Webster given CIOC nod to cover Rio Olympics
Jade Webster in Lillehammer
(CNS): Young Caymanian Jade Webster, who has already reported on the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, and is in Lillehammer, Norway, for the youth winter games, has been chosen by the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee (CIOC) to cover the Rio Olympics in August.
Webster trained with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the 2014 Nanjing Games and went on to cover the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. “It is more than a privilege to have been selected as the press officer for the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee,” she said.
“Not only will this open many doors personally and professionally, but it will also allow me to learn much more about the passion for sports among the local athletes as well as the characteristics and stories each athlete will share throughout the games. This is more than a dream come true…This has been my ultimate goal. I can’t even begin to describe how I feel.”
Two athletes from the Cayman Islands have qualified for the Rio Games, which will take place 5-21 August — Kemar Hyman in the 100m and Ronald Forbes in the 110m hurdles. Webster will begin to write for the CIOC following her stint in Lillehammer, where she is one of 15 Young Reporters chosen for the training programme out of 35 who were originally selected in August 2014 to cover the Nanjing Games. The IOC selected the top 15 from Nanjing to continue their training as reporters covering the Winter Youth Olympic Games.
For the Lillehammer Games, which are running from 12-21 February, all students are out in the field working on storyboards and completing assignments to deadlines, both in groups and individually. The reporting teams — writing, photography and television — each comprise five people, with social media also an integral component.
Webster is in the television group, with Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Tracy Holmes her mentor. “Covering the Winter Youth Olympic Games right before covering Rio, has been an absolute blessing,” she said. “Lillehammer will allow me to work alongside decorated, well-known journalists who will help me grow and develop my skills right before the largest event in the world, the Summer Olympic Games.”
She has already interviewed Jamaica’s lone athlete, 17-year-old Daniel Mayhew, as he makes history for the country in the bobsleigh. “Attending these events, and watching the emotions on these young athletes’ faces have inspired me. I have discovered a love for sports I never knew I had before. For some of these athletes it isn’t about winning; it is about those exact moments, that exact race and the motivation that drives these athletes to the finish line.”
