Elon graduate Zora Stephenson (Class of 2015) spent the summer exploring the streets of Paris with her husband and experiencing history. As a reporter for NBC Sports, she had a front row seat to moments like Simone Biles’ gold medal win in the all-around.

Stephenson was busy in Paris throughout the games, working as a sideline reporter for gymnastics on both the daytime and primetime broadcasts, as well as being a sideline reporter for the Olympic basketball knockout phase. She also hosted a daily podcast called The Podium, which she recorded each day in her hotel room.

Stephenson had a non-stop schedule during the Olympics, as she juggled a podcast, researching and preparing for her reporting assignments, finding time to train, and spending her days and nights in the various Olympic stadiums covering high-profile events.

After working as a remote social media presenter at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Paris Games were the first on-site Olympics that Stephenson was involved in. She said it was an incredible experience.

“The Olympics are just magical,” Stephenson said. “It’s one of those things that you have to experience to understand, but for a few weeks it’s like the whole world comes together and celebrates each other, cheers each other on and is proud of where they come from. There are so many things in the world that divide us, but the Olympics brings us together.”

Stephenson witnessed some incredible moments for the USA during her coverage of the Olympics. She witnessed the women’s gymnasts win gold, the men’s gymnasts win bronze, and both gold medal games in basketball. She also interviewed players like LeBron James after the men’s basketball semifinals, where the USA team came back from 17 points down to Serbia in a last-second thriller to win.

Stephenson said the best part about working at the Olympics is being able to witness the magnificence up close.

“These people and their stories inevitably inspire you, and hopefully you can tell their journeys in the best way possible,” Stephenson said.

Caroline Brehman (Class of ’18) also spent her summer in Paris covering the Olympic Games. Brehman photographed various events for EPA Images.

Brehman said her schedule varies from day to day, with some days she works over 12 hours, others four or five hours.

“Sometimes I got up very early and sometimes I went out to dinner very late, so every day was different,” Brehman said.

Brehman said the hectic and unpredictable schedule was very tiring.

“It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also exhausting,” Brehman said. “I have very supportive friends and family who are curious about what it’s like, and I haven’t had much time to talk to them and get up to speed.”

Brehman said she enjoyed photographing gymnastics because it is a very visual sport and because it was cool to see Simone Biles up close.

Brehman said she would love to photograph more Olympic Games.

“I’m sad that it’s almost over,” Brehman said. “It kind of feels like you’re at summer camp. You see all these different people and you’re just focused on this, and I don’t want to go back and have to deal with everything else that I left behind. So I would definitely love to shoot in the Olympics again.”

Another alumna who represented Elon at the Summer Olympics was Ellie Whittington ’18. Whittington was not in Paris, however, but was working in Stamford, Connecticut, at NBC Sports headquarters, helping with content creation in the studio and managing various social media accounts.

Whittington had a packed schedule, working a 13-hour shift from noon to 1 a.m. During that shift, she reported live on various events and created various social media content to get American viewers excited about NBC’s primetime broadcast.

Although this is her third time competing in the Olympics, Whittington is still fascinated by the spectacle of the Games.

“What makes it so cool is that all eyes are on the Olympics, and it’s the only opportunity where we as Americans can come together and cheer on our fellow Americans as they compete against the rest of the world,” Whittington said. “I really love that aspect and see it as a way for me to elevate these athletes who have worked their whole lives to be on that stage.”

Whittington said it was really cool to see the social media content she created live on the internet.

“When I scroll through my personal social media, I see friends who have shared this really cool moment or graphic from a certain sport that they really liked, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I did that,'” Whittington said.

Some of the content she created for social media were explainer videos explaining the ins and outs of unknown Olympic sports. She said it was great to learn about these sports that she hadn’t known about before.

Whittington said she enjoyed watching certain Olympians, like gymnast Steven Nedoroscik, break through and go viral, and she enjoyed being able to create content about those athletes.

“We’re still media, we’re still telling stories, we’re still journalists, and that’s why it was cool because my team thought, ‘Oh my God, this guy is going to be a sensation,'” Whittington said. “How can we make memes out of him? How can we do funny things? How can we create good content? How can we promote him?”

Whittington said she saw many Elon alumni and professors working at the Olympics this year. She believes Elon helped her believe in herself and get to the point where she could work at such high-profile events as the Olympics.

“They give us the professors. They give us the tools on how to conduct interviews, how to talk to people, how to work in an environment like NBC,” Whittingon said. “I really believe Elon is in the top league of professionals.”