For Ohio sportswriter and catechumen, Olympics 'ultimate assignment'

Published: 2006-02-14

TURIN, Italy (CNS) -- For a veteran sportswriter, covering the Olympic Games is "the ultimate assignment. It's like doing the Super Bowl for 17 days straight," said Tim Warsinskey of Mentor, Ohio. Even though he's working, "on average, 14 hours a day," he told Catholic News Service, "I can't get enough. This is fertile ground for good stories." Warsinskey, who will be baptized at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in Mentor April 15, is one of six people from The Plain Dealer, a Cleveland daily, combing the Alps and the arenas and streets of Turin, capturing Olympic moments and dreams on film and paper. He said he thinks the U.S. media put "way too much emphasis on sports. I open up the newspaper and there are 12 pages dedicated to sports" and just a few pages to news, which he said is "not a good thing for society." But since sports seem to be driven by the U.S. market, he said it was logical papers would give the people what they apparently crave: results, bios and commentaries on their favorite sports figures.

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