Hussman students to cover their first Winter Games – UNC-Chapel Hill

Hussman School of Journalism and Media

Hussman students to cover their first Winter Games

The 25 journalism students will produce stories at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics in Italy for NBC and local stations.

By Caroline Daly, University Communications and Marketing, Friday, January 30th, 2026

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A group of 25 Carolina students will gain hands-on experience in live television and sports writing during the 2026 Winter Olympics (Feb. 6-22) with the support of a sports broadcasting professor.

The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media students, alongside C.A. Tuggle, John H. Stembler Jr. Distinguished Professor, will travel to Milan and work as reporters during the Games. Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Hussman has sent students to cover the Games as official reporters for the International Olympic Committee and NBC News. This will be the fifth Olympics covered by Hussman students, but the first Winter Games.

“A couple of the students have never left the country, so this will be a brand-new experience for them,” said Tuggle. “The Winter Olympics are also staged differently, so this will be a different kind of experience for the students who have gone before.”

The students will report around the city, speaking with fans and families of Olympians to find stories with a North Carolina connection. The content and stories produced by the students will be available to every NBC News station across the country.

Students will communicate with media outlets in the Triangle area, the coast of North Carolina and Pennsylvania to develop story ideas and video packages that will run on live local news broadcasts. They will also pitch stories to any market in addition to their primary partners and translate content into Spanish for Telemundo.

Each student team will include a writer, television reporter and an audio reporter. All students will also produce social media content throughout the Games.

This experience will give students practice with same-day turnarounds on stories and television packages. A team of students will also spend part of the Games in Cortina, along with making trips to the ski villages.

Sophomore Eliza Jennings will produce broadcast video packages for WITN-TV and Curtis Media Group while in Milan. Jennings has never been to the Olympics before and is excited for the opportunity.

“When you decide to come to Carolina, these are the kind of moments you dream about,” said Jennings. “Most people work their whole lives for an opportunity like this, and to get to go to the Olympics as a sophomore in college kind of feels like a journalism student’s version of winning a national championship. It just doesn’t get much better than this.”

Senior Kyla McGhee, who went with the Hussman team to the 2024 Paris Olympics, is going again to Milan. She will produce video packages with North Carolina stations WRAL and WITN-TV.

She plans to pursue a journalism career after graduating this May and hopes the experience will be helpful in preparing for her future work with tight turnarounds and deadlines.

“I feel blessed to be working for another Olympics. Not many people can say they’ve attended the Olympics, and I have the opportunity to add two Olympics to my resume,” said McGhee. “I’m looking forward to the whole experience. I’ve never been to Italy, so I’m excited to explore a new country and see sports like figure skating, hockey and snowboarding.”

Jennings thinks the experience will be “life-changing” for the students’ careers. “It’s an incredibly unique opportunity you don’t really hear college students getting to do,” she said. “It makes me feel like I’m capable of achieving anything I work hard enough for in the future.”

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