‘Today’ Stars Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Craig Melvin on What They Consider To Be the ‘Very Essence of the Olympics’
What is traditionally one of summer’s biggest moments promises to be bigger than ever this year, as the Olympic Games Paris 2024 kicks off on July 26. In an unprecedented move, the last Summer Games, Tokyo 2020, were postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and held a full year late with no live spectators to cheer the athletes on. Although records were broken and medals were won, some of the luster was inevitably lost in a world that was still coping with immense loss and disruption.
It is with that backdrop that the world looks to the City of Light this year to reignite Olympic fever–and judging by the enthusiasm of Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Craig Melvin, who are busy prepping for their roles at the Games, it’s already catching.
The four Today anchors, all of whom have covered previous Olympics, took a time out with Parade for an exclusive chat about what it’s like to be on the ground and on camera for the three weeks when 10,500 athletes will represent their countries at the highest level of competition in 329 medal events in 40 different sports. Fresh off their Olympic photoshoot and decked out in their matching USA gear, an episode of Today under their belts, they’d been going full tilt for hours—but they were buzzing with energy.
“We are going to be on a natural high for three weeks because we're so excited about the Olympics,” says Guthrie, who, with Kotb, will be anchoring Today from the games for the duration and co-hosting the opening ceremony. “And let's not forget the time change is working for the Today show. Instead of the morning, we get to go on the air at 1 [Eastern] in the afternoon.”
“Instead of coffee, we've got rosé!” quips Roker, who will assume his regular duties during the Games. “I'm doing weather and basically along for the ride as dead weight.”
Related: Simone Biles and Team USA Gymnasts Hailed an 'Inspiration' in First Photo From Paris Olympics
But it won’t exactly be business as usual for the crew. “We are objective journalism all the other times, except for at the Olympic Games,” Kotb says. “We'll have our pom poms out.”
Melvin has arguably the biggest challenge. In addition to manning Today from Paris, he will for the first time co-host live daytime coverage for NBC sports—a 5 hour gig in itself.
The four, though, have no doubt they’re up to what would seem to many as a daunting task. “It's impossible to drag when you're at the world's greatest sporting event in one of the world's greatest cities,” Guthrie says.
“Every time an athlete comes on our set, it's like TNT, man. That's what it feels like,” Kotb says. “The athletes bring all the energy and we're just the receivers of it. We're going to be juiced up the whole time.”
“I don’t think you want to say that around athletes,” Roker adds with a laugh.
The banter continued as Roker, Guthrie, Kotb and Melvin shared their strategies for preparing for the Games, what they’re most looking forward to—and the dubious activity Roker has in mind for leisure time in Paris.
Devon Sherer: Savannah, you've said that you prepare for the Olympics like an athlete. What exactly does that look like for each of you?
Savannah Guthrie: For the Today show, learning the stories of the athletes—that’s where the heart of the Olympics is. They've worked so hard to be here, this is their moment. We try to lean into their personal stories and their families much more than learning stats or learning how any particular sport is played.
Hoda Kotb: Savannah's right. Think about how these athletes have trained for years and years, and it literally comes down to sometimes one minute, one dive, five seconds, a 10th of a second, and their life is forever changed. We prepare by getting to know the athletes. Once you know them, there's a real connection that's beyond athlete and reporter. We get to know them on a much more personal level.
Craig Melvin: We've also been training for a while now, because we've profiled a number of these athletes over the last few months. We've spent a fair amount of time with some of these teams and athletes. Keep in mind, athletes like Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles, they've been around for so long. We've watched them grow up.
Al Roker: I feel like I'm training like an athlete because I'm going to eat about 30,000 calories a day.
Melvin: But this guy's been taking French!”
Roker: I'm just going to do like Pepé Le Pew and put le in front of everything.
What’s the hardest part about covering the Olympics? Craig, you mentioned a binder full of stats. That sounds like a lot to remember.
Melvin: It's like when I was back in college. I’ll study and commit to memory for about 30 minutes. And if you ask me the next day, I couldn't tell you anything about it. So it's like you cram for an exam.
But the hardest part is you watch some of these athletes who've been preparing almost their entire lives, and their parents who've been taking them to these practices day in, day out and watched them from the stands for years. You know how hard they've worked to get to this moment. And in the flash of a second, it didn't go their way. And to see not just their anguish, but to watch the family and friends who've traveled to Paris to see them and, you feel that like here. [places hand on heart]
Guthrie: Other than that, there’s not that much that’s hard about it. Doing the Olympics is almost pure joy.
Roker: And the bonus also is that we actually get to hang out. I mean we love each other, but, we've got lives and people have to do things. But there, we're together and get to go out and hang out and travel and shoot different stories and experience the area.
Related: Lester Holt Reveals His Favorite Part of Covering the Olympics
How does covering the Olympics compare to your day to day at the Today show studio?
Kotb: It's 1000 times better! [group laughs] You know why? It's all good. You know, win, lose, it's all good. I think we're just thirsty for that, you know what I mean? I feel like it takes you to a place or almost in a bubble for a little while, where the biggest story in the world is whether or not someone won the 100 meters, just for that moment. It just puts a pause on life for a second and lets you exhale. It brings people together. And I feel this is the perfect time for it right now.
Guthrie: On our show we're always looking for inspiration. But sometimes the news is hard and it's hard to find the light. When we're covering the Olympics, it’s not hard to find the light. It's not hard to find inspiration and joy. It's right there. And so I think that's why we love being there so much.
Roker: And the best part is we know all the names that you expect to really do well. But it's the people who step up for their moment and they meet that moment and you weren't expecting it. They come out of nowhere. That's the very essence of the Olympics.
Melvin: They're not sports stories. These are life stories, like these people who work sometimes two and three jobs to get there. Like the deli worker, the guy who was working at Walmart and his colleagues didn't even know he was training for the Olympics. And then he made it to the finals. It's stories like that, you know?
What are you looking forward to doing in your free time in Paris?
Melvin: Al knows the city better than any of us. He's our tour guide.
Roker: Well, my daughter [Leila] has lived in Paris for the last six years. And so she has taken me to places that I was like, ‘Wow, what is this? This is not on any tour map.’ The one place I do want to take them, which I don't think they've gone to yet, is the Sewer Museum of Paris. It is a spectacular, spectacular tour. I'm telling you, you will be amazed.
Guthrie: I’m sick that day.
Melvin: It smells like a terrible idea.
Roker: In fact, one of the first times I went there, when I was about 20, you could actually ride in a boat in the sewer. Now you walk.
Melvin: Maybe he’s not our tour guide… [laughing]
How will you be staying connected with family during the Olympics? Are any of your spouses or children coming with you?
Melvin: “My wife [FOX sports reporter Lindsay Czarniak] is actually covering the Olympics as well. She’ll be working out of Stamford [Connecticut] doing a show for USA Network. And our schedules will be just like when we did the same thing in Tokyo. So when she was up, I was sleeping. And when she's up, I'm sleeping. A lot of FaceTiming.
When I covered my first Olympics [Rio, 2016], my son at that point was almost turning two and this was the longest that I had been away from him. So they made me this little poster and they put a picture behind each number of days I'm going to be gone. And then I flip the number and there's a new picture. It's like an advent calendar for the Olympics. They've done it for every Games since then. But now the pictures are goofy. They make faces.
Guthrie: It would be so fun to bring our kids, but we are working. Our kids are little. So I think we all decided not to bring them. But one of these days I'm dying to be able to bring them.
Roker: I've done it because I'm obviously older and because I don't really work. [laughs] My kids have gone to sporting events and they get to see the city. I think the first one we went with them to was Salt Lake City [2002 Winter Olympics]. Leila still has the mascots from Salt Lake City on her bed. A bear, a fox and a rabbit. She lives in Paris now so that's where I'm going to dump my son. You know, he'll stay with his sister.”
What's something you've learned from previous times hosting that prepared you for this year?
Roker: To expect the unexpected. You know, that's the beauty of it. You just don't know what's going to happen. Last time around, the whole Simone Biles situation [Biles withdrew from competition during the Tokyo 2020 games], who would have possibly foreseen that? Certainly not her. And none of us. I mean, it was heartbreaking, and then others stepped up. What an incredible story on all on all fronts.
Kotb: I think you need to look at them as people and not athletes only. In the past when I was covering the Olympics a long time ago, I think I saw the athletes and the training and the hours. And all of the sudden when you look at them, you realize they're just young kids who dreamt of this great day. The interviews end up being so much better because athletes are often trained to speak a certain way, so let's get out of that. Let's go to where something's real. They're also very expressive, most of the athletes we speak to, they know exactly who they are. They like to have fun. They realize it's a big deal, but they also want to be sort of relaxed in that way.
Roker: Nobody has earned the trust of, especially the gymnastics team, like Hoda Kotb. They know they're in a safe space with somebody who loves them, who is as enthusiastic, if not in some ways more than them.
Guthrie: The Olympics are their special moment in time. And I think that you may find that you fell in love with an athlete or a sport that you didn't expect, and that happens to us every single time. I mean, it's like, who knew that we would love curling, right? I think that's what's fun. Learning these stories of the athletes and just thinking about just the humanity of it all. Every single person has fought probably their entire lives to be in that moment and just to respect and love that and feel joy with that. I think that it's contagious. So I hope people will watch with us because that's definitely what we're feeling.
