'It's an honor': Mike Tirico on hosting Olympics, his favorite moments

Mike Tirico on hosting Olympics Well, joining me now from Paris. France is the one and only Mike. Tirico. Mike. I appreciate you making the time. You're a busy man. You're hosting both daytime coverage and NB C's prime time in Paris. So I wanna start with what it's like to be in that role. How do you balance your day and, and how do you prepare? Uh I think it's all of us who work the Olympics. We don't sleep much these 17 days. But uh you wanna get up because uh if you sleep, you miss some great event, some record setting performance, some performance of a lifetime that there, there's an adrenaline rush and an excitement and enthusiasm to the Olympics. I think we've all worked on projects, whether they are presentations or an event that you're trying to pull together in your community, that you sacrifice sleep for success. And this is one for the people who are involved in this and from our research team to our producers, to our technicians, everybody's in the same boat. Uh A little bit of sleep. Uh A lot of laughs and coffee along the way and it's an honor really to be bringing the Olympics home to the folks back in the US and that keeps us going on a regular basis. Mike Tirico on Paris Olympics Yeah, and still plenty more to come. We're officially in week two of the Paris Olympics. There's been so many wonderful magical moments, surprise moments that remind us just how special the Olympics are. What has been a favorite moment of yours or, or even like the biggest surprise where you're like, wow, I can't believe I just witnessed that. Well, my biggest surprise is how smoothly it has gone to this point. You know, we're talking about a massive undertaking. Obviously, the, it's the largest peacetime gathering you have in the world. Really, if you think about it, people from over 200 countries and delegations coming together in the spirit name of sport and competition. But to do it across Paris that opening ceremony, a lot of us were wondering how they gonna pull this off. Well, they pulled it off, maybe some controversy along the way. There was a lot of rain, but they pulled off an opening ceremony, not in a stadium but through one of the greatest cities in the world. That's remarkable to think about and the way that the Parisians have welcomed this and celebrated this every day, it feels like there's more passion, more connection with the people who live here. And uh I'll remember big performances by Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky and all those folks and the great teams we've seen from the US and other countries performing at their best. But if you ask me with four or five days left, what's the one thing that you think will be the takeaway from these games? It'll be Paris. Uh, the way this city has made this Olympics come to life at the time, the Olympic Games needed it. I think it's been just the perfect connection of city and timing for the Olympics to keep the Olympic Spirit going as we get ready to host the Home Olympics in Los Angeles in four years. Mike Tirico on LA Olympics Yeah. Well, since you're there experiencing it firsthand and you said Paris has really done a great job keeping that Olympic spirit alive. What do you think L A can take away from this time around at the Olympics that they can maybe implement when, when it comes to 2028 you know, those long legal pads where you start making a list. There's a lot of things on the list. I think they've got a long one now, what they've seen, uh, Paris do in terms of connecting with the athletes and the city being a part, but L A has got great plans as well. You know, I think it's the love of sport in America. Uh, people are gonna come from all over the country. We have not had a summer games in the US in over 30 years. So for a lot of folks, they are not old enough to remember the Olympics being in their country and that passion. And there's also always a home nation bump where if you are the host nation, it seems like your athletes perform at their best. And I was speaking with a discus thrower from the United States and she shared with me that as she was watching a French woman compete during these games. She had a little of a bit of an inspiration to come back and do it again in four years because she saw the energy of being a, participating in a Home Olympics. And I think that tells you what L A and America can bring. So, uh these are athletes if they're striving to get to the Olympics and they're neighbors of yours in North Carolina to get behind them, support them and help them with their dream because one of them could be a hometown hero in four years and uh make America proud all the way across the country. Mike Tirico on retiring athletes Yeah, absolutely. So if you're putting money on it, you're saying maybe some folks who would consider retiring that compete for team USA are gonna hold out and say I'm gonna go one more, go around 2028 in Lai. I wanna compete on home turf. There's, there's no doubt in my mind if that's the case. Now, can they physically? I don't know, will they be able to, they don't know. But I bet you there are gonna be people who, if this Olympics was held in Brisbane, Australia where the 2032 Olympics are going to be, probably would say, ok, that's the end of the run. I've given it up to the sport, but a lot of folks who try to hang on for one more because talk to any athlete who competed in L A 84 Atlanta 96 or in the winter games. Salt in 2002 or like placid in 1980. And they'll tell you there's nothing like winning medals, winning a gold medal in your country. So I think we're gonna see a lot of folks try to hang on for a little bit. Yeah, certainly. Looking forward to that. And before we wrap up, I do want to ask because part of the coverage that NBC has been giving us is some entertainment as well. Right? Bringing in some special guests or you have some new cohos. But what's it been like to have folks like Snoop Dogg next to you doing his own version of calling highlights? Yeah. You know, it's, it's every day in my life that I walked around the corner and Martha Stewart's on the couch next to me or Snoop or uh the folks from Saturday Night Live, it's, it's certainly been a little different for us, but I think it's been fun. You know, the Olympics appealed to everyone from 9 to 79 and beyond. Uh you get little kids watching with their grandparents. So it's summertime. Maybe you have folks who are visiting their families and they're at a beach house. So they're somewhere spending summer together because of school vacations and they can watch the Olympics together. Well, you know, we're giving you a little bit of, uh, that broad spectrum with the people who are talking about it and what we found is they all love the Olympics, like all the celebrities come here or the people like Martha and Snoop, you mentioned before, they're Olympic fans. It's genuine, it's real and to see people who we know some of the most famous and recognizable people in American pop culture have this true, genuine love for the Olympics and the Olympians. I think it gives the Olympic movement a boost. But it also uh lets every day at home know, hey, this is sports, it's competition, but it also appeals to more people perhaps than even an NFL game or an NBA game. So that, that's been the fun for us and we're glad that they've connected and you know, hang with its pretty cool. I'm sure it is. We appreciate your time. We appreciate getting to hang with you and, and you joining us from Paris, looking forward to the rest of your coverage and the rest of the games, Mike. That's kind. Thank you so much. Great to visit with you.