Nippy Feldhake's Olympic experiences would make Forrest Gump jealous.
The Tucson resident was an alternate in 1992 as, strangely, a member of the American Samoa cycling team.
He's carried the Olympic torch twice. In 1996, he was told he was the first to do so on a bike.
In 1996, he was one of the construction managers on the Olympic Village at Georgia Tech.
He's been volunteering at the Games - including the London Olympics, which begin Friday - for two decades.
This will be his 12th Olympics in person, dating to Los Angeles in 1984.
There, his family saw runners Zola Budd and Mary Decker collide.
In Seoul in 1988, Nippy saw Greg Louganis hit his head on the springboard. In Athens in 2004, he was mere feet away from Rulon Gardner when the wrestler left his shoes on the mat, retiring.
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There were funny moments, too: In the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games, figure skaters discovered their skates were locked in a room, and the locksmith had gone home, two hours before the event.
Volunteers simply took the door off the hinges.
He saw Tucsonan Michael Bates take the bronze in the 200-meter dash in Barcelona in 1992, and has chatted softball with Mike Candrea and running with Abdi Abdirahman and Bernard Lagat.
So when the 59-year-old called me Sunday afternoon from London, I had to ask: what was the best moment? Can you pick just one?
This is what Nippy told me. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he was standing in the outfield with a French photographer, watching the USA softball team.
The photographer needed batteries for his camera, so Nippy shared his.
Soon, a home run by American Crystl Bustos hurled through the sky and toward the two, who were alone on the other side of the wall.
"It's yours," the photographer said. "You gave me the batteries."
How perfectly We-Are-the-World is that?
"It was great," Nippy said.
The retired Arizona Department of Transportation engineer has collected more than 7,000 Olympic pins over the years. Chinese Taipei's look the coolest, so he makes sure to get one from the country during every Games.
His goal is to get one for every 204 of the nations that are acknowledged by the National Olympic Committee.
Nippy is about eight short - "to be conservative," he said - and is on the hunt for pins from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kyrgyzstan and some small island nations.
More important, though, he's collecting new friends and experiences.
Born in Kearny, north of Tucson, Nippy said he "never dreamt" he'd travel the world.
At first, the cyclist and former serious weightlifter said attending the Olympics was "new and exciting, an adventure and a challenge, something out the normal that no one in my circle was doing."
Then he got hooked.
Nippy landed in London on July 11 and won't return for two full months - two months! - at the conclusion of the Paralympics.
He is handing out Australian uniforms and, during the Paralympics, working the power-lifting venue.
Last week, Nippy helped heads of delegations get settled.
The other day, the Sudan representative landed after 24 hours on a flight, only to discover his room lacked a television, a refrigerator and a table.
Nippy fixed it within minutes.
"You just make it happen," he said.
He shows no signs of slowing down. Nippy can't stop, he joked, because a friend has seen 11 Olympics and would pass him.
Nippy uses frequent flier miles to get to the Games, and tries to stay either at family homes for free or, on four occasions, the Olympic Village.
He gets a meal with his shift, and a second with overtime.
The rest is not cheap - but it's priceless.
"Plus, you get a spiffy uniform," he said, "that only 70,000 close friends get."
