Behind the Headlines

The Herald-Leader doesn’t often have a chance to send reporters on assignment to Europe. But when the city of Lexington was named host city of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, we knew we needed to get a reporter overseas to see how previous host cities had carried out the Games. We wanted to see what lessons Lexington could learn from places like Aachen, Germany, and Jerez, Spain — the last two World Games sites — and what challenges might lay ahead for the Bluegrass in the years before the Games arrive.

What does Lexington need to do to spruce up its downtown, and to lure visitors there? What kinds of facilities will it take to pull off such a massive event at the Horse Park? Can the airport, transit system and roads in Lexington handle the expected boom in visitors for the two-week Games? While we could do some reporting on these subjects over the phone from Kentucky, we knew we needed to get someone to Europe to look for answers on the ground.

Earlier this year, veteran Herald-Leader reporter Linda Blackford put together an application for a World Affairs Journalism Fellowship that we hoped would allow her to do just that. Linda’s application was accepted, and her findings from Europe will begin appearing Saturday in Kentucky.com and Sunday in the Herald-Leader. The series, "Ready for the World?", with wonderful photos and multimedia from photographer David Stephenson, will run over three days. The first will focus on Aachen, site of the 2006 Games. The second day looks at Jerez, which hosted the Games in 2002. The third day will focus the camera back on Lexington, and detail the challenges faced by the city, as seen through the lens of previous Games. Linda spent almost two weeks in Europe (half in Germany, half in Spain) reporting for the series; David was there for a week. Already, you can see a sneak peak video of what Linda and David (pictured above in Jerez) found on Kentucky.com.

The World Affairs Journalism Fellowships program is administered by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). The fellowships are funded by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in Oklahoma City. As the fellowships’ Web site states, the fellowships are “intended for experienced journalists and editors from America’s community-based daily newspapers. The goal is to give them an opportunity to establish the connections between local-regional issues and what is happening abroad. Fellows will conduct overseas research and then submit articles to their local papers in an effort to ‘internationalize’ America’s local press. The fellowships are founded on the belief that local news is not limited to one’s immediate community and that enterprising reporters and editors can find good international stories in their own backyards.” Up to 12 fellows are selected in the United States each year.

We’re thrilled that Linda won this fellowship, and that it gave the Herald-Leader an opportunity to dig more deeply into the impact of the World Equestrian Games. With the horse industry, Toyota and the University of Kentucky, Lexington has always had a strong network of international links. But the World Games will put the city in the international spotlight like never before. Rarely have we had such a potentially big internationally story in our own backyard.

As Linda observed when she returned from Europe: “The World Equestrian Games were developed in Europe; in terms of sport and civics, they are uniquely suited to European communities. That doesn’t mean Lexington can’t make them a huge success, it just means we will have to carefully and thoughtfully think about every aspect, from the footing for the horses, to having enough trees in downtown Lexington, to grasping the momentum for the long-term. Kentucky has a long history of passing up good opportunities; we shouldn’t let this one go.”

One other thing worth noting: While their work on this series will appear prominently on Kentucky.com for the next several days, it will also live on at the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s new page dedicated to the World Equestrian Games. This site will only continue to grow with stories and information between now and 2010. Already, you can find previous stories about the World Games, as well as the start of what will become a list of 2010 fascinating things about Kentucky that will inform visitors who come here for the Games. We’ve invited readers to submit their own ideas of items that should be on the list, which has been put togther by staff writer Andy Mead. Email us your ideas by clicking here. And keep an eye on the site as 2010 approaches.

Peter Baniak
metro editor