Lewis Johnson, a former track and field All-American for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats who attended Northwest High School, is preparing for his 13th assignment as a reporter for NBC’s Olympics coverage.
Johnson will serve as a track and field reporter at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, as he’s done in the previous four Summer Olympics.
Johnson, who has been with NBC Sports since 1999, also reported on bobsled, luge and skeleton at the past three Winter Olympics.
A star in the 800-meter run at UC, Johnson competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1988 and 1992.
Johnson, who holds an Honorary Doctorate of Letters Degree from University of Cincinnati, chatted exclusively with The Enquirer ahead of his Paris Olympics assignemnt:
What does it mean to represent your hometown of Cincinnati while covering the Olympics?
I have so many memories of Cincinnati. I went to Northwest High School where I was somewhat of a track runner, then to the University of Cincinnati and walking around campus for two years before walking on the track and field team in 1985 and becoming an All-American in 1987, and then a Hall of Famer after that. And then beginning my career as a professional track athlete and then as a broadcaster. And then to be given an honorary doctorate degree in 2017. A big part of my life’s journey was in Cincinnati … a big part of it. When I go to the Games, I’ll be thinking about that city. Cincinnati is a big part of my journey athletically, academically, and was a major turning point in my life. So it’ll be great to represent.
The other reason I’m excited about it is I watched a fellow Bearcat win the U.S. Olympic Trials in the hammer, Annette Echikunwoke. She had won the Olympic Trials four years before for Tokyo while competing for Nigeria. But they did not get to compete because of paperwork issues, so to see her get back in the Trials three years later and win it and to watch her coach Susan Seaton, who took over for Bill Schnier (who was my coach and the man who laid the foundation for Cincinnati track and field) is so exciting to see a fellow Bearcat do so well. She will go represent the United States in Paris, so I’m super excited about that for my alma mater, our alma mater, as well as the city of Cincinnati.
What are you most looking forward to with this particular assignment in Paris?
For me, it is going to be a career and life moment. This will be my 13th Olympic assignment for NBC. Back in 1992 when I was on the European track and field circuit and competing in Paris, literally 2.3 miles away from where we’ll be working this summer, that is where I met my wife in 1992. She was a spectator standing on the fence with her sister watching the meet, and for some reason when I walked in to put my bag down to get ready to run a race I saw her and said to myself, ‘You gotta say something to her afterwards.’ I have no idea why I thought that, but I do now. This will be a full-circle moment for me to have met my wife just a little over two miles from where I’ll be working. And both of our sons were born in the suburbs, probably 20 minutes away from where I’ll be working, so it’s going to be a really special personal moment for our family as well as a career moment for me getting to do my 13th consecutive Olympics for NBC in Paris.
I’m looking forward to just celebrating the personal journey and professional journey, and Paris is just so beautiful. I just love the city. I must have been there 50 times from the time I met my wife and our boys being born and spending all the summers over there. Both of them are bilingual and dual citizens with passports, so we have lived a lot of our life experiences with them growing up in Paris right there in the suburbs, so that’s going to be great.
On top of that there’s the competition: Track and field will be on fire! If you watched the U.S. Olympic Trials, then you saw the emotional moments that we had, and I’m right down there in the middle of that, trying to corral these euphoric, excited, emotional athletes who made the team, while just a few feet away you see people walking away whose dream didn’t come true, with all of that happening right there in one spot. Then to try to get those kids together and ask them some good questions about the moment, it’s just such a special place to be down on the track talking to them, and I’ll be there at the Olympics, too.
I’m not into predictions; I’m into what happens. I love to see what happens and help tell the personal stories of the athletes and I hope over all of these years I’ve earned the trust of them to be able to handle their moments with class and respect for what they’ve been through and having fun with them when it’s appropriate.
Do you prefer to cover the Summer Olympics (vs. Winter Olympics) because you were a track & field standout?
I’d have to say it’s equal. The Summer Games are so awesome, and with track & field obviously I’m biased. When gymnastics does their thing, and then swimming, it’s like a relay. It’s like gymnastics hands the baton to swimming, swimming hands the baton to us, and we close out the Games. We love the challenge of being the last major sport.
I also fell in love with the Winter Olympics because it’s so different. There’s so many new athletes and sports to learn. We’ve got multiple disciplines, men and women, and we’re just getting in there and learning the stories and learning about the events and covering it. The Winter Games are just awesome. I try to tell the summer athletes to go to the Winter Games and hang out! Insert yourself in the Winter Games because if we know you’re there, we’ll cover you, and then you’re going to see something spectacular because it is hard to explain what it’s like to see a bobsled go down the track at 99 miles an hour. It’s crazy to see it in person. The Paralympics have become dear to my heart too because that is just the most inspirational thing that I’ve ever covered in my career. They’re beyond special.
What might someone watching the Olympics on TV not realize about the Olympic experience for a U.S. athlete?
They may not realize that U.S. athletes that made the team have already been through their hardest meet, and that’s the U.S. Olympic Trials. That is the hardest meet because you’ll have potential Olympians and potential medalists that won’t make the team, and it can be a heartbreaker to see that happen. Navigating the Trials is the hardest thing. You saw what happened to Athing Mu and other athletes who were potential medalists in Paris who didn’t make the team, but that’s part of it.
Most of the athletes that I’ve talked to that made the Olympic team say, ‘Now that the trials are over, I feel like I can take a breather, tune up, and just go compete at the Games.’ The hardest part is now behind them, even though what they’ll be facing (in terms of the rest of the world) will also be daunting, but the U.S. Olympic Trials is the hardest track meet on the planet.
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Lewis Johnson: Former Cincinnati track star covers 13th NBC Olympics
