Two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan will be enjoying the ice again next winter. Fox Sports has hired Kwan to cover the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014
Kwan currently works as a senior adviser for public diplomacy and public affairs for the State Department. Said Kwan, ”When they asked, they were really encouraging to me to try it out. ‘They said, `We are going to be innovative and fun and open to different angles,’ which really attracted me. Reporting and story-telling is what they want, so for me it will interesting to kind of let the public know about the stories of athletes, or their perspectives on the Olympics.”
The former figure skater is a nine-time U.S. and five-time world champion and will be covering more sports than just ice-skating for Fox Sports 1 – the cable sports channel that Fox will launch this month.
Kwan is excited to be covering other sports, and even hopes she can be involved in some Super Bowl coverage, which will be airing on Fox. ”There are so many sports to choose from and I hope I will do some curling and some hockey. Maybe ask skeleton athletes, `How do you do that?’ What they do is pretty scary,” said Kwan.
Even though the Olympics will be aired on NBC, the former figure skater says her pieces will be different from what NBC is airing.
”I won’t be covering it like NBC would, but more doing insider stories. I also like the idea they are launching FS1 this month, and I will be able to be a part of it and see it take shape and form. And also, if I have some sort of ideas how I want to report the Olympics, I will have that freedom to do it.”
Kwan has covered the Olympics before, as a correspondent for ABC at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Having been on the other side of the rink, Kwan can bring a different angle to her stories than other analysts might. ”I can talk about personal experiences, how it feels to be on the ice in the six-minute warm-up, or the last few seconds you get to talk to your coach, or that split second before the music starts. I know as a kid, I was watching Brian Boitano and Brian Orser at the (1988 Calgary) Olympics, and that was what I wanted to hear, too. Get inside the head of an athlete,” said Kwan.
Kwan won a silver medal during the 1998 Olympics and a bronze in the 2002 Olympics.