From One Election, To Another Election ... To Sports
Covering Georgia’s midterm elections this year was not for the faint of heart. They went on for a long …. long time.
I was up until 3am covering the first election night, and then up again two hours later to be interviewed live on NPR nationally at 6am.
The Governor’s race went on for about 10 days after that. One candidate declared himself the victor and proceeded with his transition while the other refused to formally concede, organized lawsuits and highlighted the many issues people had while voting.
There were recounts. There were (and are) many lawsuits. There were two runoffs just last week. One state house race had to be completely re-done, and is currently only separated by 2 votes (!).
Days after those runoffs, I made my sports coverage debut, writing about Atlanta’s new championship soccer team, Atlanta United. Check out that story here.
I wrote that story in advance of the team’s championship game Saturday, and then covered the game myself. It was quite the adventure, including time in the supporters’ section, getting whacked on the head by a fan flagpole, getting crushed in a sea of people in the locker room celebration after the game, and failing to keep the champagne sprays off my recorder. It was all worth it to see Atlantans ecstatic over the “broken curse.” Atlanta hadn’t seen a national sports championship since 1995.
I had a lot of fun putting together a “sound postcard” with the audio I gathered on that game night here.
Here’s a scene from inside the team’s tarped up locker room, featuring champagne and ski goggles.
And then yesterday, I wrote about the state high school football championship. A team from a hurricane-battered town in Southwest Georgia has been on a surprise winning streak since the storm.
But never fear. I’m going to be back on politics in the new year, covering Georgia’s General Assembly session from January.
In the meantime, a reminder that this is the best place to follow along! https://www.wabe.org/people/emma-hurt/
Here are some other stories I’ve been doing, too:
For Ga. Farmers Impacted By Hurricane Michael, The Road To Recovery Looms Large
Voter ID Laws May Disproportionately Affect Transgender Community
Lake Lanier Hosts Dragon Boat World Championships