{"id":78032,"date":"2021-07-14T15:55:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T19:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=78032"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:38:17","slug":"olympian-turned-journalism-grad","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/olympian-turned-journalism-grad\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympian Turned Journalism Grad Finds a Home on the Other Side of the Microphone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Olympian Turned Journalism Grad Finds a Home on the Other Side of the Microphone\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In late June, when organizers of this summer\u2019s Tokyo Olympics announced that up to 10,000 local spectators would be allowed to attend events at the Games, a decision that was later reversed, the phone lines lit up at the Canadian Olympic Committee<\/a> (COC) office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s what would\u2019ve happened in normal times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, with COVID-19 impacting everything from global health and the economy to how people do their jobs every day, it meant that Thomas Hall<\/a>, the COC\u2019s director of communications and media relations, and his team had to respond to a barrage of calls, emails and texts from their homes in Ottawa and Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Canada's
Credit: Canadian Press\/Canadian Olympic Committee, Andre Forget<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been extremely demanding,\u201d says Hall, an Olympian who won a bronze medal as a sprint canoe paddler at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, went back to school to earn a master\u2019s degree in journalism<\/a> from Carleton University in 2015 and became the COC\u2019s communications lead this past January<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time there\u2019s any news out of Tokyo, we\u2019re flooded with requests from Canadian and international media. I knew it was going to be challenging to take on this role this year, but it\u2019s been extraordinarily busy. And right after these Games, we move straight on to the Winter Olympics in Beijing next February.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stories about political and social issues tend to dominate news coverage in the lead-up to any Olympics, says Hall, and then the focus shifts to athletes and sports as the opening ceremonies draw closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of which keeps him and his colleagues busy, often from 6 a.m. until well into the evening seven days a week, fielding queries, pitching stories, co-ordinating interviews, proofing communications products and working with the COC\u2019s senior leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s been awesome,\u201d says Hall, who\u2019ll be part of the 800-person Canadian contingent going to Tokyo, a scaled-down group that would be much larger at a typical Summer Olympics. \u201cI\u2019m learning a ton and work with a very solid team. And ultimately, all of this is about the passion of people and sport. That\u2019s what I love most about this job\u2014helping get those stories out into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Tom<\/figure>\n\n\n

From Training to Strategizing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Before moving into his new post, Hall spent the previous two years working as the senior manager of the COC\u2019s Game Plan<\/a> program, which helps national team athletes focus on health, education and career opportunities during their high-performance days and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game Plan is essentially a bridge to life after competition, which is a transition that Hall has successfully navigated through a few hurdles along the way<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirteen years ago at this time, he was in the \u201ctrain for pain\u201d phase of preparing for the 2008 Olympics. He\u2019d been a national team paddler for nearly two decades, winning gold and bronze medals at the Pan-Am Games, and was making what turned out to be a final push for the podium in the one-man 1,000-metre sprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Tokyo Olympic Games Monument of Olympic Rings. Credit: Dick Thomas Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m spending a lot more time sitting at my desk than in a canoe this year,\u201d Hall laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s a different kind of stress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After retiring from competition in 2012 at age 30, he was living bill to bill, while his friends had careers, kids, houses and savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hall doesn\u2019t regret all those years dedicated to sport\u2014he had amazing experiences and it was an incredible lesson in how to achieve one\u2019s goals\u2014but once that anchor is gone, it can be difficult for athletes to find their bearings.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIf you\u2019re not prepared or supported any big transition point in life can be hugely disruptive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Thankfully, he had a business degree from Mount Saint Vincent University under his belt, painstakingly earned part-time while training, racing and travelling. Driven by a lifelong interest in history, philosophy and the social sciences, as well as the fact that most of his favourite writers were journalists, he enrolled at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Tom<\/figure>\n\n\n

Marathon Planning Worth It for Olympian<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Studying journalism helped give Hall the ability to write and communicate clearly\u2014\u201cthe most valuable skill I\u2019ve ever learned,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boot-camp course in his master\u2019s program instilled the fundamentals of the craft, including reporting and the importance of accuracy and ethics. Hall quickly realized that while he liked long-form writing and having the time to explore ideas deeply, he wasn\u2019t keen on the grind of chasing daily news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During and after finishing at Carleton, he interned and worked at publications such as the Ottawa Citizen <\/em>and Canadian Geographic<\/em>, and then did some communications consulting and served as the interim executive director of AthletesCAN<\/a>, an association of national team athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Game Plan job brought Hall back to the Olympics\u2014and provided a scholarship for the MBA he\u2019s currently studying toward at Cornell and Queen\u2019s universities\u2014and now he\u2019s happy to be focused on media again, albeit on the other side of the microphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long days and endless to-do lists don\u2019t bother Hall. His training as a paddler helps, although this is more marathon than sprint. But he also looks to the women and men who\u2019ll be competing for Canada for motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeeing our athletes and everything they\u2019re doing to cope with COVID,\u201d he says, \u201cis inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
\nCarleton Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Monument of Olympic Rings: Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0 https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In late June, when organizers of this summer\u2019s Tokyo Olympics announced that up to 10,000 local spectators would be allowed to attend events at the Games, a decision that was later reversed, the phone lines lit up at the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) office. Well, that\u2019s what would\u2019ve happened in normal times. This year, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":78038,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[17],"cu_story_tag":[1924],"class_list":["post-78032","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-alumni","cu_story_tag-advancement"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/78032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/78032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97472,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/78032\/revisions\/97472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=78032"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=78032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}