Speaker 1: Hey besties, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Coming up on the bright Side, we have a very
Speaker 2: special guest. Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame reporter Andrea Joyce
Speaker 2: is here with us and with her impressive record covering
Speaker 2: seventeen Olympic Games, she joins us straight from Paris to
Speaker 2: give us the inside scoop on what's really happening on
Speaker 2: the ground and all the behind the scenes with the Olympians.
Speaker 2: It's Thursday, August first. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3: And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
Speaker 3: from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together
Speaker 3: to share women's stories, laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 1: We we from Perry Simone.
Speaker 2: Our guest is coming to us from Paris today.
Speaker 3: This is so exciting. We are going to get the
Speaker 3: news straight from the source.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nothing better than talking to somebody boots on the ground.
Speaker 2: Andrea Joyce's reporting career has spanned nearly thirty years. She's
Speaker 2: a vet in She's worked as a sports journalist at ESPN,
Speaker 2: at CBS Sports, and now she's at NBC Sports. And
Speaker 2: she's covered Olympic Games in South Korea, Japan, Norway and China.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is her seventeenth time seventeenth time covering the Olympics,
Speaker 3: so she's truly seen it all. But before all of
Speaker 3: these amazing accomplishments, Andrea broke into sports broadcasting in the eighties.
Speaker 3: This is the time when the industry was very much
Speaker 3: a boys club. And look, the reality is it still is, Danielle.
Speaker 3: According to the job research site Zipia, only sixteen point
Speaker 3: five percent of sports broadcasters are women.
Speaker 2: It's pretty wild statistic because when I watch TV or
Speaker 2: I read people's writing, it seems like there's so much
Speaker 2: more representation than there actually is.
Speaker 1: This is still an issue.
Speaker 2: And Andrea was one of the pioneers, but she wasn't
Speaker 2: always a sports broadcaster. She got her start as a
Speaker 2: weather reporter before going to work as a news and
Speaker 2: sports reporter in Texas and Kansas and Michigan. She really
Speaker 2: cut her teeth in local news and she made her
Speaker 2: debut as a reporter for ESPN at the nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: eight Summer Olympics in Seoul. So just last year, she
Speaker 2: was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: It's a huge honor.
Speaker 2: There was one moment from her speech that I think
Speaker 2: is worth chatting about. She talked about one time having
Speaker 2: to hide in the ladies room while the news station's
Speaker 2: anchorman was informed that he was going to be sharing
Speaker 2: a desk with a woman because people were afraid he
Speaker 2: was going to storm out of the building. She then
Speaker 2: called the movie Anchorman a documentary and not a comedy,
Speaker 2: and she's not wrong.
Speaker 3: That is hilarious. Anchorman is one of my favorite movies,
Speaker 3: and I've never heard anyone refer to it that way.
Speaker 3: But I can only imagine she knows how accurate that
Speaker 3: statement is. Totally well. Just this year, Andrea published a
Speaker 3: book called Legends of Women's Gymnastics, which profiled twenty eight
Speaker 3: gymnastics champions like Shannon Miller and her Magnificent Seven teammates.
Speaker 3: All the way I have to present day superstars like
Speaker 3: Sunny Lee and Simone Biles.
Speaker 2: That's right, And now she's coming to us straight from Paris.
Speaker 2: Andrea Joyce, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you. I'm so happy to be here
Speaker 4: with you.
Speaker 2: We're so excited. This is our first guest straight from Paris.
Speaker 2: So tell us about what it feels like, what's the
Speaker 2: energy like, what's your view? We need all the details,
Speaker 2: do you.
Speaker 4: Know I have to say, this is my seventeenth Olympics,
Speaker 4: and wow, the last two or pandemic Olympics. So this
Speaker 4: feels like a gift from the gods. Not that it
Speaker 4: was bad. It wasn't bad in Tokyo, and it wasn't
Speaker 4: bad in Beijing. It was just different. It was so
Speaker 4: incredibly different. In Beijing we were in a complete lockdown
Speaker 4: bubble where we could not leave our hotel. We could
Speaker 4: only go from the hotel to our venue, no place else.
Speaker 4: In Tokyo we were quarantined for two weeks and then
Speaker 4: we could go out. I had a fabulous time at
Speaker 4: both places, still because I love the Olympics more than
Speaker 4: anything other than my family. But to be in Paris
Speaker 4: the first time the Olympics opens back up, I mean
Speaker 4: it truly feels like a gift.
Speaker 3: You've said that being at the Olympics still gives you goosebumps,
Speaker 3: even considering that this is your seventeenth time there. So
Speaker 3: what has been the biggest goosebump moment for you this year?
Speaker 4: Well, so far here, I've had a couple. I won't lie.
Speaker 4: Every time you walk out the door, it feels like
Speaker 4: you have one. But I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
Speaker 4: Being at opening ceremony was absolutely terrific. We kept thinking, oh,
Speaker 4: this rain, people are going to be depressed. And my job,
Speaker 4: along with Melissa Stark, who is the swimming reporter, our
Speaker 4: job was to go out at the end of the
Speaker 4: opening ceremony and we're standing right underneath the Eiffel Tower
Speaker 4: where the athletes all exit, and Seline Dion has just
Speaker 4: finished singing on the Eiffel Tower and the athletes come
Speaker 4: pouring out, and we thought everyone would leave early. We
Speaker 4: thought they'd get off the boat and go home because
Speaker 4: if they were competing the next day, it's a long night.
Speaker 4: It's emotionally and physically tough for the athletes, so some
Speaker 4: don't go. The ones who did go, some left early.
Speaker 4: But the athletes who stayed, they said that the rain
Speaker 4: almost made it feel mystical and magical, and they stayed
Speaker 4: till the bitter end. And I stood there with the divers.
Speaker 4: I'm covering diving, and they just were all beaming, you know,
Speaker 4: just from ear to ear, so excited and just being
Speaker 4: able to meet athletes from other countries and just listening
Speaker 4: to them talk about their experience. That was my first goosebump.
Speaker 2: Moment.
Speaker 4: My second one really came the first day of diving,
Speaker 4: which was the first day of competition last Saturday, and
Speaker 4: that was when the Americans Cook and Bacon won the
Speaker 4: silver medal in the three meter platform synchronized. I'm getting
Speaker 4: goosebumps just thinking about it. They were so excited and
Speaker 4: it happened to be the very first medal for Team USA,
Speaker 4: which they did not know until I told them, and
Speaker 4: they just it's screaming, you know, how.
Speaker 3: Cool to be able to deliver that news in that moment.
Speaker 4: Oh, it was amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: Andrea, having covered seventeen of these, where do you think
Speaker 2: the goosebumps come from? Because I think of like big
Speaker 2: sport moments in America, you know, like if somebody wins
Speaker 2: the college national championship or any big moment, it's exciting,
Speaker 2: but it's different when it's the Olympics. I think the
Speaker 2: goosebumps are different. Where do you think that comes from?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm just going to put a little asterisk on
Speaker 4: this because I'm a University of Michigan graduate. I am
Speaker 4: a very act of alum.
Speaker 1: And are you a Wolverine.
Speaker 4: I'm a Wolverine, I believe. Oh, I bled a Maze
Speaker 4: and Blue, and I was there for the national championship
Speaker 4: game when we won in January, and that was truly
Speaker 4: a goosebump moment. But you're right, it is different. It's
Speaker 4: a different kind. It's a different sensation. You know, when
Speaker 4: you watch athletes competing for their country, it's a completely
Speaker 4: different feeling. I've been watching the tennis today and the
Speaker 4: Americans are having the American women in particular are struggling
Speaker 4: and having a bit of a tough time. And I
Speaker 4: think some of it ends up being about the emotion
Speaker 4: that you're putting into it because you are competing for
Speaker 4: your country, and I think that the stakes feel so different,
Speaker 4: and then when you do win or lose, it's just
Speaker 4: all magnified. We were saying that the other day that
Speaker 4: everything feels bigger at the Olympics, the emotions feel bigger.
Speaker 4: Earlier today, I was talking to Delaney Schnell and Jessica Prato,
Speaker 4: who were the ten meter platform syncro team, and they said,
Speaker 4: you know, when we got here, it seemed like it
Speaker 4: was bigger. It seemed like it was taller. They knew
Speaker 4: it was ten meters, but it seemed bigger because everywhere
Speaker 4: you look their Olympic rings and you can't escape it.
Speaker 4: So all of that factors into those emotions, I think,
Speaker 4: and it just makes everyone feel everything on a different level.
Speaker 2: Just this week, the women's US gymnastics team won the gold.
Speaker 2: It was so exciting to watch. And you've been covering
Speaker 2: gymnastics for years. What did it mean to you to
Speaker 2: see the team win this year? What was the feeling?
Speaker 4: I think I was so happy to see them come
Speaker 4: back and do this because of what had happened in Tokyo.
Speaker 4: Because let's not forget that even though it was Simone
Speaker 4: who had the twisties and had to drop out, the
Speaker 4: whole team was affected. Obviously. It was so emotional for everyone,
Speaker 4: and for them to do as well as they did
Speaker 4: in Tokyo was quite remarkable. For Sunny to step up
Speaker 4: and win the all around, for the team to win
Speaker 4: the silver team medal, it was incredible. But for them
Speaker 4: to come back, you know, for Jordan and Jade and
Speaker 4: Simone and Sunny to come back and do what they did,
Speaker 4: I just thought that was extraordinary and I was so
Speaker 4: happy for them because of what they had been through.
Speaker 3: You, in addition to covering Simone Biles, you mentioned You've
Speaker 3: covered so many legendary gymnasts in your new book, Legends
Speaker 3: of Women's Gymnastics. I want to hear more about these women.
Speaker 3: I've always been so inspired by these women, specifically dating
Speaker 3: back to the Magnificent Seven. I mean that was such
Speaker 3: a cultural touchstone for me. Are there certain traits that
Speaker 3: you see across these gymnasts.
Speaker 4: What do they all have in common. It's a quality
Speaker 4: that all of these women in the book, all twenty
Speaker 4: eight of them, if somebody said no, you can't do this,
Speaker 4: they said, watch me. And this goes back to women
Speaker 4: who were trying to compete during World War Two when
Speaker 4: they were there was a Jewish Hungarian woman, Agnes Coletti,
Speaker 4: who has to flee the Nazis. She's right there in
Speaker 4: the middle of the Holocaust, has to flee the Nazis.
Speaker 4: Then she gets injured when she could finally compete, then
Speaker 4: something else happens. By the time she gets to be
Speaker 4: in her first Olympics, she's like in her thirties. You know,
Speaker 4: it's incredible, but she kept saying, no, I'm going to
Speaker 4: do this. One of my other favorite stories and this
Speaker 4: is way before all of our time, but from the
Speaker 4: Soviet Union was Larissa Latinina and she was the most
Speaker 4: decorated Olympian in history until Michael Phelps came along. Wow.
Speaker 4: And then she said, I'm gonna go to the swimming
Speaker 4: event in London and she said, I'm gonna be there
Speaker 4: when he wins the medal. That's going to break my record.
Speaker 4: And she was there and she cheered him on and
Speaker 4: she said something kind of funny like, well, it's nice
Speaker 4: that a man could finally break my record. So it's
Speaker 4: just you know, and then of course you know you've
Speaker 4: got you know, Mary Lourettin in the book. And then
Speaker 4: I covered gymnastics for the last four champions, the all
Speaker 4: around champions for the US, Carly Patterson, Nacia Lucan, Gabby Douglas, Simone,
Speaker 4: and then Sunni. Actually it's five and I was there
Speaker 4: for all of those and it's just been remarkable to
Speaker 4: watch them what they've done.
Speaker 3: So Simone is now the oldest gymnast take home gold
Speaker 3: since nineteen sixty four. She has five skills named after her.
Speaker 3: When I think about what she's accomplished, it makes me
Speaker 3: think of where this sport started and how far it
Speaker 3: has come and how much it has evolved specifically thinking
Speaker 3: about the difficulty level. I came across this clip the
Speaker 3: other day of the men's gymnastics team. I forget which
Speaker 3: country they were competing in the nineteen twenty four Olympics,
Speaker 3: and they were doing pyramids where they were standing on
Speaker 3: top of each other's backs. Like that's what gymnastics used
Speaker 3: to be. So I'd love to hear you talk about
Speaker 3: this a little bit, just how far the sport has
Speaker 3: evolved in terms of the skills that the athletes are
Speaker 3: capable of.
Speaker 4: So the evolution of gymnastics is truly remarkable when you
Speaker 4: look at it, not just physically the skills that they do,
Speaker 4: but how they look and how they appear. You know,
Speaker 4: we went through the fifties and the sixties when the
Speaker 4: women were elegant looking. They had you know, bubble hair,
Speaker 4: and the were tall and thin, and it was more
Speaker 4: about this graceful, elegant appearance, and then it became more
Speaker 4: athletic and merely really kind of brought that in. She
Speaker 4: really for the United States. She really brought a more
Speaker 4: athletic look and it was so fun for us in
Speaker 4: two thousand and eight to see Sean Johnson and Nastia Lukean.
Speaker 4: The two of them were completely completely different. Sean was
Speaker 4: very powerful and very compact, and Nastia was more like
Speaker 4: an old fashioned gymnast. It was long and artistic and tall.
Speaker 4: So to watch them compete neck and neck for a
Speaker 4: couple of years and to see what they did, some
Speaker 4: of it is preferenced, but what they both did was incredible.
Speaker 4: And for them to be best friends and then to
Speaker 4: end up one two. I mean, that was a remarkable
Speaker 4: Olympics to watch two thousand and eight. But you're right, though,
Speaker 4: when you look back and you see some of the
Speaker 4: things that they did, it's just completely different. And I
Speaker 4: think that there are things that simone that no one
Speaker 4: ever ever expected to see. Tim Daggett covered Olympics for
Speaker 4: NBC for gosh over thirty years, I think, and he said,
Speaker 4: I never ever in my life thought I would see
Speaker 4: some of these things. I covered gymnastics and figure skating
Speaker 4: for a long long time, and figure skating is going
Speaker 4: through the same kind of evolution. We're seeing things in
Speaker 4: figure skating that we've never seen and no one ever
Speaker 4: thought they would see. So I don't know where it ends, though,
Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean, at some point like, can
Speaker 4: you really do? How much more can you do?
Speaker 2: We have to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 2: right back with Andrea Joyce. And we're back with Andrea Joyce.
Speaker 3: Okay, Andrea. I actually went to Paris about a month ago,
Speaker 3: and it was so cool just to get to see
Speaker 3: the rings emblazoned on all of these iconic mindnuments of
Speaker 3: the city. I want you to paint a picture for
Speaker 3: us of what your day to day is like on
Speaker 3: the ground.
Speaker 4: These games are spread out, and so I'm up at diving,
Speaker 4: which is up in San Denis, right across the road
Speaker 4: from where the track and field events are. So we're
Speaker 4: up here. We're ways away. I can see the Eiffel
Speaker 4: Tower from my room, but it's way way over. It's
Speaker 4: several but I can see it when it lights up
Speaker 4: on the hour at night. But we get up. We're
Speaker 4: lucky because our events, our diving events, are all during
Speaker 4: the day, so then that frees us up in the
Speaker 4: evening to either go see other events eventually we haven't
Speaker 4: done it yet, or we can go out to dinner,
Speaker 4: which never happened for me. When I did gymnastics for
Speaker 4: twenty years, the events were always that always took place
Speaker 4: in the evening, so you prepared during the day. You
Speaker 4: did your event, back to the hotel, had a glass
Speaker 4: of wine, went to bed, and just repeat, rinse, and
Speaker 4: repeat every single day. Diving is a little bit different,
Speaker 4: a little spread out. The synchronized events that we start
Speaker 4: with are short. They only last about an hour hour
Speaker 4: and a half, and then we have work that we
Speaker 4: have to do afterwards to clean up stuff and everything else.
Speaker 4: But we generally go over first thing in the morning.
Speaker 4: We're done sometime in the afternoon. I get back to
Speaker 4: the hotel and I start preparing for the next event.
Speaker 4: I try to get a little bit of a leg up.
Speaker 4: But we've been lucky. We've had some free time, and
Speaker 4: I've taken the Metro, which is unbelievable. The Metro is
Speaker 4: like the subway for Paris, and it's the easiest, easiest,
Speaker 4: easiest system I have ever. I've lived in New York
Speaker 4: for thirty five years and I still don't change trains
Speaker 4: because a train and I say I'm going to walk
Speaker 4: a mile if I have to, because I don't like
Speaker 4: changing trains. I went out the other night and my
Speaker 4: college friends were all here, and I changed trains three
Speaker 4: times and got to dinner with them in a half
Speaker 4: an hour. I mean, it was so wow. But the
Speaker 4: great thing about it is that it's interesting to me
Speaker 4: because people always say, oh, French people are so aloof
Speaker 4: and they're not friendly. I don't know if somebody gave
Speaker 4: them a refresher course or what. Because I haven't been
Speaker 4: to Paris in many years. Everyone has been so unbelievably nice.
Speaker 4: When I was down by the Truckadero where the Eiffel
Speaker 4: Tower is, where the opening ceremony was, I stayed down
Speaker 4: there for a couple of days because you couldn't get
Speaker 4: anywhere near it if you were coming in that day
Speaker 4: to work, So I had to stay at a different hotel,
Speaker 4: and I was walking around and I had some free time,
Speaker 4: and I sat at a cafe and I had an
Speaker 4: April spritz.
Speaker 3: It's europe aperol threads. I think it's the best cocktail
Speaker 3: in the world. It tasted it tasted different.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you come and have one here, did
Speaker 4: you when you came and visited.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I had way too many to count. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're so good.
Speaker 4: It tastes better here. And I'm sitting outside, I'm seeing
Speaker 4: all by myself. I'm looking around, I'm eating They always
Speaker 4: bring you wallives. And I sat there and I thought,
Speaker 4: how lucky am I? I mean, this is unbeltable. This
Speaker 4: is a pinch me moment. It is it is. And
Speaker 4: just walking around, you know, down in the metro and
Speaker 4: I was looking at my phone and I was trying
Speaker 4: to find this one, making sure I was going the
Speaker 4: right way, and two people stopped and said, can we
Speaker 4: help you? Can we help you? I mean, it was
Speaker 4: just it's been been lovely. It's been absolutely lovely. The
Speaker 4: weather has been beautiful until a couple of days ago
Speaker 4: it got very, very hot, but I think it's cooling down.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter though. People are in great spirits. The
Speaker 4: thing about the Olympics is that, even though this one
Speaker 4: is a little bit spread out, no matter where you
Speaker 4: are in the city, as you said, there are Olympic
Speaker 4: rings everywhere, and there is this sense, as corny as
Speaker 4: it sounds, that you're all part of this world community
Speaker 4: and you sort of remember that, you know, we're more
Speaker 4: alike than we are different, and you see people and everyone.
Speaker 4: When I was talking to the athletes after the opening ceremony,
Speaker 4: they talked about the athletes, they had met from other
Speaker 4: countries and how that made them feel and how inspiring
Speaker 4: it was for them to be around these people who
Speaker 4: care as much as they do, who work as hard
Speaker 4: as they do in any sport, whether it's fencing or
Speaker 4: team handball or tennis or gymnastics, diving, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: They all have this commonality and it's just it's it's
Speaker 4: it's hard to explain, but it's it's breathtaking. Really.
Speaker 2: I have so many random questions about day to day
Speaker 2: with these athletes. So if somebody trains for a marathon
Speaker 2: or a triathlon, there's sort of protocol and like it's
Speaker 2: different for everybody, but like you don't really train that
Speaker 2: hard the week leading up to the race. When it
Speaker 2: comes to these athletes, are they training.
Speaker 1: Once they get to Paris?
Speaker 4: Oh sure, Oh sure. Gymnastics and gymnastics has well, they
Speaker 4: all have specific times when they can train. So gymnastics
Speaker 4: has what they call podium training, and that would be
Speaker 4: like the day or two before they actually compete. And
Speaker 4: when they call it podium training, that means that they're
Speaker 4: actually on the kind of surface that they're going to
Speaker 4: be on during the company petition. Because the training gym
Speaker 4: doesn't have that. But for diving. I mean, there was
Speaker 4: an open diving session right after our competition today and
Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you that half of the people
Speaker 4: who were in the competition stuck around and took advantage
Speaker 4: of that open open diving session. So they are training. Yes,
Speaker 4: I know what you're talking about. I mean some people
Speaker 4: I think that swimmers also taper off how much training
Speaker 4: they actually do close but I think that these divers
Speaker 4: are watching them one after another like they can't wait
Speaker 4: to get back out there.
Speaker 1: Well, I saw part.
Speaker 2: Of opening ceremonies and like the excitement when the Olympics started,
Speaker 2: was everybody gathered on that boat that Lebron waved the
Speaker 2: flag on. What is that called? Is that specific thing?
Speaker 2: Was that part of opening ceremony?
Speaker 4: May he was the flag bear.
Speaker 1: He was the flag bear.
Speaker 4: So what they did they did they did a different
Speaker 4: kind of thing. What we're all used to seeing at
Speaker 4: the opening ceremonies that the athletes march into an arena,
Speaker 4: they march into the stadium. Country Greece is always first,
Speaker 4: you know, so that's the way that they do it.
Speaker 4: But this time they decided to have all of the
Speaker 4: countries on boats. So a couple of boats had a
Speaker 4: few countries if they only had a few athletes, but
Speaker 4: they kept they keep them in alphabetical order pretty much.
Speaker 4: And so the flag bearers were Lebron James and Cocoa Goff,
Speaker 4: the tennis player. So in any other Olympics, they would
Speaker 4: have been the one leading the delegation. So they on
Speaker 4: the boat and they were at the front of the boat,
Speaker 4: I think, with the flags. So they were the flag bearers.
Speaker 4: And that's voted by your fellow athletes. So to get
Speaker 4: that honor is like the coolest thing in the world.
Speaker 4: And what they did it was it was really I
Speaker 4: love the way they do this. I mean, I'm such
Speaker 4: a sucker for this stuff. Weep every time I see it.
Speaker 4: So when Cocoa Goff, she had to be nominated by
Speaker 4: someone to be the flag bearer. So she was nominated
Speaker 4: by another tennis player, Chris Hugh Banks, So he nominated
Speaker 4: her and then she got it. So then what they
Speaker 4: do is that they gather their team. Their team was
Speaker 4: somewhere together, not all the athletes, but the tent all
Speaker 4: the tennis players were all together, and Chris Eubanks gave
Speaker 4: a speech and he talked about Coco and then he
Speaker 4: revealed that she had been chosen to be the flag bearer.
Speaker 4: I'm nice thinking about it. It was just so because
Speaker 4: she was so shocked and so honored, and it's just
Speaker 4: such an amazing thing and the way that they do it.
Speaker 4: So NBC shot that, of course, and so you know
Speaker 4: everyone at home got to see it. You know during
Speaker 4: the opening ceremony that in five hours of coverage, it
Speaker 4: might not it might not have seen it. But the
Speaker 4: way they do it is so special.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing, Okay, I so appreciate how special
Speaker 2: it is, and I could feel the energy watching, But
Speaker 2: as a warrior, I'm looking at all of these athletes
Speaker 2: on a boat in close proximity, thinking what if they
Speaker 2: get sick. They've been training for four years, what if
Speaker 2: their immune system is like how are they around all
Speaker 2: of these people?
Speaker 1: Why aren't they isolating in their dorm room.
Speaker 3: Why can't you just take in the magic of the moment,
Speaker 3: take it, enjoy the opening ceremonies.
Speaker 4: Stop worrying.
Speaker 1: I'm very I.
Speaker 2: Want them to be able to compete at their highest level.
Speaker 4: Danielle, I'm with you. I'm a warrior. I'm a total
Speaker 4: worrier and you know, you do you look at them
Speaker 4: all close together like that number one. A lot of
Speaker 4: athletes who were competing the next day decided not decided
Speaker 4: not to go. They decided not to go. So are
Speaker 4: our divers who won the silver medal. They said, we're
Speaker 4: not going.
Speaker 1: The right Lebron.
Speaker 2: I get why Lebron goes because it's like he's been
Speaker 2: there before, he's.
Speaker 1: Been a USA. He can enjoy.
Speaker 2: If this is my first Olympics and I'm really trying
Speaker 2: to go for it, I am not on that boat exactly.
Speaker 4: So Cassidy and Sarah decided we're not going. So I said, well,
Speaker 4: what are you going to do? I was in touch
Speaker 4: with them that day and they said, we're going to
Speaker 4: have our own opening ceremony at the athletes village with
Speaker 4: all of these other athletes who aren't going to march.
Speaker 4: So they put on their whole polo outfits, everything that
Speaker 4: they were supposed to wear for the opening ceremony, and
Speaker 4: they kind of paraded around a little bit and they,
Speaker 4: you know, they had their own little celebration and it
Speaker 4: was very cute. We used the video in our coverage.
Speaker 4: But many of them decided not to go, and then
Speaker 4: another big chunk of athletes decided after the boat because
Speaker 4: once they got off the boat, they got into this
Speaker 4: It wasn't a stadium. It was a sort of a
Speaker 4: makeshift stadium right at the truckadero there, and they all
Speaker 4: filed in and they sat in the seats for all
Speaker 4: of the ceremonial stuff like the oath, the reading of
Speaker 4: the oath, and the raising of the Olympic flag. And
Speaker 4: then when they come in with the flame and they
Speaker 4: light the torch and you know, and they do all
Speaker 4: of that. That takes another couple of hours. So a
Speaker 4: lot of athletes got off the boat and my right
Speaker 4: or left and got off and went home and got
Speaker 4: onto a bus and went back. They only did the
Speaker 4: parade on the boat and then they went home, but
Speaker 4: especially because it was raining. But for those who stayed, though,
Speaker 4: I have to say, it was a big chunk of
Speaker 4: American athletes stayed. And we did a lot of interviews afterwards,
Speaker 4: and nobody was complaining. They all.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: And it was funny though, too, because it stopped raining
Speaker 4: second it was over. The second it was over, it
Speaker 4: stopped raining, and we're all standing out there, everybody's drenched.
Speaker 4: We all look like wet rats, but there was not
Speaker 4: one single complaint. Everybody was just grinning ear to ear.
Speaker 4: But I hear what you're saying. I mean, it's it
Speaker 4: is taxing. It's taxing, not just physically to go to
Speaker 4: these things, to be on your feet for that many hours,
Speaker 4: but it's also taxing emotionally because there's so much going
Speaker 4: on and you can either take that and let that
Speaker 4: feed you and be inspired by it, or you could
Speaker 4: just basically go home and say I'm exhausted. I probably
Speaker 4: shouldn't have done that. So a lot of the athletes
Speaker 4: who didn't go, like the gymnasts, the US women's water
Speaker 4: polo team was competing the next day, so they left
Speaker 4: right after the boat, so they you know, they went home.
Speaker 4: A lot of them will be a closing and they'll
Speaker 4: all get that experience then from closing too, which is
Speaker 4: pretty special.
Speaker 3: I'm for another short break, but don't go anywhere because
Speaker 3: we'll be right back with NBC Sports reporter Andrea Joyce,
Speaker 3: and we're back. You mentioned all the emotions that are
Speaker 3: pumping through everyone's bodies during this time, and I want
Speaker 3: to ask you about those emotions because you do meet
Speaker 3: these athletes in some of the most significant moments of
Speaker 3: their lives, when they're recovering from a loss or celebrating
Speaker 3: a win. And I spend as a journalist, I spend
Speaker 3: you know, eighty percent of my career thinking of the
Speaker 3: right questions to ask? How do you think of the
Speaker 3: right question to ask these athletes in those moments?
Speaker 4: So I've been doing this for a really, really long
Speaker 4: time before any of you were born. I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: the oldest woman still doing sports on TV. I'm going
Speaker 4: to be seventy. I'm going to be seventy in August,
Speaker 4: and I'm proud.
Speaker 3: Amazy Kay longevity, Okay, career longevity.
Speaker 2: I should we should also mention you're a hall of famer.
Speaker 4: I am. I got inducted into the Sports Prodcasting Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame in December. And when people ask me, like,
Speaker 4: what's the key to your longevity? I truly truly believe
Speaker 4: it's not that I wasn't ambitious, but I truly believe
Speaker 4: that it a lot of it is because it never
Speaker 4: ever ever was about me, and it was never about
Speaker 4: my desire to get some breaking news, you know, some
Speaker 4: unbelievable quote from someone. It was truly about just talking
Speaker 4: to this person and trying to find out what's going
Speaker 4: on for them? What is this like for them? You've
Speaker 4: just watched some own biles for two hours, and you've
Speaker 4: watched her compete, But what was it really? What was
Speaker 4: it like? What was going on in her heart? What
Speaker 4: was going on in her head, her stomach? You know?
Speaker 4: I mean, like you just you're trying to get inside
Speaker 4: and find out things that people at home wouldn't know
Speaker 4: unless you ask those questions. So I take a lot
Speaker 4: of pride. I'm a little bit neurotic. Actually, I'm very
Speaker 4: neurotic about how I prepare. And it's funny because I
Speaker 4: show up for events and I have stacks and stacks
Speaker 4: and stacks of notes. And I've worked with some people
Speaker 4: and they say, really, you're on for like a minute
Speaker 4: and a half, and I say, I know, but I
Speaker 4: have to have the right question. I have to have
Speaker 4: I need all of this because I need this background
Speaker 4: because it gives me some place to go. And I
Speaker 4: always make it about them, it's not about me, And
Speaker 4: I think that you get a richer story that way,
Speaker 4: you get a more authentic story, and athletes are more
Speaker 4: likely to tell you things. One of the things that
Speaker 4: I've learned over the years is that if I've done
Speaker 4: that homework, they know it. And if they know that,
Speaker 4: they know that I care enough to spend the time
Speaker 4: to do the research, to do the homework, to be
Speaker 4: able to say to them, you said last month that
Speaker 4: you were a nervous wreck. You know what was it
Speaker 4: like for you out there today? I rely on all
Speaker 4: of that information that I've gathered, and when they know
Speaker 4: that you've done that work, you're going to get better
Speaker 4: answers too, because they trust you. And you know, especially
Speaker 4: for a sport like diving, that we don't cover until
Speaker 4: we get to tell the trials for the Olympics, so
Speaker 4: you're covering it once every four years. Gymnastics we had
Speaker 4: a few more events, figure skating we've got a couple
Speaker 4: of events during the year. But a lot of these
Speaker 4: sports you don't cover it for four years and you
Speaker 4: show up and there has to be a trust, I think,
Speaker 4: to be able to get some kind of real answer
Speaker 4: and real information. There are athletes who don't want to talk.
Speaker 4: There are athletes who are closed books. But I think
Speaker 4: that you can you can break through that wall if
Speaker 4: you ask the right questions in the right way, with
Speaker 4: sensitivity and with curiosity, it's truly about being curious. That's
Speaker 4: the number one. You have to be curious. You have
Speaker 4: to care of that person in order to do the
Speaker 4: job right.
Speaker 2: Well, when I think about your work, two words come up.
Speaker 2: One is curiosity and the other is compassion. And I
Speaker 2: think that's part of the reason that people have loved
Speaker 2: watching you for so many years.
Speaker 4: Oh you're nice. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Well, when you think back on your career, is there
Speaker 2: a period of time that stands out to you as
Speaker 2: being really joyful?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I wake up with a smile on my face
Speaker 4: every time I'm working. I know that sounds so corny.
Speaker 4: I'm so annoying to the people I work with because
Speaker 4: I'm a freaking and even at my age, like I
Speaker 4: show up and I'm like, you know that, let's do
Speaker 4: a show. I mean, this is so much fun. Who's listened.
Speaker 4: I went to University of Michigan. Our former football coach,
Speaker 4: you know, Jim Harbaugh, always said, who's got it better
Speaker 4: than us? And that's my attitude. I show up for work,
Speaker 4: is who's got the work? I'm getting paid to do this?
Speaker 4: I mean it's I feel like this has always been
Speaker 4: joyful for me. And I almost feel like it's even
Speaker 4: better now because you know, you get to a point
Speaker 4: and you say, this could be the twilight of your career,
Speaker 4: you know. I mean you're of an age where you
Speaker 4: may not wanted to. Well, I feel like I would
Speaker 4: want to do it until I can't, but they may
Speaker 4: not want me to do it, you know. I don't know,
Speaker 4: but I feel like every time I go in and
Speaker 4: I've said this to myself for years, every time I
Speaker 4: do an event, I say, you know what, this could
Speaker 4: be your last one, you know, so you soak it in,
Speaker 4: you soak it up, you enjoy every minute of it
Speaker 4: because you don't know when you're going to get to
Speaker 4: do this again. And in that sense, I sort of
Speaker 4: feel like, maybe that's the only thing I have in
Speaker 4: common with the world class athletes, is that so many
Speaker 4: of them come to an event like the Olympics and
Speaker 4: they say, this might be it for me. This might
Speaker 4: be the only Olympics I ever get to come to.
Speaker 4: So I'm going to really embrace it and enjoy every
Speaker 4: minute of it. And so I have that in common.
Speaker 4: That's about it.
Speaker 2: Andrea, thank you so much for sharing your time with us,
Speaker 2: particularly while your booths on the ground in Paris.
Speaker 1: We're really really grateful. This was really nice.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm so happy to talk to you both. This
Speaker 4: is really fun. Thanks.
Speaker 3: Think of me when you have your next Apperall Spreads.
Speaker 3: Andrea Joyce is a sports reporter for NBC, the author
Speaker 3: of Legends of Women's Gymnastics, and a member of the
Speaker 3: Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we're popping off with
Speaker 2: journalists and co host of the beauty podcast Gloss Angeles.
Speaker 2: Kirby Johnson will be here with us. Listen and follow
Speaker 2: the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: I'm Simone Boye.
Speaker 3: You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2: I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: That's ro Ba.
Speaker 3: Y see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.