SCM Students Covered Road to Rio 100 Day Countdown Event

Three students in Professor Kelly Whiteside’s Olympics class spent Wednesday, April 27 in Times Square covering the Road to Rio 100 Day Countdown Event. TVDM junior Emma Cimo, journalism senior Fabricio Costa and senior Nicole Cacollo, a journalism minor, interviewed dozens of the more than 75 U.S. Olympians and Paralympians who participated. Their work appeared on TeamUSA.org, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s website, heading into the Summer Games and in campus media as well.

Surprise guest Michelle Obama kicked off the event, which featured more than 75 athletes. With 42nd to 44th streets closed off to the public during the media session, the SCM students held one-on-one interviews with athletes, watched sport demonstrations and experimented with virtual-reality technology to experience beach volleyball, diving, gymnastics and pole vaulting. High above it all was a zip line in which past and present Olympians, such as track legend Carl Lewis and gold-medal gymnast Nastia Liukin, took a ride.