Summer Olympics 2020 Live Streaming Online

Dorth Raphaely

Bleacher Report General Manager Dorth Raphaely was a guest on the Copeland Coaching Podcast this week, talking about how to build a career in sports.

Not a coaching career. Angela Copeland is a career coach, and Raphaely talked about his path, from volunteering in the sports information department of Division III UC-Santa Cruz as an undergraduate through CBS Sports Interactive and Yahoo before arriving at B/R in 2011. Oh, and by the way, he was also an assistant women’s basketball coach for the Banana Slugs.

Whether he’s talking about covering sports or getting ahead in your career, Raphaely hits a similar theme: Find ways to do things nobody else is doing, thus making yourself indispensable and irreplaceable.

He describes one of the first stories Bleacher Report made its name on, the NFL draft:

Back in the day, before we came along, people really only did mock drafts at the end of the NFL season because that’s when people knew the order that teams would be drafting. We realized by looking through a lot of data that people were really interested in mock drafts much sooner than the media was creating them. So we kind of recognized this inefficiency in the marketplace. And I think that term and that idea of looking for inefficiencies in the marketplace and serving those inefficiencies is really something that Bleacher Report has prided itself on and is really part of the DNA of our company.

That same ethic can serve an individual.

“We’re looking for people that have specific skill sets and are sort of experts at that,” Raphaely says about the fierce competition for content-creation jobs. “It’s really about having a niche, being really good at it. Are you a feature writer? Are you an investigative writer? Are you a columnist? What is your niche? What’s your expertise?”

At about 36:30, Dorth mentions the Advanced Program in Sports Media, or APSM, Bleacher Report’s paid educational program in digital sportswriting. He mentions that “we travel around to all these different schools” looking for college journalism students ready to graduate and begin their careers. We also target grad students and even early-career pros.

I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the people making those visits. This year we’re hoping to get to more schools by making virtual visit via Skype, Google Hangouts or whatever’s going to be invented for the purpose next week.

Bleacher Report also has a similar program that focuses on copy editing and the many jobs that leverage that skill: The Advanced Program in Editing and Content Management.

Both programs are year-round, with rolling admissions. They’re not tied to the school calendar. They’re 12 weeks, part-time, and participants are paid a stipend. Click the links for more info.

The Games will take place in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

For Mills, 32, who was going to retire after the Games, there is relief at the new date, despite having another year of sailing at the highest level.

“It’s all consuming, an Olympic campaign, so it really is a big deal to add another year to it,” she said.

Mills, who won gold at the Rio 2016 Games, admits there have been “low moments” in which she questioned whether she had the motivation to train for a third Olympics.

She won silver at London 2012 and is pressing on with her attempt to become the most successful female sailor in Olympic history by claiming a second gold alongside partner Eilidh McIntyre.

“I just know what it takes to deliver your best performance. It really does take everything you’ve got,” she added.

“But ultimately I’ve come on such an incredible journey with Eilidh McIntyre, my crew – it’s going to be her first Olympics which is such a cool, special, amazing thing to be a part of.

“I really believe our team has something great to offer. So when you weigh it up logically and take the emotion out, it’s a really easy answer.”

With selection for Tokyo next year confirmed, Mills is looking forward to the challenge of competing in the women’s 470 dinghy.

Mills and McIntyre are part of an unchanged squad announced by British Sailing on Tuesday. A 15-strong team had already been selected before the coronavirus pandemic forced a delay.

Sailing was among a handful of sports to have already finalised squads to represent Team GB in Japan.

The rescheduled Games – which will still be called Tokyo 2020 – will take place from 23 July to 8 August, 2021.

“It solidifies the goal,” said Mills.

“We know now exactly when the Olympics is going to be so we just need to figure out the best possible training plan between now and then.

“It would be a massive mistake for us to just carry on as we have been for the last four to six months – head down, smashing every single day – because we’d certainly burn out at some point.

“So it’s about re-assessing and looking at how we approach the next 14 to 16 months.”

Giles Scott (Finn)

Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre (470 women)

Luke Patience and Chris Grube (470 men)

Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey (49erFX)

Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell (49er)

Alison Young (Laser radial)

Emma Wilson (RS:X women)

Tom Squires (RS:X men)

John Gimson and Anna Burnet (Nacra 17)

Elliot Hanson (Laser)

We now know when the 2020 Olympics will be held.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the IOC had no choice but to postpone the Games, which were scheduled to be held this summer in Tokyo.

The rescheduled dates were announced Monday morning. The Games will be held July 23 to Aug. 8 of 2021, while paralympic games will be held Aug. 24 through Sept. 5, 2021 as a result of the change.

Here is the most notable part of the release making the announcement.

This decision was taken based on three main considerations and in line with the principles established by the IOC Executive Board (EB) on 17 March 2020 and confirmed at its meeting today. These were supported by all the International Summer Olympic Sports Federations (IFs) and all the National Olympic Committees (NOCs):

1. To protect the health of the athletes and everyone involved, and to support the containment of the COVID-19 virus.

2. To safeguard the interests of the athletes and of Olympic sport.

3. The global international sports calendar.

These new dates give the health authorities and all involved in the organisation of the Games the maximum time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new dates, exactly one year after those originally planned for 2020 (Olympic Games: 24 July to 9 August 2020 and Paralympic Games: 25 August to 6 September 2020), also have the added benefit that any disruption that the postponement will cause to the international sports calendar can be kept to a minimum, in the interests of the athletes and the IFs. Additionally, they will provide sufficient time to finish the qualification process. The same heat mitigation measures as planned for 2020 will be implemented.

Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images