21 minute read
Olympic studio
Olympics 2022 series: interview with Sarah Jenkins
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What is it like behind the scenes for Olympic media
victoria baht
s&h writer
I am pretty sure all of you know what is happening right now in Beijing. If you do not, I will tell you – the 2022 Winter Olympics are taking place! Yes, that is right. This is the second round of Olympics in six months! What will you be watching this time around? Maybe you will watch figure skating, curling, bobsleighing, or snowboarding.
This week, the Carillon thought we would take you with us for a bit of behind-the-scenes action. Today, we are going to be interviewing Sarah Jenkins. She is from Toronto, and I discovered her on TikTok. Sarah has 118,100 followers and spends her time making daily vlogs, reviewing books, and showing the best way to have a bath for a perfect night in (and she always has a comfort drink by her side, whether it be a grande pike roast with oat milk or a sparkling beverage!) Now that you know a bit about her, let’s hear about her job on the television side of the Olympics.
What is your job position at CBC and how long have you been working at CBC?
I’m currently the head of the CBC sports digital studio. I’ve worked on and off at CBC since 2016, but I’ve been in this role since 2020!
Did you get a post-secondary education that is relevant for this job?
I did! I went to school for RTA Sport Media at Ryerson, which has always been [one of
Nolan Cattell
I am ready for my closeup (even though I am behind the scenes).
the] leading media school in the country. Going to school in downtown Toronto really helped me get my foot in the door because my instructors were active producers, directors, and more. I got my first job at CBC when I was only 19 because I impressed some of my instructors.
What is it like working for the Olympics from your position?
My job changes every day of the Olympics, but a typical Olympic shift for me is 12 hours long. I oversee all production
out of our studio [which is] five shows, I manage 20+ people and ensure that all our technology is running smoothly. I have to wear a lot of hats, and every day it changes, whether I’m coordinating an interview or producing a show. I need to be able to make lots of types of sports content for different platforms and be able to support everyone in any way I can. I do a lot of work with other producers and leads to ensure we have great content plans across all platforms every day of the Olympic games.
What is the greatest challenge of working on the television side of making the Olympics happen? [One of them is] how many feeds there are to manage! People don’t realize how many cameras, microphones, and sources go into putting on an event the size of the Olympics. There are so many people involved who all need access to cameras, reporters, and more. I don’t envy those who
– Sarah Jenkins
have to facilitate all that. At any one time we may have over 10 sports going on, all with reporters, cameras, commentators, and more. [This is all needed to] bring a full Olympic experience to Canadians.
What does your job look like before and after the Olympics?
Before the Olympics it’s a lot of prep and planning, and looking at schedules. I’m in lots of logistic meetings and making sure that digital is involved in the TV planning. After the games we get a bit of a break, but we’re currently in the middle of doing two Olympics in six months, so it’s been a really wild time. Normally we get a break and don’t think of the next Olympics for a couple more years. This year it was a really quick turnaround which made it very crazy.
What is your favourite part of your job overall?
Getting to work with other creative people! Also, no two days
are the same, which is so unique.
If someone wanted a job in TV production, where should they start?
You can start working on local productions; most of the most successful producers and directors in this country started as a production assistant on local news.
What is your favourite sport to watch in both summer and winter sports? [My] favourite summer sport to watch is swimming; the intensity in the pool at the Olympics is like no other. For the winter, I love the snowboard events like Big Air, and Snowboard cross.
If there is one sport you could add to the Olympics that is not currently included, what would it be?
Probably cricket; it’s a very large sport in majority of the world. I think it would benefit from being on the world stage.
If there was one Canadian Olympian that the Carillon should contact for an interview, who should it be?
My colleague Anastasia Bucsis was a speed skater and is the host of the players own voice podcast, and she does so much more at CBC. She’s truly the best person on the planet and is the most popular Olympian, and loved by all because she’s the best!
I am sure that is not all Sarah has to say about the Olympics. If you want to hear more from her or check out her content, make sure to visit her Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter and website. All of them are just wonderful. This just shows how good she is at her job on the side and how lucky CBC is to have her. We hope you enjoyed this different insight of what it takes to be involved with the Olympics because, as you just read, it is not easy. Go on and watch some snow boarding and just see how much air the athletes can take.
It may be cold, but these athletes are on fire
katherine mutschler
s&h editor
As of February 5, Canada is ranked number four in the Olympics behind Denmark (1st), Slovenia (2nd), and Italy (3rd). Mikael Kingsbury earned Canada a silver medal in Men’s Moguls Freestyle Skiing, and Isabelle Weidemann received bronze in Women’s 3000m speedskating. The Olympics have only been going for a few days, but already a few athletes have shown great success for Canada. This article will feature a few of the key Olympians in the first days of the Olympics.
Weidemann was the first to win a medal for Canada in the 2022 games. The start of the speedskating race was a little rough for Weidemann, but she was able to catch up near the end of the race as she noticed her competitors falling behind. Weidermann explained to TSN that she gets into a steady speed, and once she gets into that zone, it is hard to stop. The zone she experienced in the last lap brought her to third place, awarding her a bronze medal. According to Weidemann’s bio, her biggest inspiration for the Olympics came from four-time medalist Kristin Grove, who shares the same hometown as her. Weidemann’s love for skating started at age six, and she began speedskating at the age of 12.
Doug Harrison from CBC News reports that Kingsbury received 82.18 points in freestyle skiing, only 2 points behind Walter Wallberg, who represented Sweden. Kingsbury has received three medals in three Olympics games, which is a first for the male freestyle skier. His goal was to win gold back-to-back (for the 2018 and 2022 games), but in this race he received silver. Devin Heroux from CBC News explained that family is a big part of Kingsbury’s craft, and on the day of the race he wrote the names of his family members and put them in his helmet. Kingsbury’s family cheered
Bryan Turner via Unsplash The iconic rings need no description.
him on from home. According to his bio, Kingsbury has superstitions and rituals he uses for the sport. He began skiing at age of four, and had the dream to go to the Olympics by the age of 10.
In figure skating, Madeline Schizas was awarded 69.60, which moved Canada into 4th place and qualified the women’s team for the finals. This is Schizas’ first time in the Olympics, and she performed with the music “My Sweet and Tender Beast Waltz” by Eugen Doga. As well as being a figure skater, her bio reads that she has interest in music, and she is studying urban planning at the University of Waterloo. She began skating at the age of three, and her competition career started at the young age of six.
The 2022 Olympics have had an exciting start, and all of the Olympians representing Canada have been making the country proud. Very few medals have been awarded overall due to the Games only beginning, but as finals are determined and more events are performed, the rankings will become more solidified, and the real competitions will begin. Canada will keep their eyes on the games in the meantime. Happy watching!
What a fitness journey is really about
Maybe this doesn’t need to be so hard after all
victoria baht
s&h writer
Hey there, Carillon readers! I am pretty darn sure all of you have tried to be involved with fitness and sports, or maybe you are reading this paper to become interested. Today, we are going to be talking about different types of fitness journeys and ways to be successful.
What makes the best fitness journey? For some of you, you may believe the best journey may involve going to the gym seven days a week and eating all healthy food while following a diet. That may be easy to maintain, and maybe you are already doing that. For some of us, this may seem like a crazy idea and an unreachable goal, and that is okay! When working on your fitness, it is all about consistency and finding out what works best for you. At one time in my life, I was playing for up to three sports teams and working out in the gym on the side. Back then, that was what worked for me, and I loved it. Right now, I maintain a balance with one high intense workout and a slower one afterwards that normally includes a walk or an hour of yoga. This is what works best for me right now.
You see, a fitness journey should be based on how you feel and what you can maintain. For myself, the fact that I am back at the gym 5-6 days a week and keeping active at home is what makes me happy and feel powerful. That is how your fitness journey should make you feel. A fitness journey should not be just based on a fad diet; it should be based on a lifestyle and what makes you happy, inside and outside. When I think of a fitness journey, I think of what I can balance, maintain, what feels good, and what makes me happy.
The key word in that last sentence is balance. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is all based on balance. Let’s take a moment and talk about the fact that you are trying to find what fitness journey is best for you. This does not mean that you must give up other things in your life. It is all about balance.
This can look different for everyone, and that is a great thing about it. If you make yourself the main character of your life, then you can be living your best life. A way to make sure you have the best fitness journey possible is finding the lifestyle that is making you happy. Maybe you are working out seven times a week, maybe only five times a week with two stretching days. Now that you have found out how many times a week you need to workout to feel good, it is time to add some other activities to create that balance and get the full affect. Maybe you treat yourself to a special coffee every Friday to make yourself feel reenergized. How about you go out for tacos with some friends at a local restaurant (and maybe have one too many) or you just spend a full day on the couch binge-watching a classic series you love. No matter what you choose, the choices are endless and that is how you can create a healthy balance.
Having the “best” fitness journey is all up to you. Maybe it involves heavy lifting every day, or cardio with a side of tacos. No matter how you spend time in the gym, that is all what matters. It can look different to everyone and that is okay. That is why your fitness journey should be more about a balanced lifestyle compared to just plain fitness, and that is what we want to normalize for our readers – to realize that every time you go to the gym to work on your fitness does not need to be crazy and amazing. Take each time you step in the gym as a new day and feel a sense of happiness in the gym.
Formation February series: Amina Salah
Pandemic has been a bump in the road, but we can do it
amina salah staff writer
Health is one of the greatest luxuries we have today. For many, the pandemic has been a struggle for their health. With lockdowns and shutdowns, my health was not necessarily the best. For the first time in my life, I saw my weight fluctuate like never before. It took me a long time to get things back in order, and even today, I still have a lot more to learn.
My health journey started in 2016. Meat and dairy have been at the heart of my diet for my whole life; as an African girl, I was raised on it. When I decided that I wanted to go plant based, it came as a surprise to everyone because of how much I loved meat. I did not want to do a slow transition, and I completely cut everything out, cold turkey, overnight. I did not want to eat beef, chicken, milk, cheese, dairy, fish – pretty much any animal product. I wanted to take control of my health.
It is important to preface that everyone is different. I made sure that I would increase my supplements and vitamins because with a plant-based diet comes new challenges. Your body is not getting all the nutrients it normally would have gotten from meat or dairy when you cut both out. I am extremely anaemic, so I was under my doctor’s supervision. I made sure I was taking my medication.
This is a privilege to me for the simple fact that I am not in a food desert. I am able to have access to many different kinds of foods. It is easier for me to eat a plant-based diet than it would be for someone else living in a different place. It is a privilege that I have the means to better my health.
By 2019, I was steadfast in my journey – until the pandemic hit and practically ruined it for me. University being online made eating restaurant food and especially not ordering anything. This meant that I had to delete all of my meal delivery apps from my phone. It was difficult, but it was necessary. Every now and then, I have to remind myself that it gets easier with time. I am naturally someone who loves to cook, and I know that there is no recipe in this world that I cannot make. If I am craving pizza, I simply just make it at home and use plant-based cheese as a substitute; it is better for my health.
A big part of health is what you eat, but it also involves working out. The best ways for me to stay active is to go to the gym, but I also enjoy yoga and Pilates. According to Hopkins Medicine, yoga is beneficial because it aids in supporting your health. It improves balance and flexibility, among other things. Yoga is also important as it eases and relaxes you, making it easier to have proper sleep. It is a wonderful tool that can also help relieve back pain. The wonderful thing about yoga is that there are so many free resources available online for those who want to try it. Yoga with Adrienne one of the best yoga resources on YouTube. It is also completely free. I also enjoy Pilates because it helps keep me slim and it improves my flexibility and core strength. Everyone is different. Health is about finding out what works best for you. It is completely fine if something works for you but does not work for someone
– Amina Salah
things even worse for me. As a result, I gained weight because I was mostly at home. I’m the type of person who needs to always move my body or go on walks, and this was practically impossible at the start of the pandemic. With my mental health suffering in the gutter, it was difficult for me to get back up. I am sure that this is a universal feeling. Slowly, I started finding my way back up. The most important thing for me was to ensure that I was not else, or if something works for someone else but does not work for you.
One thing that I wanted to drill into my brain was to stop thinking about the past and find ways to move forward when it comes to my health. For the longest time, I have been constantly thinking about the past, and that has done nothing for me. Weight fluctuates and that is completely normal. My main goal is to eat as clean as I possibly can whilst giving myself the space to indulge every once in a while. I am still following a plant-based lifestyle because that is what makes me happy and is efficient for me.
I love meal prepping, but I also like to make daily meals if I want something different. At the end of the day, health is not linear. It is a journey that comes and goes in waves. The most important thing is to ensure that your sleep is stable. Without adequate sleep, there is no health, and it becomes much harder to maintain your health. In my opinion, health is wealth. It is self-care. We owe it to our bodies to love them, to take care of them, to nourish them, and to be patient and kind throughout it all. You have one body, and it is your duty to be good to it.
In my opinion, my physical health goes hand in hand with my mental health. If my mental health is in the gutter, then so is my physical health. Everything is interconnected. If one aspect is not taken care of, it is difficult to maintain everything else. It is easy to fall for diet culture, but the most important thing that I have ever done is a lifestyle change. To this day, it is something that I do not regret. Learning about the world of plant-based foods and veganism has educated me a lot about nutrition and sustainability. It has helped me stay educated on what I put into my body.
op-ed
Truckers, Moe, and COVID - oh my!
Doing what is best should take precedent over your discomfort
Attention! Yes, attention please! Can I get a show of hands for those of you who want to do everything that you can to keep Saskatchewan residents safe? No, no, put your hand down Scott Moe, you have disappointed us one too many times with your false claims.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the state of unrest regarding the pandemic in our province and the country overall, let me catch you up quick. Ex-truck drivers from all over Canada took to their equip-
ment to rally over…something. To be frank their message has gotten lost and translated so many times in so many different ways that I don’t think they really know what they’re rallying for. It was originally the ten per cent of truck drivers who are not vaccinated trying to advocate for the ability to choose if they received their vaccinations or not, not wanting it to be mandated for their occupation. Along the way, they became affiliated with Nazis among other groups, and everything has become quite the display. Meanwhile, Scott Moe has released a video discussing his plans to end the mandate for showing proof of vaccination and is planning to continue forward with the plan of ending most, if not all, government mandates soon. He has noted that the government should not be holding such a strong grip over the lives of its citizens and thinks that it is time to do away with these restrictions.
Now that you’re all caught up, let us talk about how absolutely terrifying this is, shall we? Even Nazis aside, things are not looking that great if you ask me. There are still people who don’t think that they need to get vaccinated, who are going to continue to put themselves at risk, and as a result will continue to weigh down our healthcare system as they will require more extreme
measures to recover than those who went and received their vaccinations and booster shots. If you don’t have to prove that you have these lifesaving doses, then there is nothing possibly left to motivate these people who already don’t want them with the mandates in place. To be frank, those of us who have accepted the science and done the thing are not raising a fuss about this because it really doesn’t matter. Having to wait an extra minute or two before sitting down at a restaurant while they check and scan your vaccination QR code is not the end of the world. There are much bigger fish to fry before being concerned about that.
It is not the idea of people no longer needing to prove that they’re vaccinated that frightens me. What scares me more than anything is everything that will snowball after this. Once you lift one thing of this magnitude, there is no putting it back in place. Look at the threats that we were going to have a second lockdown. They fought tooth and nail for that plan to never see the light of day.
After lifting this restriction, I imagine that the snowball effect is going to happen in ways that we don’t want. More of these restrictions are going to be lifted as the idea of “COVID Zero” leaves the minds
of people and the idea that we just need to get used to the reality that we might get COVID becomes normalized. Social distancing, masks, and intensive sanitation practices will start to be phased out. We will be transported back to 2019 when these concepts did not exist, and we could go about our daily business without a care in the world.
What about those of us who will be unable to go back to the way things used to be? What societal abuse will we be forced to undergo if we cannot bring ourselves to take the mask off? When the ideas from how we used to live sound so outdated and far-fetched, but the ideas of what might be considered normal now sound just as foreign and unappealing – where are you supposed to go? How do you move forward without wanting to collapse from exhaustion at a moment’s notice?
I don’t know what this looks like, but I really wish I did. I wish I knew how I’d feel walking out of the house without checking for keys, phone, wallet, mask. If only I could predicate how it would feel meeting someone for the first time and not immediately wondering if they’re vaccinated or if their lifestyle choices will put me at risk of being a close contact. Can I be sure that I won’t freak out walking through a crowded
hallway, with the risk of others bumping into me? I don’t even like grocery shopping in a semi-busy store, I can’t imagine trying to make my way through full hallways at the university once again.
Long story short, there is so much that we can be nervous and unsure about. It will not be uncommon to be wary of the removal of these restrictions, especially when they have proved over and over that they help keep us and our loved ones safe and healthy. I don’t know how I’m going to respond to these changes and it’s alright if you don’t either. The only thing that we can be certain of is our own uncertainty.
– Sarah Nakonechny
sarah nakonechny
op-ed editor
