot of the time they don’t really know what’s going on in the game. There’s other things, too. If a politician walks in the arena or a celebrity is in the crowd you can kind of tell them what’s going on so they can get a shot. I’m their eyes and ears in the arena. It’s more challenging than I thought it was going to be, to be honest, just to make sure you’re on top of everything.’’
Doherty said if he’s spotting for CBC, for example, he wouldn’t talk directly to the CBC crew, which consists of Bruce Rainnie, Mike Harris and Joan McCusker. He talks through his headset to the person who is in communication with the on-air crew.
The coolest thing of all is that this is Doherty’s first brush with the Olympic Games.
"Until you see it up close, it’s really overwhelming. The amount of detail that goes in to everything that they do. It’s unbelievable.’’
He notes that he got a chance to meet Canadian gold medallist Scott Moir, watched Summerside’s Heather Moyse’s bobsled run and saw the king of Sweden and U.S. vice-president Mike Pence.
It’s also his first time in Asia. He’s curled with the Grand Slam of Curling before but never any further than Europe. But, he’s thrilled with how he’s been treated in South Korea.
“To be honest, the Korean people, I can’t say enough positive things about them. They really want the world to leave Korea with a very positive taste in their mouth. They’ll do anything for you.’’
As for the food, they have catering on site at the curling venue that he calls “westernized English food’’, but he has had the opportunity to try a couple of Korean dishes, including octopus and fish stew.
As for the curling itself, despite the fact he was disappointed to see the Canadian men’s team lose to the U.S., he was happy to see a U.S. win because it’s good for the sport.
He also hopes Islanders are cheering for the South Korean women’s team, which won its semifinal on Friday and is in the gold medal game against Sweden today at 8:05 AST. The team is coached by Charlottetown’s Peter Gallant.
“I think we really need to rally around Peter and maybe see a gold medal come back to Charlottetown.’’
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