Special Edition: Winter Olympic Games Wrap Up

0:28The news doesn't stop on the weekends. We put the past week's events into context, examining what happened in the markets and the world. Then on Sundays, we speak with journalists, columnists, and key political figures to prepare you for the week ahead. Join us as soon as you wake up and bring us with you wherever your weekend plans take you. Watch us on Bloomberg Television, listen on Bloomberg Radio, stream the show live on the Bloomberg Business app, or listen to the podcast. That's Bloomberg this weekend, Saturdays and Sundays starting at 7 a.m. Eastern on February 28th. Make us part of your weekend routine on Bloomberg Television, Radio, and wherever you get your podcasts.

1:09Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, Radio, News. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, Radio, News. This is the business of sports. The business of sports can be intimidating or hard for a starter to break into. We really appreciate when our owners are actually there, you know, with us through the journey. Teams, ours especially, have been very intentional to diversify at all levels of the company. I think we're in golden years for the NFL and college football. Our demographic reach has continued to expand. This is going to be really unlocking the streaming platform for sports fans. Sports valuations are rising.

1:51We'll see when they peak. You don't have to be the best in your sport to make a whole ton of money. Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr. And I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Damien Zassauer is off this week. Coming up today, we are wrapping up the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. And Michael, there have been some amazing stories out of Italy so far. like U.S. bobsledder Ilana Myers-Taylor, who won her first gold medal at 41 years old after competing in five Olympics. And U.S.

2:30alpine ski legend Michaela Schifrin won her first gold medal in the salam since her debut in 2014. That gives her three gold medals, and she now holds the record for most gold medals in U.S. alpine ski history. Well, guess what? We just so happened to speak with the CEO of USA Bobsled and Skeleton, Aaron McGuire, right before he headed out to Milan. We'll listen into that conversation on the way. But we will start with skiing, Vanessa. You got a chance to sit down with the president and CEO of U.S. Ski and Snowboard, Sophie Goldschmidt. That's right, Michael. They've had a great year and Sophie's telling us how they're going to keep the momentum going.

3:10Huddle around the set, gang. Let's listen to a portion of the conversation now. It's Vanessa with Sophie Goldschmidt, President and CEO of U.S. Ski and Snowboard. So, Sophie, if, you know, as the games are wrapping up, can you tell us, you know, how would you categorize this time in Milan Cortina and these games as a whole? I would say it's been an amazing experience. Very exciting. A few twists and turns. But, yeah, overall, very proud of how our team and athletes have been performing. and look, we've got a few days left, so hoping for a strong finish as well. You know, when you're looking at how, you know, how the different countries and how everyone hosts these games differently, how have these been in particular and how would you say, when we're looking ahead to, you know, a few cycles from now in 2034, what does, you know, Salt Lake City have to hold up to?

4:08Yeah, I mean, I think, look, the Italian spirit and just their passion for sport has definitely come through. We knew going into these games logistically, it was going to be more of a challenge than we've encountered in a long time, just because of the number of different locations. But that was coming off a Beijing Olympics, which had its own sort of situation and things to deal with, given that it was during COVID and not necessarily a location that a lot of our teams have competed in before. And that was my first Winter Olympics. And I just started sort of a few weeks before. So I was very much in a sort of steep learning curve there.

4:51So I think coming into this Games, we definitely had more of, I might say, sort of a normal preparation because there weren't the same restrictions that there were leading up to 2022. But the fact that we oversee 10 different sports across Olympics and Paralympics and, you know, close to 100 athletes competing in this Games, you know, brought different complexities. You know, I've done a lot of miles on the road just trying to see as many of our athletes and teams compete and being so spread out has definitely, you know, brought some challenges. But look, I have to give them credit. I think the venues themselves you know most importantly the athletic kind of venues um the surfaces that you know the athletes have been competing on whether it's you know the different features around slopestyle big air the half pipes the alpine venue cross country etc i think they've done a really good job um with those i think you know the rest of the infrastructure um has uh been a sort of a work in progress, I would say.

6:01It's got sort of better and better as the Games has continued. But overall, I think for the most part, it's been a really positive experience, both, you know, most importantly for the athletes, but also all the other stakeholders that are involved in putting the Games on. Absolutely. And obviously, before, you know, we move on to exciting things and talking about everything that's happened, I want to address, you know, what happened with legendary skier, Lindsay Vaughn, and her crash. And obviously, we've seen that she's back in the US, she's recovering, which is great to hear. But what else can you tell us about, you know, Lindsay's recovery?

6:40Yeah, look, it was an incredibly tough start to the games with the horrific injury that she went through. Sort of, it was day two, I guess, well, depending when the game starts, But the Sunday, the first Sunday of the Games, and we've had Breezy Johnson put down just an incredible run in the downhill. Lindsay was going just a few races after her. And I think I was at the bottom. So got a slightly different perspective, but you could tell right away that it was a very serious injury. And I think it impacted everyone, obviously, in different ways. the athletes, the spectators there, those seeing on TV that probably even experience more of it just because of, you know, what the broadcast can show.

7:28But, you know, I think the way she sort of presented herself, how she's communicated since then, just sort of epitomises the champion and role model that she is. you know as we now all know it's it's a very serious um injury um good news is she's back in the states she had sort of the the first major surgery back there um yesterday um she had to have a few surgeries just to be able to get back to the u.s but her her spirit um and strength of character and just you know sort of having no regrets and um giving it her all um to be ready for that race and how she's dealing with sort of what happened is really, I find, very inspiring.

8:18I was fortunate to have the chance to see her a couple of times before she left Italy. And it was, yeah, quite incredible to see how she's been managing it. So, look, she's got a long road to recovery, but she's been injured seriously several times before. So I think she knows what it's going to take. But yet you can't help but feel just very sad for her that this happened. Because what she's done to get back to this position, to be leading the downhill and to be the best speed athlete in Alpine at the moment, at 41 years of age is quite an accomplishment. But I think she's managed it as well as she could have done.

9:06Absolutely. We're speaking with Sophie Goldschmidt, U.S. Ski and Snowboard president and CEO. Sophie, one of the other things that you had said earlier that I really wanted to touch on was the amount of sports you guys have competing in the games. I feel like you're in charge of essentially half the events that, you know, take place at the Winter Games. Tell me about that, you know, and are there challenges to the amount of events that you guys have, the amount of disciplines and all of those things? And how how has your games been trying to get to all those different kinds of things? Yeah, look, it's part of what I love about our job.

9:46It's it's very exciting. I mean, just when, you know, something maybe isn't going as planned, there's something else going in another area that kind of keeps you on your toes. I mean, it certainly means that I'm constantly learning, which I love, having worked in sports for a long time, hopefully. also my experience continues to kick in and um and we can add value in in different areas but i i love the variety i mean look there's i think so many similarities across our sports which i think really benefit each other people tend to just focus on the differences and clearly from a technical standpoint you know turning in you know a slalom race is very different to doing you know an incredible trick and jump in a half pipe but when you think about the mental preparation the physical preparation, the nutrition, the team, the culture, all of that, there are significant similarities that I think can really benefit all of our sports.

10:53And then you need, you know, the specialism and sort of specifics in certain areas as well. But I love the fact that we have, you know, multiple different sports and within those sports, multiple disciplines. and you know it's a big reason I took on this role and I think you know we're thinking more and more like one team we're trying to lean into those similarities we've made our USANA center of excellence much more of a hub for all of our athletes to come and train during the offseason and prep period because I think you know they can all inspire each other in so many ways even if their seasons and events are quite different you know if you've been training with someone in the summer, lifting the same weights, going through the same training routine, and maybe you're struggling, but you see them pop through and have a great result, you never know what's going to be that spark that can inspire someone.

11:44So I think, you know, hopefully it can continue to give us an advantage. You know, I think culturally, I feel like we're in a really good place. We're certainly not complacent. We've got a long way to go, both culturally and on the performance side. While we've got some amazing, very established, proven champions, I feel like in some other areas, we're only just getting going. And that certainly is very motivating for me. Sophie, how much of your job is about, you know, these elite athletes and, you know, the Olympic style national team? And then how much of it is looking at growing the participation across the national level and that sort of youth level and all of that?

12:29Yeah, I would say it's sort of multifaceted. I mean, we've got various different areas and levels within our organization, sort of most simplistically sort of explained. We have the on snow and off snow. So on snow is everything to do with our athletes. And that's from overseeing the programming and management of the best athletes in the world. We oversee now about 250 athletes across our 10 different sports. So sort of from a full time training and competition perspective, we're managing all of that with the coaching, competitive side of things, the preparation period. And then the off snow is more about sort of generating the revenue and awareness.

13:11So from a commercial standpoint, the partnership side of it, the growing our broadcast, growing the media presence, we generate a lot of revenue also through philanthropy, which is a really important revenue stream for us. You know, given unlike basically all of our counterparts around the world who receive significant funding from the government in the US, we get no funding. So we're, you know, more reliant on all these other revenue sources. And ultimately, I see it as a very holistic circle. You know, we're supporting the top of the pyramid and also sort of the base. The better our athletes do at the top in the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, in World Cups, World Champions, etc.

13:55I think that provides inspiration and kind of lights the fire for more people to want to engage in our sports and our participation level. And the stronger the participation base is, the more talent we get in our pipeline, which means we're more likely to produce champions. So it really is a very holistic circle. That was Sophie Goldsmith. She's the CEO and president of U.S. Ski and Snowboard. Up next, we speak with the CEO of USA Bobsled and Skeleton. That is straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. For Vanessa Perdomo, I'm Michael Barr. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio Around the World.

14:38this is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio this is the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports I'm Michael Barr and I'm Vanessa Perdomo Damian Sassauer is off this week we're focused on the Olympics today as the games wrap up in Milan Michael you Damian and I spoke with the CEO of USA bobsled and skeleton Aaron McGuire right before he headed out to the games. So none of the medals have been won yet, but Aaron explained to us how they find these incredible athletes because shockingly enough, but really not, they don't start out doing this at a very young age.

15:15Let's dive right into the conversation with the CEO of USA Bobsled and Skeleton, Aaron McGuire. You are in a sport where it takes money to get athletes to participate in this. Tell us about that and how you generate money so that the USA team can just go and kick butt. You know, you're right. The sports of bobsyns skeleton are not inexpensive. You think about the cost of sports, and a lot of people think of Formula One as one of the most expensive sports that's out there, talking about multi multi-million dollar budgets per team and you start thinking about sports like equestrian where you have million dollar horses you know and not far too far behind are the sports of bobsled and skeleton and the equipment alone is pricey a four-man bobsled costs 125 ,000 dollars or more we're shipping equipment from the United States to Europe every year the sports are primarily European-based.

16:24We do host events in the United States in Lake Placid, New York, in Park City, Utah, where the two Olympic Games were hosted. And in 2034, we've got the Games returning to Utah, so we're certainly excited about that. Aaron, when you're looking at donors and sponsors and things, how hard is it for bobsled and skeleton to get into that conversation? It's really unique. It's really nimble. It's not a sport that a lot of people, you know, watch outside of the game. So can you talk a little bit about what you have to do in order to get those sponsors? Well, the great things about the sports of bobsled and skeleton is people don't realize it, but they can relate to it.

17:06And we've all, you know, most people have been kids. You know, we've all been kids at one point, but most people have grown up and been around snow at some point in their lives. And so they've been sledding. And everybody can relate to that experience of being a kid and going down the hill and snow flying in their face and going a little too fast and getting that adrenaline going. And that's essentially what bobsledding skeleton are. But you're going 90 miles an hour down a mile long track at close, you know, at top speeds with four and five Gs. And so connecting with that memory of being a kid and the sport, that's really the first step.

17:46The second step is making that connection to the USA team and knowing that there's a lot of pride and honor for our athletes to wear a uniform that says USA and that's red, white, and blue. You know, we're a divided country in many ways, but the one thing that everybody can get behind, that's the USA team. And so that does get people excited and interested. And then finally, really recognizing the impact that our sponsors and donors make on the team, not just financially, but within expertise. We work with a number of tech partners, technology partners that are helping us design and build bobsleds that are competitive against the Germans and the Swiss and the Canadians.

18:31Well, Aaron, you actually took me right there. And, you know, when you started this conversation, you kind of compared, you know, bobsledding to F1, right? And F1, we all know that, you know, there are cars involved. You know, in this case, you have a steel chassis, carbon fiber, you know, kind of skeleton or, you know, some steel frame fiberglass, you know, bobsled. I mean, I don't know. Does, you know, the technology that goes into the actual sled itself factor in? I mean, do people have better sleds than other sleds? I mean, does it really matter? Absolutely. And so I'll say in bobsled and skeleton, there's three main factors that it takes to win a race.

19:06First of all, you have to have a great start. And so we're recruiting athletes from other sports. Most athletes have never touched a bobsled or skeleton sled until their early 20s. Most athletes have run track and field. They played football. They've run, you know, they've played soccer or softball or baseball. They're athletes, and they get into the sport, and we teach them how the sports work. So the push is really incredible. We're looking for big, fast, explosive athletes that aren't afraid to go down a track at top speeds. Number two, it takes a great pilot. You know, just like Formula One, you've got to be able to steer, get down the track.

19:45And the last piece is equipment. And so the International Federation sets rules and regulations of how big the sled can be, how small the sled can be, certain aerodynamic aspects, certain aspects with the steering. But there is leeway for countries to go in and design and build their own sleds. And so that's something that we have had a great history of doing for a number of years, getting back to the 90s with a NASCAR driver named Jeff Bodine who got in the sport. And then moving into working with BMW. And now we're working with partners like DeBotec, Advance, Honda, who are all really lending their expertise to help us be successful and build fast, fast sleds for the athletes.

20:32We're talking with Aaron McGuire, CEO of USA Bobsled and Skeleton. For the audience, very quickly, if you're not familiar with the sport of skeleton bobsledding and the luge, they explain the bobsled, of course, you are two to four men inside a compartment as you're going down a track. The luge, you're on your back with just blades on you, but your feet first. The skeleton is, now you talk about brave, is that you are headfirst on your stomach and you are flying at 90 miles an hour. You were right about being brave at doing this. But it brings up a point, and it's been in the news now, lots of sports.

21:19It's about Katie Ulander, the Olympic skeleton spot. she apparently is not going to be on the USA team because Canada had withdrawn from the team competition I think in Lake Placid earlier and that meant it brought down the scoring and it was it's a whole kind of mess can you bring us up to date on that sure so Katie Eulanders is a multi Olympian. She's been in this board of skeleton for, geez, 20 years or more. And so she was racing in a lower circuit. So we have two circuits. We have the World Cup circuit, which is competitions both in North America, Europe, and occasionally Asia. And those are all of our essentially most competitive teams are racing there.

22:13Katie was competing on a lower circuit, which was in North America in Lake Placid. And you earn points throughout the season based on where you race. And so while there are lower points available within the North American Cup circuit, it gave her an opportunity to earn points, win the race. Unfortunately, Canada withdrew some athletes, which ended up reducing the number of points that she received, along with a few other countries. And so as a result of that, she finished up as our third U.S. women's skeleton athlete. U.S. earned two quota spots. So she unfortunately did not finish in the top two.

22:57And we did have two other athletes who did finish in the top two who will be representing the United States. Certainly there's a big push for her to be entered into the games. And we're looking into it. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has put requests in. And for us, we don't want to displace another athlete for her because it's a complex situation. And so our hope is that there's an opportunity for an additional quota spot to be allocated to the U.S. team so that way we can take our top three U.S. women's skeleton athletes to the Games. Wow, really interesting. Hopefully, you know, that goes.

23:38I mean, it's coming up soon. can we let's talk a little bit more about the athletes on Team USA I mean you brought it up a little bit about how they they get into bobsledding I mean they come from different sports can you talk a little bit how you find these explosive athletes and really how they you know train for the sport I mean how often are they training outside of the games do they have outside jobs you know like a lot of Olympians have to do? Yeah, absolutely. So the athletes that we have on the team, we've got a very diverse group of athletes because they don't necessarily come from one region of the United States.

24:18They come from all over the country, from New York to Florida to Texas to California and every state in between because we're looking for athletes from other sports to come into the sport of bobsled and skeleton. What we will do is we will visit about eight cities during the summer and host tryouts, combines. And during those combines, we test athletes' sprinting ability, standing long jump, vertical jump. We interview them to really get an understanding of what kind of athlete they are. And from there, we can see whether those athletes would have the aptitude, the athleticism, to push a 400-pound sled at the start of a race.

25:01Once we've identified our top athletes from those recruiting camps, those combines, we invite them out to Lake Placid to the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, where we spend a week with that kind of rookie camp or rookie class teaching them how the sports of bobsled and skeleton work. Now, what we'll typically do is there are bobsleds on wheels that are at each of the tracks that we can actually do a bobsled race or a bobsled run in the summertime. Because not only do we want athletic people, but we want people that like a little bit of adrenaline. And so we'll take them down the track. And we have some athletes that say, that was an amazing rush.

25:40I loved it. How do I get back to the top of the track and do it again? And we've got some athletes that, despite being amazingly athletic, they take one run. They say, how can I get to the airport to go home as quickly as possible? And so we're looking for two boxes to be checked. One is that they're excited, passionate, athletic. And two is that they love that adrenaline rush. And so our athletes do train back in their hometown. So during the summer, it's a decentralized program. They're training at home. They're primarily working on speed and strength training to get bigger, faster, stronger in the offseason.

26:20And then around July, what we'll do is we'll start hosting team training camps in Lake Plast in New York, occasionally Park City, Utah, to really start focusing on sports-specific technique of pushing sleds, of getting into a sled, as you can imagine, four guys that are all 220 pounds, 230 pounds, going in a full sprint and jumping into a small bobsled in less than a second. It takes practice and it takes training to get it right. That was Aaron McGuire. He is the CEO of USA Bobsled and Skeleton. Up next, we continue to focus on the winter games and talk hockey. We'll check in with former Canadian star, Jaina Hefford, and talk about her work on the new North American women's ice hockey.

27:08Do that straight ahead on the Bloomberg business of sports. I'm Michael Barr with Vanessa Perdomo. You're listening to the Bloomberg business of sports from Bloomberg radio around the world.

27:22This is Bloomberg business of sports from Bloomberg radio. Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg business of sports. where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr. And I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Damian Sassauer is out this week. We're focusing on the Winter Olympics on the show today. And as the games wrap up in Milan, we want to take a look at what's ahead for some of the sports, including women's professional ice hockey. By the way, the women's hockey team, they won the gold in thrilling fashion, defeating Canada 2-1 in overtime, time, which leads us to our next conversation in this Olympic special.

28:02We spoke with Amy Scheer. She's the executive vice president of business operations for the professional women's hockey league and Jaina Hefford, executive vice president for the PWHL, who also happens to be a four time Olympic gold medalist. We talked with them right before the games kicked off about how the league can capitalize on the momentum of the winter Olympics when the athletes come back to North America to compete. Let's listen to that conversation now. You guys are involved in the Professional Women's Hockey League in its third season. I'm going to start with you, Amy. Tell us about how the league is going so far.

28:35We're doing great this season. Things are looking good. Our attendance is up. Our merchandise sales are up. We've got a record number of sponsors. Fans are bringing signs that are better than ever and more creative. So we're feeling good about season three so far. You know, Amy, this is the first, you know, this is the third season. but the first time you guys are around for the Olympic cycle. Tell us about how you guys are, you know, what the strategy is there, building off the momentum going into the games and coming out of the games. Well, this is a huge opportunity for us because it's the first time for the PWHL that we've had an Olympic cycle.

29:10And so we're making sure that all of our verticals across the board are taking advantage of this. So we've got a big campaign that we're launching called the Ultimate Away Game. and we're showcasing all of our athletes now on the global stage. And we've got a hub on our website that's just all about the Olympics and the ultimate away game. We are airing spots on linear and social streams for both the U.S. and Canada. So we'll be producing a ton of content coming out of Milan, both live and taped. We'll have watch parties back at home with our teams. And so we've got tons of merch in and around the games for our players and for our fans.