Paris 2024: NBC Sports Team Is Excited for a Return to Normalcy at These Summer Olympics
After the challenges of geography and COVID, Paris 2024 appears primed for a breakout
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics are yet to officially begin with the Opening Ceremony on the Seine on Friday, but this experience already feels wildly different from recent Games for the team at NBC Olympics.
“Well, I can go walk for a cup of coffee,” NBC Olympics Primetime in Paris host Mike Tirico laughed during a press call on Wednesday. “I couldn’t do that in Beijing.”
NBC Olympics’ Molly Solomon: “I just can’t wait for the audience to experience what NBC Olympics has planned.”
Two Olympic Games have been held since the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020: the postponed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics (which were held in 2021) and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Both Games were held with few to no fans in the stands and with strict lockdowns in each host city.
Throw in a far more manageable time-zone difference than those past two Games, and one can imagine how much the folks at NBC Sports and NBC Olympics are chomping at the bit to get going on one of the most anticipated Olympic Games in some time.
“I couldn’t be more excited about Paris,” says Molly Solomon, executive producer/president, NBC Olympics Production. “What I love about working on the Olympics is, every time you begin on a new city and a new four-year cycle, it’s a blank slate. When we realized we had Paris 2024, the first thing we thought was, How can we take advantage of the time zone and show all the most popular sports live on NBC in the daytime?”
Full stands add to the atmosphere of events on television, and the return of athletes’ families adds a wealth of storytelling opportunities. Tirico expects more energy from the live coverage this time around.
“It is so different. I can’t tell you how different it is,” he says. “It’s a shame, because I think Tokyo could have been an incredible Olympic experience [the way] Beijing was [in 2008]. American athletes, athletes from around the world [will] feel the energy of the fans; they’ll feel the passion of Paris. I think it will lead us to a Games that may rival London in 2012 for excitement and enthusiasm. People still talk about those Games and how great they were. Everything is in position for that to happen here this time around. I hope it does.”
Now, in 2024, a return to normal conditions coupled with the allure of one of the world’s most beloved cities, Paris, is hard to deny. The NBC Olympics team expects the city to play a key co-starring role in its coverage of the entire two-week event.
“I think you’re going to see Paris interwoven in everything we do,” says Solomon. “You hark back to some Games of old, and what I remember — particularly in Beijing, London; I could go all the way back to Barcelona, when I started — is that the host city was the co-star. That’s where we’re elevating Paris, and we just can’t wait.”
Tirico notes, “Paris is one of two things: either you’ve been here and can’t wait to come back, or you’ve never been here and are dying to get here. As someone who’s in the category of having been here a few times, especially in the lead-up, there’s nothing like walking around Paris. And they’ve made the choice to put the venues right next to some of the iconic spots, things you’ll probably see in the Opening Ceremony on Friday. Paris is just a massive co-star in these Games. Nothing is bigger than the athletes and the competition, but Paris is pretty darn close second to that, I’ll tell you.”
This is also a significant Olympics for Solomon, a respected veteran of the sports-television industry, who was named executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production in November 2019. Just four months later, the world was stood on its head by the pandemic, and her first Summer Olympics in the position were postponed. Paris is already beginning to feel more like the experience she originally signed up for.
“This job is everything I hoped for in 2019,” she says. “I just can’t wait for the audience to experience what NBC Olympics has planned.”