Hancock is in her second year of a communication degree at the University of Newcastle. She is one of 40 students from the university volunteering as a flash quote reporter for the duration of the Olympic Games. She will contribute details of her Olympic

experience each week.

I have had five days of Olympic Flash Quote Reporter (FQR) training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

After arriving in Beijing we spent July 15 and 16 at the Menxi Hotel with other international university students who will also work as FQRs for the duration of the games.

We received general lecture-type training and provided an overview of the Olympic News Service (ONS) by Infostrada Sports.

On July 23 we started training for reporting on badminton and rhythmic gymnastics at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium. The Sports Information Specialist (SIS) and the ONS Reporter for both sports was responsible for training us in the rules and

regulations and the main points of play, performance and routine for both rhythmic gymnastics and

badminton.

We also participated in training about the questions we would ask athletes and what to do in different circumstances, for example, a situation where an athlete refused to answer our questions.

Our ONS Manager gave us training on the INFO 2008 system, a specially designed computer program for all games media, which involved practicing typing the flash quotes into an ICM system to be sent to the Main Press Centre for dissemination to the international media.

After obtaining athletes’ quotes we will have 10 minutes to enter them into the INFO 2008 System.

Our duties while volunteering as FQRs at the Olympics will include interviewing athletes and getting flash quotes after their matches or routines, attending press conference highlights and recording quotes. We will then copy-take the quotes into the INFO 2008 system in the ONS style and format.

In our role as FQRs will also be responsible for producing some pre-Olympic news stories.