Category Archives: Olympic Interviews

In the summer of 2002, I produced the U.S. Olympic Team website and we built a microsite to honor the 30th anniversary of the historic 1972 Olympic Games, featuring a day-by-day recap, plus interviews with all of the top U.S. athletes, like Mark Spitz, Frank Shorter, Dave Wottle, Dan Gable, Bob Seagren, Micki King, Sandy Neilson and others. I had a conversation with Mike Bantom, a member of the basketball team, who were robbed of their gold medal. This is one of my favorite Olympic interviews. Continue reading →

This interview of Amanda Beard took place in 2004. I first met Amanda in 1995. I remember the big brohaha after her final event in Atlanta. All of the morning TV shows wanted to book her, but we couldn’t find her in the pool area. She had gone towards the spectator stands to see her family. TV producers were screaming, crying and everything in between, until I said, ‘She’s not doing any of them.’ All of the producers were then fine because they didn’t get scooped. I walked her out of the aquatic center and put her on a tram. Continue reading →

This was my favorite of the three-part series honoring Eric Heiden. I felt like I got the opportunity to bring the skating community together, lining up quotes from so many great athletes, like Beth Heiden, Rob McClanahan, Phil Mahre, Bonnie Blair, Dan Jansen, Apolo Anton Ohno, Casey FitzRandolph and Jennifer Rodriguez. I wanted Eric to read it and feel good. I’ve always felt that he was underappreciated in the shadow of the ‘Miracle on Ice.’ Continue reading →

This interview was part of a three-part series in February of 2005. I wanted to honor Eric Heiden’s historic 1980 Olympic Winter Games accomplishments on the 25th anniversary. He won everything from the 500- to the 10,000-meter. I love the story about Eric oversleeping for the 10,000 after watching the U.S. hockey team play the night before. Fatigued and unfocused, Heiden was pitted against the world record-holder and got behind. Favorite quote: “Caught him, passed him and never saw him again.” — Eric Heiden Continue reading →

I interviewed Chris Witty at the 2003 Pan American Games where she was competing in cycling after winning a gold medal in long track speedskating at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. I told her out of all the athletes on the U.S. team in Santo Domingo, she was the one I wanted to interview the most. She did not disappoint, especially when we got to the “I Feel Witty” point in the interview when she told me her favorite funny movies. She acted out scenes, impersonated characters and delivered lines. We were both laughing pretty good. Continue reading →

I grew up watching big-time wrestling, so interviewing Kurt Angle, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist turned WWE star was a lot of fun. The interview was done in November of 2002. He was supposedly considering a comeback and had just been to the Olympic Training Center. It would have been huge if he would have tried to make the 2004 Team. Continue reading →