“Now here I am, two Olympics and 20 years later,” said Streich, a production assistant at NBC Sports in Stamford, Connecticut, who won a Sports Emmy Award for his work on the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

“The Olympics is like the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ of sports,” he added. “It’s so fun to see all these great athletes in one place. And you just have so many options of stories you can tell. The pressure is high, yes, but the reward is great, too.”

With the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics now underway in Italy, Streich’s employer is once again responsible for delivering around-the-clock coverage of all 116 medal events contested across eight different sports and 16 disciplines to primetime, cable and streaming audiences.

But like a Marvel superhero staring down an intergalactic threat, he is not alone. To put it in Olympic terms, you might say a “dream team” of six Bobcats has been assembled at NBC Sports, each with a unique, behind-the-scenes role to play in turning thousands of hours of footage into highlight packages, features and profiles.

“The QU community always helps each other out,” said Efecan Karaefe ’20, a video production assistant who also won an Emmy Award for his work on the Paris games. “You get a quality education and your professors keep in touch with you. And then in the professional world, there are just so many Bobcats at places like NBC Sports who are always willing to help you. I’m proud of every single one of them.” 

Yet another Emmy winner, Peter O’Neill ’20, is an associate producer assigned to the “Highlights Factory,” a hub of customizable content available to NBC Sports and Peacock subscribers. He wasn’t necessarily an Olympics fan before his time at the network, but he finds himself awestruck by the athletes who compete in grueling events such as the biathlon, a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting.

“I wasn’t a sports guy or a broadcast guy coming into college, but it’s hard not to get swept up in it with the way our journalism program is so closely tied to sports journalism,” O’Neill said. “I made so many connections in the sports media world as a student. And I think it’s great that anywhere in the building [at NBC Sports], I could run into someone I graduated with or had a sports broadcasting class with.” 

Additionally, Eric Zank ’26, Mikela Picard ’24, MA ’25, and Nick Boyd ’25, MS ’26, all secured internships through the network’s Winter Olympics immersion program. Zank has covered both the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams at QBSN, making him a natural fit for “logging” Olympic hockey games — the process of time-coding scoring plays and highlights so games can be edited into shareable and re-airable content.

“I think it says a ton about Quinnipiac’s reputation that so many of us have gotten an opportunity like this,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you what goes into the [hiring] process, but the fact that our numbers are so high is a testament to how alumni and current students perform in these roles.”

Picard, who earned a master's degree in cinematic production management, is logging freestyle skiing and snowboarding, two events in which stunning camerawork is showcased. And while she remains passionate about a future in filmmaking, her role at NBC Sports has allowed her to broaden her horizons — a hallmark of being a Bobcat in the communications world.

"I definitely would say I feel a lot more comfortable with possibly pursuing something in this field if the opportunity were to come up in the future," Picard said. "I like to be well-rounded. I was able to take on so many roles at Quinnipiac, from writing to directing to editing. I definitely lean more towards the creative side of things, but I always like to try something new. This has been a great opportunity from that standpoint."

As an academic year intern, Boyd got a head start on many of his peers. But hands-on training for such a pressurized environment actually starts in the classroom at Quinnipiac, he said. Boyd cited Professor Ben Bogardus’ QNN Newscast capstone course for simulating a hectic control room. 

“You get those experiences on a smaller scale, and you learn to make mistakes at that smaller scale,” Boyd said. “So when you get an opportunity like this, you're not a complete fish out of water. We get so much hands-on training from early on as Communications students at Quinnipiac, and that helps us refine our technique.”

New stars are minted on the medal stand daily. And in the absence of a dominant athlete like Simone Biles or Michael Phelps, TV audiences rely on NBC to introduce a breakout performer. The turnaround time on a comprehensive profile can be as tight as a half hour, requiring efficient research, script-writing and video editing skills.

Boyd, who filled some prominent on-air roles at Q30-TV, said he’s discovered what could be a new professional calling as a producer. 

“Coming into college, I thought I wanted to be in front of the camera,” he said. “But the more experiences I've had, I think I want to go behind the scenes, either in broadcast production or feature production. I really like telling people's stories where it’s just their voice. That’s the style of a lot of the pieces we produce here. You just kind of let the interview clips tell the story alongside the accompanying visuals. I’ve tried to implement that style into my coursework as well.”

The 2026 Winter Olympics will continue through Sunday, February 22, on NBC, NBC Sports, the USA Network, and CNBC. Digital content is available on NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app and NBCOlympics.com.