NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel tried to answer whether the network’s heavy promotion of certain Winter Olympic athletes pressures them into poor results ― and it took him a while to get there.
“I think the Olympics places an enormous amount of pressure,” he acknowledged to Sportico in a story on Wednesday. “Does NBC exacerbate that pressure up to the point where they’re unable to perform at their true potential? I don’t know. The formula hasn’t changed in decades.”
Zenkel noted that 23-time gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps “participated in all the stuff … at least the version of that that existed in 2000 through the end of his journey. So I’m going say I don’t think so.”
The on-camera meltdowns of heavily favored U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin and, to a lesser extent, teammate Amber Glenn in her short program, refocused the spotlight on athletes struggling under the attention.
Malinin, 21, unraveled in his free skate and said later that media pressure weighed on him. He also issued a dark message hinting at mental health difficulties. The groundbreaking skater, who did help the Americans to gold in the team event, had been part of NBC’s hype package front and center leading up to and into the Games.
But his and others’ appearances for the network are “entirely voluntary,” Zenkel pointed out.
“Was there a discussion about, ‘Is this too much for you?’ Because it puts too much press on him?” Zenkel asked. “Not to my knowledge, no.”
“I think the pressure of being on that stage and having one opportunity, and then you wait four years, or maybe you never get back, is why it’s such an extraordinary event,” he continued in his interview with Sportico. “It’s why we, as mortals, are so drawn to it. They’re the best in the world. They’re the best in the world in that moment. Or they can be, or they have the potential to be.”
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