Manny’s: Chronicle Live: An inside view of the Olympics with Chronicle sportswriters

They’ve watched Usain Bolt fly down the track and witnessed the icy Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan drama. They’ve covered the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta and the strange pandemic games in Tokyo.

For athletes, the Olympics are the pinnacle of competition. For professional sportswriters, they’re an ultramarathon of coverage packed into two-and-a-half whirlwind weeks of work halfway around the world.

One week before the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremonies float down the Seine, join Chronicle sportswriters Ann Killion, Scott Ostler and Ron Kroichick in conversation with Culture Critic Peter Hartlaub live at Manny’s on July 18 for a behind-the-scenes look at the Olympics and a preview of the 2024 Summer Games.

Killion, Ostler and Kroichick will share insights and reflections from a combined 22 Olympic games. They’ll reveal the insider details on what it’s like to cover the Olympics and recount their most memorable moments from games past.

They’ll also preview what you need to know ahead of Paris 2024, including the storylines they’re watching on doping and how international conflicts may impact the competition. And they’ll introduce you to the Bay Area athletes to cheer on this summer in hammer throw, tae kwon do and more.

We’ll also kick off the evening with some Bay Area Olympic trivia, so brush up on your local knowledge of the games to win special prizes.

You’ll hear from:

Ann Killion: Paris will be Killion’s 13th Olympics. Her first was the spectacle of Tonya-Nancy in charming Lillehammer and she was hooked. From the Atlanta bombing to drinking sake with the Andorran Olympic team in Nagano to listening to Marion Jones tell lies in Sydney to choking on smog in Beijing to the pandemic weirdness of Tokyo, the Olympics is always an adrenaline-filled, exhilarating and exhausting assignment, unlike any other.

Scott Ostler: Ostler has covered seven Olympics, beginning with Los Angeles 1984. He felt the breeze from Usain Bolt, smelled the barf from a winning rower, and thrilled to the spectacle of Tonya Harding stopping to tie her skate laces. He will never forget walking the Great Wall, running with Kenyans and visiting a dog restaurant in Seoul.

Ron Kroichick: This will be Kroichick’s second Olympics. He also covered the 1994 Winter Games in Norway, where he memorably stood in the freezing cold (with Scott) waiting for Harding to make a 10-second appearance upon her arrival. Kroichick, who started working at the Chronicle in 1995, mostly will cover the U.S. men’s and women’s basketball teams in France, as Warriors star Stephen Curry makes his long-awaited Olympic debut.

Peter Hartlaub: Hartlaub has never been to an Olympics. He likes watching the events where the U.S. are underdogs and prefers the obscure sports that only get TV coverage every four years. Hartlaub is the Chronicle Culture Critic and co-founder of Total SF. A former Chronicle paperboy, he has worked at the Chronicle since 2000. He covers Bay Area culture, co-founded the Total SF podcast and events series, and writes the Total SF newsletter.

Chronicle Live at Manny’s is a monthly series of conversations featuring Chronicle journalists discussing how they do their work and the most pressing issues of the day while having a little fun along the way. To stay up to date on future Chronicle events, click here.