Backstage in Berlin part one: the media manager
In the first in our series of features focusing on the people who organise the World Championships, spikesmag.com spoke to the media manager in Berlin, Stefan Thies.
How did you come to be working on Berlin 2009?
I started as a news agency journalist. I was a sportswriter with Sports Information Service in Germany and was at the Munich office for a couple of years. I covered track and field because I had been practicing athletics, as well as soccer, in my youth.
What were your favourite events?
I started in decathlon and then changed to triathlon during university. I wanted to be a PE teacher at the time. After that, I went to the UEFA film and TV company; it’s called Sport 5 today. In those days we held the rights to many sports, including football and tennis. We invented the Golden Four. I was part of the really small team and up till now, the Golden Four times - and it’s not only my opinion - have been among the best times of international athletics.
Twelve years ago I founded my own PR agency. I have always covered athletics; Olympic athletics, the 2002 European Championships. I am the only one [left] on this organising committee who covered [every part of the process from] the bidding period.
What are your responsibilities?
To install all of the media representatives and to create the opportunity for them to work as easily and stress-free as possible. There’s a lot of planning and a lot of building, a lot of money being spent, hopefully creating good positions for the photographers. We are facing a self-made challenge because we are staging our event in two places, the Olympic stadium and – for the marathon and race-walk – the city centre. We are really optimistic that we can bring athletics into the minds of people all over the world with fantastic pictures. To give you an example, when we were planning all installations at the Brandenburg Gate, we thought the TV compartment would measure maybe fifty metres. Now it’s 150 metres long. It’s big!
How many people do you have working with you?
Well inside the BOC it’s the famous Triple A team – three girls; Alexandra, Agnes and Annette. We are the core team.
When the Championships start how many media will be there?
Almost exactly 2000 TV people, about 1000 writers and we have 253 photographers. This is not far from Olympic dimensions regarding the core sport of athletics.
What’s your life like at the moment - how many hours per day are you working?
It’s almost up to me. Beyond 12, though. And more than seven days a week! Once you start committing for an event like this, you should know that there’s little sleep, a lot of work and nothing else.
What will you be doing during the championships?
I’ll be sitting in my office watching TV! No, we regard ourselves as a service and we will be there to do it all. Starting with technical problems and the media tent to the press conferences and the Brandenburg Gate…
Will you see any of the events yourself?
I don’t know if I can enjoy, but I hope so…
What are your favourite events?
I think the multi-events days will be pretty calm so I should have the chance to see them. I am interested in all athletics but running means a bit more to me. My hero, who is not running at our world championships, is Haile Gebreselassie. I like the new German decathletes, too. They may not win a medal but will still put in a good performance. And of course, I like the sprinters.
Usain Bolt?
He has given a lot to athletics. He is able to get more people interested, it’s what athletics needs.
What are your plans after the championships?
I hope I can be a member of the bidding team for the Munich 2018 Olympics. Otherwise I would be very interested to talk to Seb Coe to get the chance to join the London 2012 team, which is still growing. When you have done a thing like this, with all this excitement staging a wonderful event, you want to cling to it.
If you liked this feature then keep an eye out for the next feature in our series focusing on the people organising the Berlin World Championships. If you can't wait until then, why not check these ones out...