NBCLX Creates My New Favorite Olympian Podcast Series to Highlight Athletes of Team USA

NBCLX, NBCUniversal Local’s TV and streaming network, has launched a podcast series to introduce Team USA’s most inspiring Tokyo 2020 athletes, My New Favorite Olympian, hosted by medal-winning Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and NBCLX storyteller Ngozi Ekeledo. The debut episode of the five-part series featuring swimmer Nathan Adrian is available now, with new editions scheduled for release Wednesdays through July 7.

My New Favorite Olympian will provide in-depth narratives profiling established and emerging American stars who have overcome adversity and displayed passion for helping others through advocacy on their way to the pinnacle of their sport and the opportunity to represent their country in Japan. Each 15 to 20-minute edition will focus on a different Olympian and will include interviews with the athlete, experts and those who’ve impacted their lives and careers, including family members.

In the first episode, the story of Adrian’s successful recovery from cancer is highlighted. The three-time Olympian and eight-time Olympic medalist was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2019 and returned to competition later that year after successful surgeries. The 32-year-old Washington State native and University of California, Berkley graduate will be looking to qualify for his fourth Olympics at USA Swimming’s Olympic Team Trials, which begin this week in Omaha.

Other Team USA athletes who will have their compelling stories highlighted include:

• June 9: Sprinter and Harvard alumnus Gabby Thomas, a Massachusetts native, who is pursuing an advanced degree in epidemiology at the University of Texas with the goal of providing more equitable healthcare access to minority and under-served communities.
• June 16: Surfing phenom Caroline Marks, a 19-year-old from Florida who began competing professionally at 15 years of age and experienced a body positivity journey on her way to stardom.
• June 23: World champion artistic gymnast Morgan Hurd, a University of Florida student who was born in China and raised in Delaware, has dedicated herself to advocacy and stopping violence and discrimination against the Asian American Pacific Islander community.
• July 7: Beach volleyball star Alix Klineman, a former National Player of the Year and All-American at Stanford University from Manhattan Beach, Calif., who recently qualified for her first Olympics with partner April Ross, is a proponent of destigmatizing women’s health issues.

Co-host Muhammad captured a bronze medal in saber fencing at the Rio 2016 Summer Games – where she became first American woman to compete in a hijab at an Olympics – and is a five-time medalist and 2014 gold medal-winner at the World Fencing Championships. She also won gold twice at the Pan-American Games and was a three-time All-American at Duke University. Muhammad was named Muslim Sportswoman of the Year by the Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation in 2012 and was featured by Time Magazine in the 2016 ‘100 Most Influential People’ issue. She is part of the U.S. Department of State’s Empowering Women and Girls Through Sport Initiative.

Ekeledo joined NBCLX in 2019 as a storyteller and has been a journalist for nearly a decade after graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. An Emmy Award winner, she has experience as a beat writer, reporter, host and anchor covering collegiate and professional sports for television and digital media platforms, going back to her time as a student.

My New Favorite Olympian will be available for download on all major podcast platforms, including Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn and iHeart. Listeners can now subscribe to the series here.

Video versions of each episode will be available on-demand at LX.com and NBCLX’s YouTube channel and series content will be available on NBCUniversal Local’s NBC and Telemundo owned stations and NBC Sports Regional Networks linear and digital platforms.