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JEAN CASIMIR ‘14
The Winter 2026 Olympics weren’t the first games that Jean Casimir ‘14 worked. In fact, his first experience behind-the-scenes of the global athletic competition began when he was still a student at Millersville. As a senior in 2014, he secured an internship with NBC where he helped to cover the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
That internship turned into a full-time gig with NBC. Now, Casimir has provided coverage for the games at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, 2024 Paris Winter Olympics, and of course, the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics.
While his usual role is as the digital post-production and video operations manager, he was stationed at NBC’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, as a producer and Highlights Factory supervisor for the games. “We’re the center responsible for creating highlights on all of our digital platforms,” he says. “My team had 13 producers/editors that were watching events live and editing highlights , along with 12 shot selectors who were logging and clipping specific moments and specialty shots for higher-end edits.”
It’s a fast-paced environment. “Here in the United States, we had 1,800 people working on Olympics content, and we had just over 1,000 people on site in Italy,” he says, noting how technology has changed in the 12 years since he attended the games as an intern. “With the growth in technology, we don’t have to travel as much to get the coverage we need. For our Highlights Factory operation, we’d have at least three different feeds for any one event available to us to be able to cut live in our editing software.
Over the past decade, Casimir’s had the chance to work on content that’s pulled in a huge number of viewers online. When the USA beat France in basketball and won the gold in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, “I started thinking about how we could tell this story differently,” he shares. “We had this amazing slo mo footage of Steph Curry. So I pulled together some clips of his three pointers and thought about how perfect Space Jam music would be. I came across this jazz song that worked with the vibe, and it was almost perfect.” They posted the video on YouTube, and it “did the numbers” with over 800,000 views. You can see it here.
With so many years of experience covering the Olympics, what is his favorite obscure winter sport to cover? Curling, he said. “I think it’s so interesting. It’s very strategic and there’s a lot of growth with curling,” he shares. “Every time the Olympics come around, I think, ‘Oh, I could do that,’ knowing that I couldn’t actually compete with the Olympians. One of the best parts about covering the sport is that you get so much access to the athletes. You get to hear everything they’re saying because they’re mic’d up and you really see the emotion on their faces.”
At one of this year’s curling events between Canada and Sweden, there was a controversy. “One of the highest viewed videos during the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics was a moment where the Canadian and Sweden curlers exchanged words with each other,” shares Casimir. “The clip is almost at 2M views on the NBC Sports YouTube channel.”
As a kid, Casimir says he was a big basketball fan – “still am” – and grew up watching the 76ers. “I cheer for the Eagles, of course, and since I’ve worked for NBC Sports for a decade now, I’ve gotten into premiere league soccer.”
Reflecting on his time at Millersville University, Casimir says that his time as a student at MUTV, the University’s student-run TV station, was particularly impactful and cites Dr. Changfu Chang as “a huge help. He visited me when I was in NYC, and we went to Chinatown for lunch.” He also talks about now-retired communications professor Dr. Bill Doorman, who was the faculty advisor for MUTV when Casimir was a student. “He always gave me great feedback,” he notes. Casimir also says has fond memories of the communication and culture classes taught by Dr. Gregory Seigworth. “I believe the research and critical thinking skills I picked up in his classes has helped me in my career.”
MICHAEL MONTE ’21
Another Millersville alumnus was in the Alps at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics as a freelance audio engineer for NBC Sports. He was stationed at the sliding center, covering the bobsleigh, skeleton and luge events.
“This was my first Olympics being around the whole environment,” shares Michael Monte ’21, an entertainment technology grad. “I was responsible for working with the reporter on doing interviews at the finish line. As the American athletes finished their runs, they came to talk to us.”
While it might have been hard to fully comprehend just how fast the Olympians were going during their events, Monte reports they hit speeds of 85 to 90 miles per hour. Check out this slow-motion video of Monte in front of the sliding center as a luge athlete flies behind him and is gone in a matter of seconds – or maybe just one second.
Included among the many complexities of capturing one of the most anticipated sport spectacles on the global stage were the elements. Temperatures in the Alps got as low as 19 degrees Fahrenheit, shares Monte. “We wore lots of layers and used hand and toe warmers to keep us going, especially because a lot of our interviews were shot during the evening.”
Monte says that the interviews were particularly impactful. “We interviewed the Ukrainian athlete, skeleton pilot Vladyslav Heraskevych, who was disqualified from his sled racing event because he wore a helmet adorned with images of Ukrainian war victims,” he says. “It was so powerful. What he represented was so much bigger than sports and Olympics.”
As a freelancer, Monte has worked hundreds of games. His main gig is as an audio engineer for All Elite Wrestling and directing newscasts at WFMZ, and he also covers local sports in Philadelphia for various regional and national media companies. Throughout his career, he has never experienced the level of energy present at the Olympics. “Nothing compares to the amount of emotion I saw from the fans, athletes and coaches,” he says. “It was awesome to see how excited everyone was for all the Olympians. Hearing the spectators cheer for everyone was so cool.”
Monte says that the three sports he covered live and on location were always his favorites to watch at home. “I’m glad I didn’t have to cover skiing, as cool as it is,” he says. “There’s a lot of walking up hills to move a microphone.”
He made lots of connections during the Olympics. “It’s just awesome how excited everyone is for the Olympics,” he says. “We made friends with the U.S. bobsled team, and they invited us to go to Park City, Utah, to go down the bobsled sliding track – not sure that I’ll take them up on the offer, but it was great to connect with the athletes in such a personal way.”
The fast-paced aspects of the jobs are what keeps Monte engaged. “When I was just working on the news, I got bored coming to the same control room every day,” he shares. “Now, every day is different. I get to travel. It’s all new all the time, and yes, there are challenges, but you meet really great people.”
Monte says he has some great Millersville professors, like Adam Boyer, Dr. Changfu Chang and Dr. James Machado, to thank for helping him get where he is today.
“It’s really cool to reflect on how my time at Millersville University eventually helped me land this opportunity,” he says. “When I arrived on campus, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I did know that I wanted to work in some sort of audio field.” He experimented with different areas of production as a student and says it was the pandemic that helped him to narrow down some of his options. “I tried out working audio in the front of house for concerts, but obviously, that was really affected by COVID. But TV was still moving when lots of live events were cancelled. It helped me to realize that I knew I could work in this industry, even with huge disruptions.”
“MU was really cool, and my major is awesome,” he says. “It was great for me as a person who was still exploring my options. I was able to explore my interests by taking rigging courses, lighting, and TV classes. Even just having a broad overview of all of aspects of broadcasting allows me today to be an asset to my colleagues and stand out as an employee.”
The fast-paced aspects of the jobs are what keeps Monte engaged. “When I was just working on the news, I got bored coming to the same control room every day,” he shares. “Now, every day is different. I get to travel. It’s all new all the time, and yes, there are challenges, but you meet really great people.”
Monte says he has some great Millersville professors, like professor Adam Boyer, Dr. Changfu Chang and Dr. James Machado, to thank for helping him get where he is today.
