"Up next, competing for Canada, Veronica Brenner. Veronica is 27 years old, stands 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 135 pounds, and her favorite color is purple."

"It says here, Bob, that in her spare time, Veronica enjoys snowboarding, surfing and sarcasm."

Come on, guys -- is this the Olympic Games or The Dating Game?

We've hit that point of the quadrennial again. After ignoring me -- and other Olympic aspirants -- for three-plus years, suddenly journalists are scrambling to learn such irrelevant facts as my favorite color, my role models, my hobbies, and any obstacles I've encountered in my career that could be turned into a TV movie-like drama.

Mailbag

Veronica Brenner will answer questions from CNNSI.com users in her mailbag each week. If you'd like to submit a question, please enter it below.

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Now, before I continue, I must point out that there are a number of very knowledgeable journalists who cover our sport in non-Olympic years, know the athletes well and ask pertinent questions. However, the vast majority of reporters assigned to cover the Games have barely even heard of freestyle skiing, never mind actually seen us perform. Some of them do not even normally write about sports. This leads to tedious interviews. There were days in 1998 that I thought that if I had to explain the basics of aerials or repeat the story of how I got involved in the sport one more time, I would lose my mind.

Often amateur athletes are portrayed by the media in a very orderly fashion: age, height, weight, career highlights, hobbies, interesting fact (i.e. father was an Olympian, athlete was 6-4 in grade six, etc.). The reader/viewer is given little idea of the athlete's personality. Just the facts, please!

One of the reasons I was eager to write this diary (another opportunity that will probably only be available in an Olympic year -- check CNNSI.com next year and you might have a hard time just finding results from our competitions) is to allow others to see that despite a one-dimensional appearance in the media, I, like most athletes and people in general, do have a unique personality. I wish I had more opportunities like this one because I love what I do. I enjoy educating people about my sport and sharing the experiences I've had (even though I wonder if only my friends and family read this diary).

For any media out there using this diary as a research tool (and I know some do), here is my challenge. Don't just ask me the easy questions that I can rattle off the answers to while thinking about what I'm going to have for dinner later on. Challenge me. Ask me my opinion on subjects that matter to sport (i.e. athlete funding, training methods). Ask me why and how, not just what. (Examples: Why do you train in the U.S., how has jumping changed in the past 10 years?) Let me show the reader/viewer that I have a sense of humor, that I am opinionated, that I can discuss more than just what I thought of my last jump and what I think of the Canadian team uniforms.

Athletes, both amateur and professional, do have lives outside of sport -- we were people before we started in our sport and we are still those people. Sport is my career but not my entire life. Ask me interesting questions and I'll give you interesting answers. Please continue to ask me questions, even when the Olympics are over. My sport is just as interesting in non-Olympic years, maybe even more so. Come visit my team off the hill -- we're a lot more fun when we're not focused on competition.

I am willing to grit my teeth and make it through this year's round of questioning, if that is what is requested of me. As much as I complain, I need the media. Without media interest, aerials would not be an Olympic event. There would be no sponsors, no prize money at World Cup competitions -- maybe even no World Cup tour. Without media, I could be out of a job.

So I will answer the same questions over and over again, and I will fill out the questionnaires promptly and truthfully (despite being tempted to make up obscure hobbies) but I am ready for a challenge.

"Up next, competing for Canada, Veronica Brenner. Veronica is 27 years old and has some very definite opinions ... "

-- Veronica

 

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