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By Suzan Lindstrom, BASOC volunteer
San Francisco has fabulous weather, world-class facilities and is at the leading edge of the technology that makes the world tick, click, dial and compute. But that isn't the paramount reason why it should host the Olympics in 2012. The real reason is the 400 Olympians who live in Northern California, 40 of which are on BASOC's board. It's these local athletes with their Olympic experience and intimate knowledge of the Bay Area that has made our run for the 2012 Olympics "the best bid of them all."
Barbra Higgins is a prime example from our vast storehouse of Olympian knowledge. An Oakland business consultant with a law degree, Barbra competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics for Panama in fencing and now has dual-citizenship.
When she isn't helping her Oakland business clients, Barbra spends time inspiring adults and kids by speaking at clubs and schools, is a board member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and is treasurer of the Northern California Olympians. She also recently served as director of the Modern Pentathlon World Championships, held at Stanford from July 15-21, 2002.
Tell us a little bit about what you do and how you work with your clients?
A lot of times when I consult with companies, I find owners are very clear about their company's mission, but the employees just don't get it … it doesn't filter down. So one of the things I do is make sure everybody has one goal in mind. If that goal is to provide the "best service to our customers," it doesn't really define what it is they are trying to accomplish. So you have to break it down further, for instance, "We want every customer to walk away from here saying 'Man, this is a great company. They listen and really care about what happens to me.'" Now you have a mental image of your goal and how to measure the results, making it easier for everyone to focus.
So how have you applied that technique to bringing the Olympics to the Bay Area?
When I make speeches at various locales, my goal is "to have every single person in that room walk away with the realization that we can have the Olympics here." And once people realize it can be done and they get all their concerns out of the way like "But there's the traffic" and "Oh, where are you going to put all those people," then they get excited and want to know how they can get involved.
As director of the Modern Pentathlon, did you confirm your belief that the Bay Area can host the Olympics?
Yes, I figured that if the Modern Pentathlon was going to take all my time, I was going to focus on making it "a world-class event" and I had a great group of volunteers who pulled together to show the world, the USOC and the IOC that San Francisco could put on a multi-sport event (fencing, swimming, running, shooting and equestrian). We created an entire equestrian arena out of Stanford's rugby field and the eucalyptus grove became the horse stables. It was an amazing transformation. But, we did it and the Bay Area can be proud.
What did you learn about running the Pentathlon that can benefit our hosting the Olympics?
I learned that nothing much has changed since I participated in the Olympics in 1984. It was almost like being in the Village again. People came to the Pentathlon from 46 countries - France, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, China - but they really are all the same. They get scared, they get happy and they have fondness for each other.
I remember arriving at the LA Olympics in 1984. You didn't know where to go, what to do. There were signs everywhere. And security was tight with swat teams on the roofs, after the murders of the Israeli team in Germany in 1972 and U.S. boycott in 1980. However, my tensions were eased as I got into the spirit of the Olympics and met other athletes, learned the lay of the land and attended a party hosted by local Panamanians living in LA who served food from my country and played the music of Panama. It really meant a lot.
As a result, at the Pentathlon we had an outreach program to the foreign consulates, who responded by sending envoys to the airport to meet and greet their teams. I learned it's important to remember the human element in creating such events.
So how would your LA Olympic experience compare to San Francisco, do you think we could do a better job?
I remember at one of our BASOC brainstorming sessions, an Olympian from Europe who commented they use down blankets with duvet covers in his country, but when he participated in the Australian Olympics they could only get regular blankets. "It just didn't feel right," he concluded. This was a small item but important to him and was taken into consideration in planning our Olympic Village.
This is why San Francisco, where Olympians have played an integral part in writing and providing input to its bid and executive summary, has "the most athlete friendly bid out there."
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