Yahoo Sports Hires Former Olympians as Paris 2024 Correspondents
By Movieguide® Contributor
The 2024 Paris Olympics are approaching quickly, and many sports and news outlets are figuring out how to compete with NBC, the “exclusive rights partner” in the U.S.
Yahoo Sports is hoping their star-studded line-up full of former Olympians will draw viewers.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, “The sports platform has hired seven-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix, who will provide coverage and analysis of track and field events; three-time gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, who will cover beach volleyball; five-time gold medalist Missy Franklin and silver medalist Katie Hoff, who will provide coverage of swimming events; and gold medalist Shawn Johnson East, who will cover gymnastics events for Yahoo.”
Yahoo Sports chief, Ryan Spoon, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss what his company was looking for.
“This is going to sound stupidly obvious, but you start with what matters to fans,” he said. “These are the top of the list in terms of skill, personality, results, knowledge, interest. And the other interesting part that I think is really important here is they’re all ambassadors of their sports.”
“They’ve all done this at the highest level with absolute success, I think they are all multi-time Olympians, so what’s it mean to do that abroad? What’s it mean on these different scales and these different personalities?” he continued. “And we got lucky because we didn’t have to go down the list — these are folks who are for any fan of these sports, they’d be the top names you can help with.”
Each athlete will analyze the events, interview athletes and host different features.
Despite this big move from Yahoo Sports, the company will still lean on its partner NBC Sports.
“Obviously, we start with trying to serve the most fans possible, and you do that through scale,” Spoon explained. “We have relationships with all of them. We aim to create the best content across written analysis, deliver the results, provide personality, video, do that on social. But we also acknowledge that we cannot personally — whether we are the best in the world or not — we can’t be comprehensive there ourselves, and so we look at partners who help us in that case.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Johnson East’s Olympic experience:
Former gymnast Shawn Johnson had the incredible experience of participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she earned one gold medal and three silver medals.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Johnson ruminated on her time at the game.
“It was the greatest honor of my life at the time,” she said.
“Being able to wear the red, white and blue, seeing the flag be lowered, hearing the anthem, put your hand over your chest,” she added. “It was this moment I had dreamt of my whole life. And being able to do that not just for myself, but for my coaches and my team and our country, it was a really special moment. It felt very special.”
- Content: +2Share:
- Content: +4