Like the Olympic rings, covering the Games in Paris will be a full-circle moment – MASHAHER

Vanna Blacksmith will be part of the CBC’s team covering the 2024 Olympics in Paris. 

I was 13 when my family gathered around the TV in our living room to watch the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. 

We didn’t have much interest in winter sports, but I was told to watch the opening ceremony for the Indigenous representation. It’s a big deal, I was told. The whole world is watching.

I’ll admit, I felt a closeness to the Olympics when I saw Indigenous people on TV. They danced in colourful regalia, from jingles to fancy to traditional.

The TV light hued shades of winter blue to a Canadian red. Thousands of athletes funneled into the stadium. It really is a big deal, I thought to myself as I scooted closer to the screen.

After a few hours of performances, the Olympic flame was lit. As was my love for the Olympics.

As a young Indigenous athlete, I enjoyed all the cost-efficient sports like track and flag football. But my main love was always basketball. 

I loved how team sports united different people toward a common goal. 

I played basketball at the 2014 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG). All that training got me as far as playing at the college level. 

After aging out of my sport, I took on powerlifting and weightlifting. Now I understand the “you versus you” mentality of always chasing to be stronger than oneself than yesterday. 

Returning to the 2023 NAIG as a reporter felt like a full circle moment. I loved capturing moments of athletes being competitors during a race, but then hugging as friends afterward. 

Youth took pride in representing their home territory, distinguishable by the colours they were wearing. I loved when those different colours collaged when a group of youth would trade pins with another group. 

Or moments like parents shedding tears as they watched their child cross the finish line. 

I get very emotional when I see these moments unfold.

Now, I get to stamp my passport for the first time to be a journalist at the Paris Olympics. I’ll get to share those experiences on a worldwide scale. 

I’m looking forward to seeing Indigenous athletes perform, like wrestler Justina Di Stasio, swimmer Apollo Hess and diver Margo Erlam, to name a few. I hope to interview them about representing their own people while competing against the best in the world. 

I’m happy with women’s basketball getting the attention it deserves. I’ll definitely catch a few games. 

Basketball, weightlifting and athletics are also on my chase list. Being a sports journalist is a sport of its own. Athletes focus on their event, journalists try to be present at all of them. 

I won’t be shedding blood, sweat and tears like an athlete. I anticipate sweat and tears. It will be a lot of work and emotions, but it will all be worth it. 

I also have to indulge in all the touristy things while I’m there, right? I have to see the Olympic flame at the Louvre, go to the Eiffel Tower and visit other hidden gems only found by talking with Parisians. 

But before I see racers take their mark, or players wait for jump ball, or lifters stand by before their weights, we will all gather in one place.

It will feel like another full circle moment at the opening ceremony on July 26, just like it did when I was a kid watching it from the TV. 

I want to get an up close and personal feel of what it’s like to be at the Olympics. 

I’ve been told by colleagues that there’s nothing like a journalist’s first Olympics. I expect this one will be an experience of a lifetime.