‘It’s surreal’: Cal State Fullerton student journalists cover the Paris Olympics
For more than two dozen Cal State Fullerton students, the Paris Olympics has been an assignment of a lifetime.
With datelines from Paris, a cohort of 26 communications students have produced print, video and social media coverage of the Olympic Games and its host city.
The experience has been everything that Gayle Jansen Brisbane, a CSUF communications professor, envisioned when she wanted to craft a study abroad program around the summer Olympics.
“Something like this hadn’t been done before,” she said in a Zoom call from Paris surrounded by students. “It took all of my skill sets to put this together.”
Team USA edged Hungary 5-4 on Tuesday in Paris, advancing to Thursday’s semifinals in its quest for its fourth straight gold medal.
Jansen Brisbane worked in sports broadcasting for 20 years and has taught communications at CSUF for the past five years.
She even brought her early work experience as a travel agent into making the three-week program covering the biggest sporting event in the world a reality.
“Some students in our group have never left the country,” she said. “Being able to introduce them to an international experience, let alone the Olympics, has been super fulfilling for me.”
Once in Paris, Jansen Brisbane and Bob Young, a faculty associate from Arizona State University, held a meeting with students over how to plan their opening ceremony coverage.
“We spread out across the city and covered the different fan zones that were available for locals and other people who didn’t have tickets to the actual opening ceremony to watch it,” said Connor Alicaya, a fourth-year communications student.
Another group had the task of getting as close as possible to the Eifel Tower, past language barriers and physical barricades.
“It came down to will and determination,” said Jose Flores, who is graduating from CSUF this summer and is already working as a television news producer in Fresno. “We ended up a few feet from the Seine River with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower and we were able to do our coverage from there.”
Jansen Brisbane created a university website to host the cohort’s Olympic blog coverage.
Student stories have ranged from athlete profiles to how Parisians have mixed feelings about the games.
The dispatches count towards the completion of sports broadcast journalism and sports reporting classes.
Students are also pitching freelance stories to professional media.
Lina Naranjo, a senior communications major, published a profile on local U.S boxer Jajaira Gonzalez’s journey past anxiety to Olympic competition for the Orange County Register.
Francisco Molina, a senior communications major graduating this summer, landed a job with the Sporting Tribune thanks to the opportunities afforded by the study abroad program. He’s filed print and video reports for the outlet while handling its social media account at various events, including a U.S. men’s basketball game.
“Getting the behind the scenes footage that people don’t really get to see on NBC is the goal,” Molina said. “When we’re going out to these places, one of the things that our advisers have talked about is to think about things that people are always wondering in their mind that they’ll never see on TV.”
Marissa Lavezzari, an assistant director of athletic communications graduating this summer, also had the opportunity to publish a story close to home for the Sporting Tribune.
She interviewed Darren Spiritosanto, a CSUF aquatics facility manager, who is officiating Olympic water polo games. Jenn McCall, a Huntington Beach local, joined him as the first woman from the U.S. to serve as a referee for the sport.
Lavezzari got to see the duo in action at the Paris Games.
“I went to water polo with Robbie Loya from our group and we actually got to see Spiritosanto in his officiating gear,” she said. “Experiencing that achievement with him was great because we got to see our very own Cal State Fullerton representative there. That was a highlight for me.”
L.A. Times photojournalist Wally Skalij captures scenes, inside looks and perspectives that make the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris the spectacle it is.
The opening ceremony proved to be the longest day for the cohort, so far. Jansen Brisbane stayed up past 4 a.m. editing stories from the event.
Students are routinely clocking in 10-hour shifts and staying up until 3 a.m. before calling it a wrap on most days.
“Our professors make sure that we don’t burn out and take the rest that we need,” Molina said. “Obviously, we want to produce as much content we can but also want take care of ourselves, as well.”
The final sporting assignment for the cohort comes on Aug. 10, when the U.S. women’s soccer team vies for a gold medal at Parc des Princes stadium.
As the Paris Games wrap up, student journalists are turning their reporting attention to Los Angeles as the host city for the 2028 Olympics. So, too, is Jansen Brisbane.
“I’m hoping that this can be a program that Cal State Fullerton does regularly,” she said. “We won’t have to travel far in 2028.”
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