The Olympics are a shared viewing experience; what 'viewing' looks like continues to evolve

Just 22 years old and a lifetime of producing Olympic Games still ahead of her, Molly Solomon could not believe her professional luck. A week away from graduating from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Solomon had landed a plum job in sports, plucked by the American broadcasting giant NBC to become an Olympic researcher.

The assignment required her to compile biographical and historical information on virtually every competitor and country competing in Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics. It was also a professional Wonka ticket: NBC’s Olympic researcher position was considered the most coveted entry-level job in sports television. 

Because Solomon’s assignment occurred in a pre-Internet world, NBC sent these young Magellans around the globe to procure information on athletes as exotic to American audiences as a red diamond. Solomon would travel to 12 countries over a two-year stretch, including staying in a basement apartment in Donaueschingen, a city in then-West Germany in the middle of the Black Forest, to cover the 1991 World Weightlifting Championships. As part of the interviewing process, she drank vodka with athletes from the Unified Team at a beer garden. Her travels took her to Australia, Brazil, Canada and Sweden as well. The researcher job led to full-time work as the information assistant to host Bob Costas during NBC’s prime-time coverage in Barcelona. 

Fast-forward decades later and Solomon now holds the title of executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, the highest-ranking Olympics editorial position at Comcast NBCUniversal. She is responsible for all day-to-day editorial production of NBC Olympics coverage, and there are few people on the planet who spend more time thinking