What’s the toughest part of covering the Olympics in person? Actually covering the Olympics.

By “the Olympics”, I mean the Olympic events … you know, the actual competitions that serve, in theory, as the purpose of this international extravaganza.

Covering the festivities and atmosphere? Not a problem at all. In many ways, I feel I am most valuable in that role; I can be on the ground, report on how the Olympics feel, and take the viewer to places that often get shortchanged by the official broadcasts.

My goal as a journalist is to serve my audience. And, from what I have seen so far, that audience has responded more to my slice-of-life, behind-the-scenes stories than my posts about the specific events.

So, for the most part, I have spent my days in Sochi observing and reporting on the Olympic surroundings. On Saturday I visited the main park and produced a story about Day 1 of the festivities – and that day’s seemingly meager attendance. On Sunday I spent several hours at the five giant Olympic rings that have become the preeminent photo spot for fans, athletes, and volunteers.

But while I comingle with the crowd, I miss whatever events are taking place. And when I get back to my workspace in the International Broadcast Center, I spend most of the time staring at my computer, logging, writing, and editing my stories (not to mention Tweeting, posting to Facebook, and typing blog entries like these).

This means I rarely get to look at a television and watch the action.

It also means, often, I learn the results of Olympic events long after those events occur.

Such was the case Saturday, when I first learned about the phenomenon of Sage Kotsenburg.

The 20-year-old American won the Sochi Games’ first gold medal. In the process, he won the first gold medal in the history of slopestyle snowboarding (the event premiered at these Olympics).

This happened several hours before I found out.

But suddenly Kotsenburg became the talk of the media world; everywhere I looked, fellow journalists were Tweeting about the Idaho native’s laid-back mannerisms and surfer-like use of the English language.

I knew I had to catch up quickly … which was helpful when, a day later, I got to interview Kotsenburg.

(The interview was terrific, by the way. Kotsenburg discussed, among other things, the famous Tweet where he seemingly misused the word “random” to describe his ascendance to the slopestyle finals.)

This is the chaotic nature of being on the ground at the Olympics. It is similar to having a front-row seat at a football game: you get a great view of the action, but you miss much of the overall picture because you can only see the game in two dimensions.

Surely this system of coverage has its quirks. But those are outweighed by the rewards. I love watching whatever events I can, and I eventually manage to keep up with them all, but I do my best work as a storyteller by, simply, telling stories.

At the Olympics, that means experiencing as much as possible … even if I cannot experience everything.

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FOR MORE ON MY OLYMPICS JOURNEY: 10 observations from the first 5 days
FOR MORE ON MY OLYMPICS JOURNEY: Culture shock? What culture shock?
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Matt Pearl is the author of the Telling the Story blog and podcast. Feel free to comment below or e-mail Matt at matt@tellingthestoryblog.com.