Reporters' Notebook

We asked three of our journalists what it was like to spend time behind the scenes with the newsmakers they write about in this week's issue. Their thoughts:

ALICE PARK, WHO WROTE OUR COVER STORY THREE WEEKS AGO ON SARAH HUGHES, THIS WEEK COVERS HUGHES' REMARKABLE GOLD-MEDAL PERFORMANCE. Last summer when I showed up in a sweater at the Ice House in Hackensack, N.J., where Sarah Hughes trains, her coach Robin Wagner took one look at me and shook her head. "I've got a coat and some gloves in my office; you'll need those." She was right. I spent hours watching Wagner and Hughes break down the bane of Hughes's existence, the Lutz jump. Judges had penalized Hughes repeatedly for taking off on the wrong edge, and as painstakingly...

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