The Olympics never cease to amaze because they beautifully showcase homegrown talent. Professional sports teams very rarely feature players native to the team’s respective city, but the Olympics inherently show the world what kind of athletes each nation can produce. It’s also well known that particular nations thrive in particular sports, and that regions of nations can also serve as more specific breeding grounds for stellar performers.
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This is especially true in the US, and a new digital documentary series co-produced by the US Olympic Committee and NBC Sports Films is going to take viewers across America and into towns with long-standing Olympic ties. The series, called Olympic Hometowns in America, will consist of 20 episodes and feature seven cities that routinely pump out outstanding athletes specializing in the same sport. The series will be hosted on TeamUSA.org and distributed through Team USA’s social channels. Additionally, NBC will repurpose some parts of the series during its coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Two of the cities that the series will focus on are Iowa City, Iowa, which is known for wrestling, and Princeton, New Jersey, which has a long history of producing outstanding rowers. The goal of Olympic Hometowns is simple — give anyone the opportunity to see what life is like in cities that often times produce more world-class athletes than food.
While Olympic participants don’t typically have the same fame that NFL, MLB, or NBA stars have, Olympic Hometowns is still worth adding to the burgeoning list of content that offers insight into the lives of athletes. From Amazon’s new NFL reality show to Bleacher Report’s Uninterupted, and now to Olympic Hometowns, twenty-first century media is perpetually changing the window between sports fans and sports stars from opaque to transparent. But Olympic Hometowns is special because it is taut with emotion — it won’t just be taking its viewers through a day in the life of a multi-million dollar basketball player who is conditioned with success. Rather, it will reveal to all who watch it what life is like for people who have grown up in a passionate sports culture, and will do anything they can to bring pride to their hometown.
For young wrestlers looking for Olympic gold, there’s only one place to go: Iowa City.@TheIowaHawkeyeshttps://t.co/iT2R8Y5qFV
— U.S. Olympic Team (@TeamUSA) April 7, 2016
With Rio 2016 right around the corner, Olympic Hometowns (each episode of which can be viewed at TeamUSA.org/Video.) will certainly make the 2016 Olympics a more personal experience. The opportunity for anyone to see events like the Olympic Team Trials and learn about athletes through viewing Olympic Hometowns will allow normal people to put more personal investment into the summer competitions. It’s a wonderful development that will make the 2016 Summer Olympics a more enjoyable experience for both athletes and fans.