She opens up about her favorite memories from the Barcelona games.
The 2024 Summer Olympics are around the corner, and while we have so much to look forward to — from the opening ceremony on the Seine to Simone Biles’s return to the mat to Sha’Carri Richardson’s Olympic debut to Noah Lyles’s attempt at three sprint golds — we can’t help but reminisce a little. Our very own Katie has covered seven Olympics throughout her career, her most recent being the 2018 games in Pyeongchang, where she hosted the opening ceremony for NBC. But it all started in Barcelona in 1992.
“I couldn’t believe it when the NBC executives told me I’d be heading to Barcelona,” Katie reminisced with us. “Ellie had just turned one — I had to miss her birthday, but thankfully she doesn’t remember! And there was so much to study.”
Her first stint at the Olympics was for the summer games. “I was anchoring The TODAY Show with Dick Enberg. He was the loveliest man,” she said of her former co-anchor, who died in 2017. “Incredibly kind and, of course, hugely knowledgeable,” she said.
“I was still relatively new to The TODAY Show, so it was thrilling.” Katie had only been at the show for a year, but she was more than ready for the challenge that is covering the Olympics.
There are a few moments from her first time at the games that she’ll never forget: “I remember not being allowed to interview Juan Antonio Samaranch, the head of the Olympic committee,” she recalled. “I think the sports executives thought I’d be too tough on him, and there’s a funny dance that goes on between the Olympic committee and the sports division. You can’t step on too many toes, and I was already getting pretty good at that!”
Of course, part of attending the Olympics is immersing yourself in the host city, and Katie has fond memories of Barcelona. “I remember walking around Barcelona, seeing all the sights and eating tapas,” she said.
But most memorable are the athletes she met during her first Olympic games. “It was so exciting to meet all these incredible athletes who had worked so hard to get there. It made you really appreciate their dedication and everything they’d sacrificed to compete at the highest level.”
And there were a few standouts. “I remember meeting and interviewing Mary Lou Retton: She was full of exuberance, and we both had that perky thing going. We also had very similar hairstyles! She was so talented and so much fun to interview,” Katie said. “I also loved meeting Bart Conner and Nadia Comăneci. I loved gymnastics — I had dabbled in it during junior high and appreciated how ridiculously skilled they were. And I loved meeting Dave Johnson, the Olympic decathlete who was part of Reebok’s ‘Dan and Dave’ campaign leading up to the Olympics. He had a great sense of humor and was fun to hack around with. And he won a bronze medal.”
We’ll be sharing more of Katie’s takes on the Olympics and her favorite memories on the site throughout the games, so be sure to check back!
