Winter Olympics: NBC Sports Announcers Skipping China, Will Call Games From Connecticut

Covid 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, SVP Communications at 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 originally were 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 then he’ll return to Los Angeles to host Super Bowl LVI on February 13, another NBC property this year.