Lester Holt Reveals the One Part of Covering the Olympics That Causes Him 'Moments of Panic'
It’s summertime, but Lester Holt can’t adhere to that living-is-easy mentality.
The veteran NBC Nightly News anchor, in fact, cops to checking his email on the regular during his recent beach vacation with his wife, Carol. (“The world doesn’t stop and we’re in an election year, so there are a lot of moving parts.”) But on a steaming-hot Monday morning in early July (before his sit-down with President Biden), he raves that he’s “energized” to be back in the trenches at the Rockefeller Center offices. As Holt explains it, “I’m always in the game.”
Now he’s set to cover those other Games in France.
Leading up to the Summer Olympics in Paris, Holt, along with Today anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, hosts Inspiring America: Team USA, on July 19. The NBC primetime special features profiles of stars such as decorated swimmer Katie Ledecky and tennis champ Coco Gauff, while the likes of Peyton Manning and Melissa Etheridge offer their most inspiring Olympic moments.
And starting July 25—i.e., the night before the Opening Ceremonies—Holt will anchor NBC Nightly News live from NBC’s Olympics headquarters. (That’s 12:30 a.m. ET, if you’re doing the math.) “As a broadcaster, I’ll be there for the color of the Summer Games,” he explains. “News stories break, some controversy could pop up or there’s some unexpected obstacle. We don’t anticipate those, but we’re in a unique position to cover them should they occur.”
Holt’s trip to Paris marks his eleventh time reporting from the Olympics. And if you think this is one of the most prized benefits of his job at NBC News—which he joined in 2000 before moving to the anchor desk in 2007—you’re right. “It’s my favorite perk,” he says. “All of them have been just great.” (A personal highlight: Reporting from the beach in Rio in 2016.)
A few hours before sitting at the anchor desk to deliver the news to millions, Holt, 65, talked to Parade.
It feels like it’s been a while since the Olympics didn’t intersect with a global pandemic, right?
Yes. The last Summer Olympics I went to were the 2020 Tokyo Games, which were held in 2021 because of COVID. So that was hanging over it. And then the most recent Olympics in the winter were held in China in 2022, and that was overshadowed to a large extent by COVID as well. So Paris feels like a coming out, if you will, for the Olympics. It’s a return to what we tend to look at as normalcy.
What’s your favorite part of each Olympics?
Talking to the athletes. A lot of them are young people who most of us have never really heard of and then suddenly they get two weeks in the sunshine and the spotlight is on them. They come to see us. They have their shiny medals around their necks. They’re giddy, and sometimes their families are with them. It’s really fun because so much of what I do as a journalist is covering heavy topics and difficult subjects, and it’s nice to be able to cover something that still captivates the world.
But as a news person, do you secretly hope for a big story to emerge?
Do I wish for bad news? Of course not!
OK, fair. Let’s say it’s something juicy, like that Ryan Lochte scandal from 2016.
Well, there’s no question we’re always looking for a big story no matter where we are, and our ear is to the ground. I mean, the Simone Biles story we covered at the Tokyo Olympics where she talked about her mental and emotional state [after dropping out of competition] opened a really important conversation. On the other hand, this has been a demanding year in news and a little break would be OK while we’re over there.
You’ll be reporting live every night until 1 a.m. How do you get through the jet lag?
It’s not so much jet lag as it is plain exhaustion because we always have to be working on Eastern Time in terms of our deadlines. And we’re shooting stories as well. So I do get moments of panic, and I have to look at my watch and do the math.
Will you get to enjoy Paris at all?
I hope so. I never go in with high expectations of what I’m going to see or not see. I always remind myself that I’m there for a job. No one hands me tickets to events. But as the games wear on, maybe I’ll find holes in my schedule and attend something as a spectator.
Are you a sports guy in general?
I wouldn’t call myself a huge sports guy. I really enjoy football, and it’s probably the only sport I watch regularly. And I enjoy watching big events like the World Cup.
What do you remember about your first time covering the Olympics?
It was 2002 in Salt Lake City. That was only a few months after 9/11, and none of us knew what it was going to be like with security and fighter planes flying overhead and the troops and all the checkpoints. We were all still on pins and needles. So when we talk about issues surrounding the Olympics, that was obviously one of them.
You were recently voted the most-trusted news anchor for the second time, which is touted in NBC commercials. Does that honor mean the pressure is always on?
I’m not going to lie—it’s a fair amount of pressure. You know, trust is so important to what we do, and never more so than now as people begin to question the role of institutions. But I just put one foot in front of the other every day, and we try to put on the best newscast to really earn the trust of viewers. If we lose the trust, it’s a lot harder to get it back.
