Canton woman reflects on ‘eye-opening’ Olympic journey

When Elaine Lovett casually mentioned to a group of her friends at a social gathering earlier this summer that she was planning to go to Rio de Janeiro in August to attend the 2016 Olympic Games, they were genuinely excited for her but also understandably concerned.

A few weeks later, while attending a USA women’s basketball exhibition game with her daughters in Connecticut, Lovett was making small talk with some fellow fans in the concession area and their jaws nearly hit the floor when she shared her summer vacation plans. Others were far more blunt upon learning that she would soon be Rio bound.

Elaine Lovett and Chris Flynn in Olympic Park in Rio prior to a USA women’s basketball game

“There were a number of people who said to me, ‘You’re crazy,’” recalled the retired Milton schoolteacher and longtime Canton resident.

Yet Lovett, it turns out, is neither crazy nor even all that much of a risk taker. What she is, however, is incredibly fortunate. And despite hearing and reading plenty about the numerous health and safety concerns swirling around these games —from the threat of the Zika virus to Rio’s rampant street crime — she knew, thanks to her brother Ed Ryan’s role as the athletic trainer for the USA women’s basketball team, that her experience in Rio would be unlike that of the average Olympic spectator.

On the contrary, Lovett and her sister, Chris Flynn, were treated to the kind of behind-the-scenes, VIP access that most sports fans can only dream about, spending their time in the company of both USA basketball teams — with all of the attendant hospitality and security measures that one would expect for some of the world’s biggest superstars.

Partly due to their higher profile and in an effort to help them better prepare for competition, the USA basketball players did not stay in the Olympic Village with the great majority of athletes. Instead, they stayed on the Silver Cloud, a luxury cruise ship that was docked in the port of Rio and protected by armed guards both on land and in the surrounding waters.

Lovett and Flynn stayed there too, and while they respected the players’ privacy and generally stayed out of their way, they saw them at meal times and enjoyed brief but friendly exchanges with the likes of Elena Delle Donne, last year’s WNBA Most Valuable Player and one of the best female basketball players in the world.

For the sisters, this was their third consecutive summer Olympics with USA basketball as guests of their brother Ed, and they stayed with the women’s and men’s teams in both Beijing and London as well. Lovett said the men, particularly the superstars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant, tend to be more “elusive,” although one of her favorite memories from the 2008 games was visiting the Great Wall of China with members of the gold medal-winning “Redeem Team” and their wives and family members.

“Here we were at the Great Wall having all of these American tourists running up to us and asking us how we knew the team,” said Lovett. “Not too many people, I guess, can say they were on the same [tour] bus with some of these guys.”

Lovett said they saw a lot of basketball during their six-day stay in Beijing, and the same was true four years later in London, when both squads continued their gold medal streak. They also got to do some sight-seeing and shopping while in London, and they were fortunate enough to attend the women’s tennis finals at the famed All England Club, where they watched Serena Williams defeat Maria Sharapova to claim her first singles gold for the United States.

Lovett described the London experience as more familiar and a bit easier to navigate, while Beijing, she said, was exciting and “very exotic.” As for Rio, she described it as “eye-opening” in many ways, although the experience was carefully organized and managed by USA Basketball.

Not that she had much to complain about — they did miss out on the scheduled tour to visit the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, but they got to see the famous Selaron Steps, which are covered in thousands of colorful tiles, and they spent an enjoyable afternoon at the Nike hospitality house in Barra da Tijuca, a picturesque section of the city along the coast.

They also managed to score some track and field tickets and got to see several events from the athlete’s section of the stadium while also witnessing the world’s fastest man, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, receive one of his three gold medals.

Chris Flynn, Elaine Lovett and Ed Ryan at the Olympic track and field stadium

With regard to the criticisms of Rio and its fitness as a host city, Lovett personally found little to complain about, although she was admittedly struck by the conditions in the poorer neighborhoods and did overhear some of the locals lamenting the Olympic experiment as intrusive and misguided.

“There was a little bit of apprehension on our part about going to Rio,” she acknowledged. “I wouldn’t say we were afraid, but we knew it was going to be a unique experience.”

Lovett said they mostly stayed within the Olympic areas, which they found to be generally safe and surprisingly mosquito-free. And despite being warned about the possibility of violence and thefts, Lovett experienced quite the opposite after losing her wallet in a cab near Copacabana Beach.

Lovett said she figured that the wallet, which had cash and a credit card in it, were “long gone,” but the cab driver instead went to extraordinary lengths to find her and return it.

Having left their contact information with the bellmen at a nearby hotel, Lovett said she was surprised when they called hours later to report that the wallet had been returned.

“Chris and I returned the next day to find that the bellmen had called us repeatedly and the cab driver had stopped by twice to see if I got the wallet back,” she said. “My wallet still contained my charge card and all the cash. The concierge was able to get me the contact information for the driver, who exhibited honesty and kindness beyond my expectations.”

“With the media reporting stories of robberies at gunpoint and buses being stoned, I feel the need to report on my story with a happy ending,” she added in an email. “I also shared this with the USA Basketball security head, who had briefed the guest buses daily with stories filled with doom and gloom. My sincerest thanks and gratitude go out to the driver, Ricardo, and JW Marriott employees.”

Following an eventful eight-day stay in Rio, Lovett and Flynn flew back to the states on August 17 — on a plane filled with Olympic stars including five-time gold medalist Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time.

In the coming weeks, Lovett plans to visit a special education classroom at Milton High School, where she was the foods teacher, to share some of her Olympic experiences and mementos with the students. Lovett had also previously worked as a teacher’s aide at the Luce School, and she did similar presentations for the students in Peggy Sullivan’s kindergarten classes following the 2008 and 2012 games. During both trips, Lovett had brought along Sullivan’s class mascot, Paddington Bear, and photographed him in different locales while also writing postcards to the students from Paddington. Lovett said it was fun for her and also fun for the students, and it was her way of showing gratitude to Sullivan, who had taught both of Lovett’s daughters when they were in kindergarten at the Luce.

Lovett, meanwhile, will be forever grateful to her brother Ed, the former sports medicine director for the U.S. Olympic Committee, for providing his siblings with these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

“From the mid 1980s to the mid 2000s he went to every Olympics, winter and summer,” said Lovett. “We kind of got used to all the preparation and all that, and for many years we lived vicariously through him on his trips and travels.”

“[These Olympic trips] have just been so eye-opening,” she continued. “We have learned a lot about the Olympics, and since Ed has done this work with USA Basketball we have been the thankful recipients of these great experiences and all of the great memories that go with it.”

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Posted by Jay Turner on Sep 2 2016. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.