Ready for Minnesotans to shine bright once again on Olympic stage

For help preparing for my first journey into the unknown, I reached out to colleagues about covering the Olympics. I asked one about the availability of a dry cleaner or laundry service at the media hotel.

"I just bring 21 pairs of underwear," the veteran Olympics writer said.

Well, my clothes are much bigger than those of the reporter I was speaking with, and it got me thinking about how many pieces of luggage I'll need to bring to China. I mean, is that 21 bundles of everything?

This should be old hat for me, preparing to spend multiple weeks out of town on an assignment. Covering Twins baseball for 23 years meant at least 45 days in Florida for spring training each year. It's not as easy this time as I head to a country 14 time zones away.

But it's the Olympics, the pinnacle of international athletic competition. Figuring out logistics is part of the journey to covering the world's greatest athletes.

To help understand what I'm about to witness, I also reached out to curler Tyler George for insight. He was part of the gold medal-winning Team Shuster in 2018.

"You can't really describe it until you actually get to experience it," George said. "But it's just the pageantry of the event. It's weird because we're curling and playing all the same teams that we normally play against. But it's with all this pomp and circumstance surrounding it."

Even with spectators severely limited at the Beijing Games, the chase for a medal will lead to fantastic finishes and everlasting stories. This region still buzzes about the feats of wrestler Gable Steveson and gymnast Suni Lee at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo last year. More could be on the way. The U.S. Olympic team includes local star power in cross country skier Jesse Diggins, John Shuster's curling team and the women's hockey team — all gold medal winners the last time around. Who will be the next Minnesotan to come through on the world's biggest stage?

The lack of spectators will mean less vibrancy and patriotism in the stands. Athletes will have to bring their own energy. Gathering and cheering together were banned to keep COVID-19 from spreading exemplifying the backdrop in which these Games are being held.

We are all headed to a mysterious country that follows a different political ideology — in the middle of a pandemic. The word "bubble" is not used there. We will be in a "closed loop," in which we are allowed to travel from the media hotel to the media center to the sporting venues to cover events. And nowhere else.

There will be daily virus testing. We don't know what happens to media members who test positive. Navigating the pandemic in a country that has applied a zero-tolerance stance will be a major theme over the next three weeks.

Because of the time zone difference, we left the Twin Cities on Saturday morning and are not expected to land in Beijing until 2 a.m. Tuesday local time. But that is what makes these games so appealing to cover. Events will take place as you sleep, with coverage from the Star Tribune waiting for you when you wake up. Fellow Olympics scribe Rachel Blount and I will pump out stories as fast as possible.

And there will be plenty of content. Minnesota will play a prominent role in these games.

There are 23 Minnesotans on the U.S. Olympic team, but we'll be tracking 30 Team USA athletes with state ties once you include the likes of hockey stud Nathan Smith, who was born in Florida but is the NCAA's leading scorer out of Minnesota State.

Some athletes with Minnesota ties are representing other countries. For example, two St. Thomas women's hockey players — Saskia Maurer and Nicole Vallario — are playing for Switzerland. Host China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Mexico and Sweden are among countries with athletes who have Minnesota connections. In full, we're looking at around 50 athletes in total that have local ties.

This Olympics is a celebration of this region. It's a stick tap to everyone who has played on a frozen lake. Or learned to ski on Buck Hill. Or has sent a stone toward the house with a pitcher of beer nearby.

There will be random, unexpected events and encounters that will be worthy of a mental snapshot — if the smartphone isn't available — of these Beijing Games. I might not get close enough to elite athletes to rub elbows with them like George was able to. I'll settle for a fascinating conversation with a fellow reporter while on a bus to watch Diggins dominate.

"That's one of the cool things in the Olympics," George said. "It's not organized or anything, it's just chaos."

Here's to staying warm and virus-free for three weeks. And let's commence with the chaos.