PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — When the Olympics conclude and the assembled news media depart, the venues in the host city are not razed, the volunteers do not scatter and the appetite for more competition does not wane. Another major international sporting event is in the offing.

That is when I pack my bags and go.

On the evening of March 4, nearly 23 hours after I left my home, I arrived at my accommodations here, to cover my third consecutive Paralympics, the Olympics for athletes with impairments.

It is one of my favorite assignments, a refreshing break from covering the N.F.L.

Access need not be negotiated. The press attachés are helpful. One-on-one interviews are plentiful. And the athletes are gracious and obliging, eager to discuss more than just their performance — which, for my purposes, is critical.

The directive from my editors is at once specific and nebulous, but it can be distilled into this: Feel free to explore a range of subjects and trends — à la my recent article on how skiers who endured horrific collisions at the Sochi Paralympics in Russia four years ago conquered self-doubt and psychological anguish to compete in these Games — but don’t write traditional profiles of particular athletes, no matter how compelling their back stories may be.