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closed there. I was finally rescued by security, who organised my key to the meagre room. Around three in the morning.
NEW STANDARDS After the disap- pointment of Eugene, Budapest 2023 was a blessing. The "Nemzeti Atlétikai
Photo finish of the men’s 100m from Berlin 2009 with an autograph of Usain Bolt
us journalists. From telex to modern computers. The equipment in the press centres has been continuously im- proved. On the tribune TV sets, result computers and LAN connections are a matter of course.
DON'T TRUST THE INTERNET! I think some young colleagues overestimate the internet. Don't trust the internet blindly! Study the history of athletics from books and journals, build up your own archive.
SET GOALS Fight for every line about athletics in your medium! I still do that myself today. I always set myself new goals, I already have my accreditation and the hotel fixed for Paris 2024, my 13th Games since 1972.
FEATURES
Olaf Brockmann’s accreditation card of the 1st World Athletics Championships in Helsinki 1983
LAPTOP AND MOBILE PHONE Some- time in the 90s, we started sending the reports from a laptop, the beginnings here were also tedious. You had to con- nect the computer for transmission via an acoustic coupler to the telephone. If it was too loud in the stadium, the texts could not be transmitted. In 1999 I worked with a mobile phone for the first time at a World Championships.
BOLTMANIA In Berlin 2009 I produced a double page on Usain Bolt every day. The Boltmania had gripped everyone. He delivered headlines without end. He set world records in the 100m and in the 200m, and also led the Jamai- can relay team to gold. The next day I accompanied Bolt all over Berlin. His ultimate reggae party took part in the "YAAM" club.
PARENTS SANK IN HORROR In Daegu 2011 I had sat down in the stands near the Bolt clan before the 100m final to write a cheering-story about the re- actions of mum and dad Bolt. Things turned out differently. The parents
BELOW: A telex of the kind we used for transmitting text at the World Champion- ships in Helsinki 1983. RIGHT: First inter- view with Mike Powell after his long jump world record in Tokyo 1991
sank into horror. Their son produced the most famous false start in athletics history.
WORST MEMORY I have the worst memory of Oregon 2022. Eugene was simply unsuitable to host a World Championships of this scale because of the lack of infrastructure and hotels. To this day, I'm still annoyed that a tiny room on the campus cost 150 dollars a night. For me, the scandal had already begun on arrival. After a 24-hour jour- ney, I arrived on the campus well af- ter midnight. Everything was already
Központ" is a dream, perfectly suited for a World Championships. We had perfect working conditions. Budapest set new standards.
The highlight for me was Femke Bol's last lap in the women's 4 x 400m relay. Her run to gold was a sensational end to a sensational World Champion- ships, which in my personal ranking is on a par with the glorious premiere in 1983.
40 YEARS OF PROGRESS The history of the World Championships has also been 40 years of technical progress for
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PHOTO BY WIKIPEDIA.DE
PHOTO BYIMAGOIMAGES
PHOTO BY SEIKO
PHOTO BY OLAF BROCKMANN