CBC's Karin Larsen in Korea: Meet my CBC-Radio Canada family
When the pressure's on in Pyeongchang, it sure is nice to have great colleagues
It's Family Day in B.C. and while I won't be spending it with my real family (love you guys!) the next best thing is being with my Pyeongchang family.
These are the three people I'm with every working hour here in Korea. None of us had ever met before we arrived in Pyeongchang, but after an intense first few days, you'd never know it.
That's mostly thanks to the amazing Jessica Rubinger.
Jess is a long-time CBC producer with The National in Montreal. Her job in Pyeongchang is to coordinate the shooting and transmitting of interviews, reporter on-cameras and athlete footage from cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping and big air — both for CBC and Radio Canada.
It can be a thankless and pressure-packed job.
Juggling the demands of two networks at four competition venues means dealing with a million details and solving almost the same number of problems. She does it in both official languages and somehow makes it look easy.
Mon bureau pour une partie de la journée avec <a href="https://twitter.com/CBCLarsen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBCLarsen</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RCOlympiques?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RCOlympiques</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pyeongchang2018?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#pyeongchang2018</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mixedzone?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mixedzone</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/zonemixte?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#zonemixte</a> <a href="https://t.co/SXhVAyaPdU">pic.twitter.com/SXhVAyaPdU</a>
—@MeekerGuerrierMeeker Guerrier is my mix-zone twin, reporting from the four venues in French for Radio Canada.
Golly gee willikers, when your parents name you after Howie Meeker, it's probably destiny you end up a sports reporter.
Meeker told me when his dad moved from Haiti to Montreal in the 1970s he became a hockey fan and fell in love with Howie Meeker. The rest is history.
To his credit, Meeker is full of Howie-like enthusiasm here at his first Olympic Games. And, given the chance, he'd probably be pretty good with a telestrator too.
Michel Aspirot from CBC-RC Ottawa is cut from the same cloth as all the best sports camera operators — great at his craft, with a sunny disposition and an amazing capacity for hard, physical labour.
Honestly, I don't know how he does it. Michel has to travel with around 68 kilograms of gear everywhere he goes. There's a camera, lighting kit, extra batteries, tripod and a Dejero transmitting unit.
With no access to a car, Michel spends much of his day hauling the kit on and off buses, up and down stairs and between venues. All this in the bitter Pyeongchang cold.
In between, he shoots great pictures and makes Meeker and me look good.
Thanks for being my Pyeongchang family Michel, Meeker and Jessica. Love you guys!
- For more Olympics coverage, visit www.cbc.ca/olympics
