Family and Friends:
Supporting Our Athletes

Supporting Our Athletes... Helpful Reminders for Family & Friends

Family and friends are part of the team! Support your Olympian by trusting that he or she knows how to do his or her job and has a solid high performance support system in place.

Make the most of your Olympic experience - enjoy every moment and embrace this opportunity to share the Olympics with family and friends in our own country! BUT remember that the Olympics garner a lot of attention and although the Games may be a party for the spectators and fans, they are all business for the athletes.

Contacting Athletes
In order to allow athletes to focus on their Games preparation, SSC suggests that family and friends respect the following guidelines when contacting athletes:

• Leave it to athletes and staff to contact you when it is convenient for them
• Make sure that athletes and staff know when and where they can reach you (i.e. a mobile phone)

Getting Together With Athletes
If you want to get together with an athlete in the days leading up to his or her event(s), SSC recommends that you contact the assistant team leaders to discuss options. The assistant team leaders are familiar with the training schedules, transportation logistics and other commitments and will be the best people to help you schedule some time with athletes.

Hot Tip – Reminder
For visits with members of the short track team, choose a meeting location that is either close to the training venue or the Olympic Village in order to minimise the travel time for athletes and maximise the time they will have available to visit!

For visits with members of the long track team, SSC House is the best meeting location as it is close to the Richmond Oval and a special sitting area has been set-up for this purpose!

It’s All About the Athletes

Sometimes, family and friends can unintentionally add additional stress to an athlete’s experience at the Games. You can best support your Olympian by:

• giving the athlete permission to focus totally on their preparation and performance
• not saying or doing anything differently ….. stick with whatever has worked well in the past and respect the athlete’s wishes. Messages of unconditional support, trust, belief, and confidence are most important
• respecting coach suggestions/decisions
• letting your athlete initiate communication and interaction with you when it is convenient for him/her

Interacting with the media – click here for suggestions and information!

Interacting with the Media
Media attention and pressure in Vancouver will be high. We are the host country and our speed skating athletes are expected to win medals at these Games. Canadian and international media will be very interested in speaking to athletes and their coaches, family members and friends.

SSC, in collaboration with the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), have made significant efforts to plan for and manage the anticipated media attention in Vancouver. Both the short track and long track teams have designated media attachés and additional media attachés have been assigned to work at SSC House.

The media attachés are the « go-to » people for all media inquiries! Their goal is to manage the media requests in order to allow athletes to focus on their performance. They will coordinate all media activities, including press conference(s), the mixed zone process, phone interviews, flash quotes, results, start lists, bios, face-to-face interviews during training and competition, etc.

The media attachés are available as a resource for speed skating family and friends – please feel free to contact them for any advice with respect to interview requests, key messages, etc.

Hot Tips – Reminders

• Only speak to the media if you want to – do not feel pressured or obligated to conduct an interview.
• Schedule your interviews to take place at SSC House so that the SSC House Media attachés can assist.
• Within your own family, decide ahead of time which family member is best suited to act as your official family spokesperson. Advise SSC of your designated family spokesperson so that the media attachés can coordinate interview requests appropriately.
• Develop some key messages. What do you want to say about your athlete? Will he/she be okay with the information you pass along to media?
• Prepare for interviews. Try to anticipate interview questions in advance.
• Know the hot topics concerning the Olympic Games. Either be prepared to answer related questions or refer the media to someone else who may be better informed on that topic. Never speculate or feel pressured to comment.
• Do not set-up interviews or make commitments on behalf of your athlete with your local media outlets. SSC media attachés can help to make the link to local hometown media.
• Do not give out your athlete's personal or Games-specific cell phone number! This phone number is not for sharing with media (media must go through the media attachés to establish contact with athletes).
• Use caution with social media & the internet. Information and photos posted on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other websites is public! Use discretion in determining the amount of and type of information you post on-line or send via email.