First New York, now Beijing and Olympics

Bothell native Chelsea Feig isn’t a sports nut or a news junkie, but she does dig on once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

That’s what prompted the 2005 Inglemoor High grad and Ithaca College student to apply for a summer internship with the Olympic News Service (ONS).

Now she’s in Beijing, China, where she’ll be working until Aug. 27 as a flash-quotes reporter during the Olympic Summer Games. She’ll also be submitting thoughts and pictures for a blog during her stay.

The ONS is a press agency serving as a sports-information office for the international community. Ithaca is one of six colleges from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia that the organization recruits from to cover the Olympics.

“This opportunity just fell in my lap,” Feig said. “I wasn’t going to let it go by. How often do you get to travel to a place like Beijing and get involved with the Olympics?”

Feig just completed her junior year at New York’s Ithaca, where she’s majoring in marketing communications. She plans to attend law school after graduating.

Her aspirations weren’t always so bookish.

Culinary art is what first piqued her interest during high school. Feig participated in the Northeast Vocational Area Cooperative (NEVAC) program with the intent of becoming a chef one day.

“I realized that baking at 4 a.m. was something I never wanted to do again,” she said.

Feig’s activities at Inglemoor included participation in the Associated Student Bodies (ASB) club, serving as president of Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) and working on tech crews for the drama department.

She graduated with a 3.8 grade-point average, and ended up shopping her credentials to several out-of-state schools.

“My parents encouraged me not to limit myself by staying home,” she said. “I looked at a lot of schools on the East Coast, and Ithaca was the one I fell in love with.”

Feig’s only journalism experience comes from doing music reviews for her college newspaper and taking media writing classes for her major.

Her job at the Olympics will be to cover team handball by providing background information on the athletes and gathering sound bites for the international press.

It’s a high-intensity form of reporting compared to what she’s used to, but the ONS puts each of its interns through a one-month training program prior to the games.

The students will work test events to perfect their writing, interviewing and shorthand note-taking skills during that time.

“I expect it to be really stressful, but exciting,” Feig said. “When else will I get this opportunity?”

Feig said she plans to spend her free time touring China and visiting landmarks like the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and Tiananman Square.

“Hopefully, they’ll take me to a panda reserve so I can hug a panda,” she said. “I might get bit or lose an arm, but, even so, it’s a cool injury to have.”

Feig also plans to enjoy the local cuisine, and said she’s looking forward to tasting some authentic Xiao Long Bao, a type of soup dumpling.

“I’m a big foodie, so whatever I eat, you’ll see a picture of it,” she said.

Feig’s next internship will be with the city of Ithaca District Attorney’s Office next fall. Her goal is to eventually become a prosecutor for the state of Washington.

“I want to move back to Seattle one day,” she said. “That’s where my heart is.”