Starkman’s mark
Pan Am media centre named for late Star writer,
It would be late at night at the cavernous main Olympic press centre in Beijing or Athens or Sydney or Nagano, and a long day would be dragging to an end.
We’d be planning the night’s festivities, a Star team dinner or an outing or just a session of storytelling at the end of another long day.
And from between a pile of papers, surrounded by guidebooks and biographies and transcripts of tapes culled from months of preparation, Randy Starkman would sit.
“Go ahead,” he’d say. “I’ve got a little bit more to do, need to nail this story.”
That was the essence of a valued colleague and friend, a tireless worker who made those press centres his home through 12 Olympics and two Pan Am Games, his turf, his fiefdom.
And it is why organizers of Toronto’s 2015 Pan Am Games decided to name the reporting hub the Randy Starkman Media Centre, a fitting tribute to the late, great Toronto Star reporter whose impact on Olympic athletics in this country was truly great.
He was their voice, through those Olympics and Pan Am Games and too many world championships and World Cups to remember, and the tribute will bring that to the forefront for the nearly 2,000 journalists accredited for the Games.
“You honour Rand in the perfect way,” his wife, Mary Hynes told a gathering of close to 100 colleagues, athletes and officials. “You nailed it.”
Nailed it, just like Starkman did untold times in a storied career that included two National Newspaper Awards for sports writing and accolades from around the globe.
The media centre was Starkman’s stomping grounds, his home, his social network at each of his international assignments.
He’d see reporters from around the world and be greeted with smiles and hugs and handshakes and reminiscences of stories and people and trips.
He would be among the first to arrive each day and the last to leave most nights, a tireless worker always trying to refresh his copy, to deliver some nugget of information to his readers to truly capture the essence of the athletes. He was the conduit between a public that tended to ignore Olympians for three years and11 months each quadrennial and he felt a duty to represent them truly and well.
“It was a loss to all Canadian athletes,” two-time Olympic swimmer Julia Wilkinson said. “We always knew we could trust him, he respected us. “He was our voice.” That voice was quieted far too early. Starkman passed away suddenly in April, 2012, at just 51 years old.
The tribute at the Pan Am media centre will be a daily reminder of what he was and what he did, the impact he had. There is a plaque and avideo, pictures of family and friends and candid shots from various assignments. Journalists covering the Games will be able to leave notes and tributes and memories, all the things they’ve had stored in their minds for years.
His presence, as it as at every multisports games, will be felt.
“He was a cherished and admired colleague,” Star publisher John Cruickshank said. “He displayed dignity and respect for athletes.” By caring. “It was his heart that we all loved so much about Randy,” said his wife.