Milano–Cortina Winter Olympic Games

On site in Milan, we had a unique set of constraints: NBC Olympics are the rights holders of all competitions, and the official national governing bodies of each sport are not. This meant we were not permitted to capture or post any content from within the competition venues — our only way to share actual visuals from the events was via Getty Images. We leaned on those for event-based updates, and pivoted away from the quick-turn, rinkside-captured content of athlete reactions and fan interactions that had worked well at earlier events in the season, like Skate America and U.S. Championships.

We found new ways to bring engaging, can't-get-anywhere-else content to fans throughout the duration of the Games — live from Starbucks Winter House, where we were based for the month of February.

Winter House was a hospitality space created by U.S. Figure Skating in collaboration with USA Hockey and U.S. Speedskating, for athletes and families to come together before and after attending venue events, with an on-site content studio. We were responsible for long-form athlete interviewing, content studio management and equipment procurement, short-form behind-the-scenes video capture and quick-turn editing, and real-time event coverage.

We seized fleeting windows of athlete availability to capture content with current Olympic competitors, Olympic Gold Medalist alumni from the last 75 years, Summer Olympian G.O.A.T.s, and influencers with audiences in the millions.

The Olympics come once every four years, and figure skating is consistently one of the most watched sports of the Winter Games. Our goal was to capture that broadcast viewership and transform it into a deeper and wider social audience, then use that momentum to keep the sport of figure skating front-of-mind for audiences every year — not just every four.