How Bradley Students Powered Coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics

In 2014, 18 sports communication majors from Bradley were selected by NBC Sports to intern during the 2014 Winter Olympics. Some went to Sochi, while others worked at the NBC Sports Campus in Stamford, Conn. Though the work wasn’t glamorous, “it was a dream opportunity,” according to Kelly O’Brien ’15 (pictured top row, third from the left).

 The interns in Stamford bunked four to a room for a month, working all hours of the day. O’Brien, who worked nights as a Shot Selector, watched events in real time, snipping highlights for the morning NBC Sports broadcast.

“The timeliness of content delivery is so crucial with the Olympics that working on Sochi time was simply part of the job. We were shuttling from the hotel to NBC around 11 p.m. most nights, grabbing a complimentary Dunkin’ coffee from the NBC cafe, and watching live events through the night until our shift ended around 7 a.m.,” she explained.

O’Brien said she often covered the Alpine skiing events, and it’s her favorite sport to watch to this day. “Sochi was Mikaela Shiffrin’s first Olympics, where she won gold and kick-started her legendary career. At the time, she was a teenager and became the youngest slalom gold medalist,” she said. “She inspired me greatly as a young woman with big dreams of working in the sports industry.”

Lauren W., another sports communications major, recently posted on LinkedIn about her experience. “When the full-time staff found out I had experience with a bolt-action .22, they made me responsible for the biathlon coverage (like I spent my days skiing and shooting through the cornfields of Illinois). But, I loved it, and a Norwegian biathlete was chasing an Olympic record for most Olympic medals of any male Winter Olympian—spoiler, he did it. Google Ole Einar Bjorndalen,” she wrote.

Although the work was gratifying, getting sleep presented challenges for the interns who were bunking together and working opposing shifts. “I would often forgo the hotel room to find a cozy lounge chair by the hotel’s indoor pool for some quiet time,” O’Brien said. “Thankfully, I shared that hotel room with some of my best Bradley friends, so we made the most of it.”

This experience was life-changing for both women. “It’s a fast-paced, learn-on-the-go, extremely passion-driven industry, and the only way to understand it is to be in it. You’ll give up early mornings, late nights, and weekends just like the athletes you’re covering. And when it all comes together, you feel like you’re on the podium right alongside them,” O’Brien explained.

Lauren W. summed it up in her post: “At the time, our crew broke records for the most published digital and social content in Olympics history. I worked with industry professionals and saw my work on broadcast television and online. It was one of the best experiences of my life.”

To learn more about the sports communication program at Bradley, check out Delaney Giles in The College Tour. 

—Emily Potts