NBC Olympics' Amy Rosenfeld on the Drone Craze, Friends & Family Moments, Stamford's Role for Milano Cortina

Far from the action in the snow and on the ice, the team controls the production and tells the stories

As NBC Olympics heads into the second half of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games, the production team, which is largely located in Stamford, CT, has once again demonstrated why it remains the industry's gold standard. Leading the charge is Amy Rosenfeld, SVP, Olympics and Paralympics Production, helming her first Winter Olympics after taking over the position for the highly successful 2024 Paris Summer Games.

From the FPV drones, which have revolutionized Alpine-skiing coverage and are the hottest topic of conversation, to the expansion of NBC's signature Friends & Family feature, the Games have showcased both cutting-edge technology and compelling storytelling. Operating from NBC's state-of-the-art facility in Stamford, CT - instead of onsite in Italy - Rosenfeld and her team have orchestrated coverage that serves NBC's and Peacock's innovative multiplatform offerings (including Rinkside Live), the reimagined Gold Zone whip-around show, and culturally oriented primetime coverage featuring Stanley Tucci and Snoop Dogg.

SVG sat down with Rosenfeld to discuss the challenges of Winter Olympics production, the evolution of athlete access, navigating heartbreaking moments like Lindsey Vonn's crash, and why Rosenfeld still gets emotional when John Williams's iconic NBC Olympics theme plays. And of course - plenty of drone talk.

Let's get this out of the way. How big have drones been for this year's coverage?

It certainly seems like it's all anyone's talking about and rightly so. If Paris was the Olympics of Snoop, then Milan Cortina is the Olympics of drones.

When you think Winter Olympics, you think speed, scary, intense, and death-defying. And there has never been a way to truly capture that. But drones provide an appreciation for the one thing that other camera angles can't capture: how truly fast these athletes are going. Whether it's on the mountain, at the Slide Center, or in the arena for speed skating, the ability to have this bird's-eye view and ride along is special. I've been skiing for more than 50 years, but seeing that drone behind [the skiers] on that Bormio trail absolutely terrified me.

NBC Sports' headquarters facility in Stamford, CT, is the hub of NBC Olympics' Milan Cortina 2026 production.At first, when they introduced [drones] in coverage of World Cup skiing, the skiers had a hard time getting used to them. Now they don't even think about it; it's just part of the package. Speed skaters are still getting used to it, but I think the drones have been a great addition and are here to stay.

I have to point out that the pilots are amazing. There's not a lot of margin for error - especially for the sliding events. As the athletes get more comfortable and the pilots get even better, I think drones will become an essential part of coverage of many sports- not just at the Olympics but everywhere.

There has been some talk about the broadcast background audio caused by the flying drones. What's your opinion on that?

I understand that the noise is tough and that the social-media world has made an issue of it, but, honestly, it doesn't bother me. I know our audio team is working on it and doing the best they can, but the visuals that these drones give us are just astounding. It's a problem I think we're willing to deal with, and I'm sure it will improve over time.

Coming off the momentum of Paris 2024, how were you looking to build on your success from a production standpoint?

We knew going in that the Americans had a strong team, and we wanted to do a lot of storytelling around those athletes - even more than usual, I think. When it comes to the Winter Olympics, these sports are often very foreign to your average sports fan. It's up to us to make them feel more inclusive and familiar to people.

We do that through isos [isolated shots] of Americans and other key athletes, our own unilateral cameras at the venues to show different perspectives, rolling in our own replays that focus on Americans, giving our production teams more tools and the ability to do their own graphics, and explaining the fundamentals of the sport whenever possible. OBS does an incredible job producing the world feed and documenting the event, so our focus is on how to add storytelling elements to those great pictures.

We also have the benefit of absolutely beautiful mountain scenes. An iconic winter location makes a difference. There are times when I have to double-take because it looks like a green screen, but it's just a Sony Venice camera with an unbelievable shot of the mountains.

I think the biggest carryover from Paris is how we've made Friends & Family an even bigger priority. The ability to iso those friends and family and mike them up has been a game-changer.

Speaking of Friends & Family, how has that effort evolved for Milan Cortina?

Getting your kid, spouse, partner, sibling, or friend to an Olympics is a huge sacrifice, and we wanted the Winter Olympics to get their due with friends and family in the crowd. We are trying to create this 360-degree portrait of the athlete and how their friends and family helped get them to this point.

The [2022 Beijing] Winter Olympics were vacant since there weren't any crowds, so NBC made up for that by emphasizing the [friends and family] back home. Now we can do both, incorporating the loved ones in the stands and back home. We are covering more family members [in Italy] while also trying to expand on the idea of watch parties at home. It's the best of both worlds.

A huge part of this is building trust and quality relationships with the families. We went to dinner with [speed skater] Jordan Stolz's parents and spent time

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/02/13/nbc-olympics-amy-rosenfeld-on-t...
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