St. Louisan Steve Schlanger just might be the busiest broadcaster covering the Paris Olympics, which are about to kick into high gear after Friday’s opening ceremonies, at least in terms of calling medal events.
He’s set to call all the cycling and triathlon competitions, which is a lot. In cycling, there are men’s and women’s road races, time trials, track cycling and mountain biking. Triathlon has men’s and women’s races plus a mixed team event. Schlanger has at least one assignment every day of the Games beginning Saturday, and his events will be shown across multiple television outlets of NBCUniversal. Some will be on NBC (KSDK, Channel 5 locally) in mid-to-late morning St. Louis time, with others on USA Network, E! Network and CNBC. All will be streamed on Peacock.
“It’s quite a lot,†Schlanger said. “The bright side is that all of my shows are event finals, meaning no preliminaries. Given that volume, I think I end up calling the most medal events of anyone across the entire Games.â€
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He will be doing so from about 3,500 miles away. Like most of the more than 150 broadcasters who will be covering the Games for NBCUniversal, he will be working from the company’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
“About 90% of all of NBC’s Olympic coverage comes out of Stamford,†Schlanger said. “It’s quite remarkable. Hundreds upon hundreds of people in a massive facility, six hours behind Paris time and an ocean away. The logistics of it all is mind blowing.â€
He’s highly used to working remotely — he has called events from the basement of his house in West County, though this will be a much grander setup as he works the Olympics for the seventh time.
“While I am familiar with the process and the workflow of it all, it’s still a unique feeling that resonates with every edition of the Games,†Schlanger said. “In a TV landscape saturated with so much sports content these days, it’s always a privilege to work on perhaps the biggest spectacle of them all. Outside of soccer’s World Cup, the Olympics are the biggest, most prestigious event in sports.â€
He previously had been a staple on Tour de France telecasts but has not done so since 2020.
“The Tour de France is a special event, but it is also a grind from a travel and workload perspective,†he said. “It always felt like it was going to have a certain shelf life, and after doing it for seven years, that was sufficient. Plus, there were other events I wanted to do, and the Tour takes up such a big block of the summer that you run into conflicts.â€
This summer he has covered the men’s and women’s U.S. Open golf tournaments plus the monthlong Copa America soccer tourney. He also broadcasts a myriad of other sports, including skiing, tennis, hockey, basketball and had one of the most storied calls in Olympics television history with the Americans’ improbable victory in the 2018 .
While he has built much of his career by handling events outside the major U.S. sports, he won’t be calling the newest Olympic entry this year: break dancing.
“Shockingly, it will not be happening,†he said tongue-in-cheek. “I’m sure the outrage will build. How they could overlook a kid who grew up in the ‘breaking’ mecca of Shrewsbury, Missouri, is a mystery worthy of its own ‘Dateline’ special. Trying to dust myself off from this knockdown.â€
Turning serious, he is grateful for the opportunity to be calling Olympic events again.
“The ratings are among the highest for any show on TV all year and it’s exciting to know that you are reaching such a massive audience with your work,†he said. “This is the network’s most valuable sports property, and I am grateful that NBC has entrusted me to play this role for so long. You feel the gravity of the job and a responsibility to deliver a performance worthy of the occasion. I enjoy that challenge. That’s what makes it fun for me.â€