PARIS 2024

MY SEVENTH OLYMPICS

10 weeks at Paris 2024 with NBC was a fantastic job. Absolutely wonderful team working together to bring the production to life. Short timelines made this Olympics harder than any of the previous six I’ve worked at. Our team was juggling to support a wide range of venues around the city but with hard work and an efficient production logistics and technical logistics team, it meant we were able to solve these issues with versatility. This was a very, very spreadsheet heavy job.

TO THE RESCUE!

I love this job and NBC put a lot of trust in us to help out the thousands of personnel they bring to the country. Every venue has a team of talent, broadcasters and crew. These range from a handful covering smaller sports to up to 200 at the athletics, gymnastics, swimming and golf. Nothing is ever quite as these teams had planned and it's often up to us to find solutions to their problems. It’s wonderful being able to help such a wide range of folk get the happy response when the day is saved.

PROBLEMS SOLVED

Of the 150 designs and fabrications my favourites were:

Saving OBS from some nightmare lines of sight at the head-on-cameras at the running track in the main stadium. The request came in late one hot afternoon and we had the solution designed, built and installed by the same time the next day before track and field started!
Building a rain/sun shade at Beach Volleyball at 5am in the pouring rain under the Eiffel Tower. Rats splashing through the muddy puddles on the Champs de Mars.
The 4 minute folding gate talent rostra for opening ceremonies! It didn't get used but it was there and very cool. See below.

MERCI BEAUCOUP PARIS

Our team was given incredible access to the city during the games and we saw sights and experienced things that few of the public will ever get to do.

I got to run the 100m again (did this 12 years ago in London)
Stood in the Trocadero alone with no tourists
Drove down the Champs Elysses with no other vehicles
Was the only person standing on the Pont d'Iéna

What a memorable experience - one I’ll treasure.

Credits

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