Covid-19 concerns have led NBC Sports to keep most of its announcing teams at home for the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, according to a report.
“The announce teams for these Olympics, including figure skating, will be calling events from our Stamford (Conn.) facility due to COVID concerns,” Greg Hughes, senior vice president communications, NBC Sports, said in a phone interview with USA Today.
“We’ll still have a large presence on the ground in Beijing, and our coverage of everything will be first rate as usual, but our plans are evolving by the day as they are for most media companies covering the Olympics,” he added.
NBC’s broadcasting teams for figure skating, Alpine skiing and snowboarding were originally going to be at the games. The rest were already scheduled for Connecticut duties. NBC also kept most of its team at home for the Tokyo Summer Olympics, but did have teams on site in Japan for some sports, including gymnastics and swimming.
The network’s Olympic host, Mike Tirico, will attend the Feb. 4 opening ceremony and the first few days of the Games in China. But he then be evacuated for Los Angeles to host the Feb. 13 Super Bowl, another NBC property this year.
