The Podium

Two countries with strong hockey ties look to begin new legacies of success in the summer sport by leveraging their history and history-making into participation and support back home. We’re joined by Elizabeth Murphy, who is not only part of the first Irish women’s field hockey team at the Olympics, her squad is the first female Olympic team of any kind for the Emerald Isle! Canadian field hockey...

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are alive with beeps, from vending machines to the backing up of athlete transport shuttles. Most of us don’t think twice about the virtual birdsong of digital chirps around us. But for some athletes, that’s the sound of their most ambitious dreams coming true. Hear from Connor Fields, the defending Gold medalist in Men’s BMX racing, about how reading the beeps of a start g...

We’re sharing an episode of the new TODAY podcast – live from Tokyo! Join Savannah Guthrie & Hoda Kotb each morning for all the insider news, history making moments, and great interviews from the Olympics. You can LISTEN to us anywhere you go! On your commute or on the run, you’ll get your daily dose of news, every morning. Follow and listen to TODAY wherever you get your podcasts. Listen NOW to T...

While participants at these Olympics are well-versed in guidelines, mother nature follows no such plans. As tropical storm Nepartak threatened to strengthen into a Typhoon and make landfall on July 27th, organizers and athletes began treating the weather as more than small talk. We connected with surfers to see how a disruptive force for other events gave their final day of competition a boost. Ka...

After failing to win a medal on the opening day of the Summer Olympics for the first time since 1972, the United States has secured its first podiums in Tokyo, unleashing a flurry of hardware for Team USA. Connect with Jay Litherland and Emma Weyant, the U.S. athletes who helped uncork the medal count, to hear how good victory tastes! Listen to The Podium daily during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games...

What is lost can’t be replaced, but it can drive us to new heights. That’s the case for so many things about the 2020 Tokyo Games, dubbed the “Reconstruction Olympics”, from the venues to the athletes competing in them. On Olympic Day 2, we take you to the small exhibit that’s at the heart of the biggest sporting event on earth. Italian rower Luca Rambaldi and American beach volleyball star April...

The new Olympic sports in Tokyo might be brand new for many fans of the games, but they begin an exciting fresh chapter of an existing book. This gives us a rare opportunity to discover “new veterans”. Hear how Felipe Gustavo risked it all to make his mark on street skateboarding and showed a generation of skaters that a gritty Brazilian competitive fire could become a long-term career. We catch t...

The day has come. After an unprecedented leadup, the wait is over: The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are opening as the sun rises over the US. TODAY Show fixtures Al Roker and Craig Melvin join us to discuss the magic of live events, their favorite Opening Ceremony memories and their upcoming trip to the Games. Listen to The Podium daily during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games for new insight into the stor...

The Opening Ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is finally upon us. The world’s eyes will be focused on the first global gathering since the pandemic and its ability to pipe music, spectacle and hope onto billions of TV screens. Although this monolith of an event dazzles in its size, production and technology, the main product are the memories it creates for people, whether watching at home o...

Olympians train hard. For many, it’s their job to push harder and longer and heavier than us mortals do. When we say “no way” and bump up against our limits, they endure. But the net effects of all those watts and miles and grunts aren’t only measured in washboard abs, records held and medals won: the discomfort of the most unbearable workouts is in a way the reward, giving meaning and value to th...

The tradeoff between the raw ability of fresh joints and the savvy of a mature mind used to be linear, with each slice of cake predictably and measurably pushing an athlete from precocious prodigy to washed up veteran. But this summer, Tokyo will host Gen-Z with veteran pedigrees right next to athletes staying physically competitive far past what was previously considered retirement age. One const...

What would you label a group of athletes responsible for the majority of medals for the most decorated nation in the last 2 Olympics? Winners. A group who has fought for over a century to go from 2% of Olympic Athletes to 49%? Trailblazers. And what if this same group was routinely cast as less capable, exciting, profitable and valuable athletes? We’re talking about the American women and women in...

The Olympics conjure the image of single-mindedness, of an athlete's individual effort to improve, culminating in a medal whose ribbon only fits one. However, the Olympic pursuit is anything but. The reality is that those lofty goals are reached from atop a mountain of support and accomplishment from family, both blood and chosen. From the front stoop to the podium step, gold at the Games is a dec...

An Olympic athlete’s career defining performance may last just seconds, but before and after it lie hours of logistics, warmups, and waiting in “ready rooms.” While they might sound tedious, those moments are often full of team-building, mind games and obstacles that come to define the athlete experience and actually contribute, in no small part, to the golden outcomes. Feel the energy of the aqua...

Second place, silver medal, best of the rest. The Sports world seems obsessed with differentiating performances that are, to the hundredth of second, incredibly similar. We explore the unique mindset of aiming for gold, why second is proven to be the least satisfying podium finish and how expecting the best of athletes is different from expecting 1st place. Hear Ryan Murphy’s take on golden expect...

Japan, by its language, geography and history, offers a fascinatingly distinct culture. And the same applies to interests and philosophies around sport. In this episode, we dive into the host nation’s own Olympic sports to experience a more authentic Tokyo Games, and how seeing the athletic world from a different lens can make it more meaningful. Feel the precision and protocol of Karate with Saku...

Tokyo welcomes Skateboarding, Surfing, Sport Climbing and 3X3 Basketball into this summer’s medal count, and with them a whole culture of urban and action sports. We explore these new-school events and how their development outside of the games could actually make them the perfect embodiments of old-school Olympic values. Let Todd Richards take you through the evolution of boardsports with input f...

Mental game: two words that are as often used as they are hard to grasp. But when the stakes are highest, when all competitors have sharpened their skills and trained tirelessly, psychology may be the deciding factor-both in and out of sports. Get a glimpse inside diver David Boudia’s intricate pre-performance routine, hear from Dr. Mike Gervais (from the Finding Mastery Podcast) how mental traini...

Every Olympics has pushed the boundaries of sports technology, but the Tokyo games will see that constant multiplied by Japan’s penchant for tech. Feel how optimizing every single shape and surface propels cyclists to new speeds with Alex Howes, hear how equipment changes do more than improve performance for Tatyana McFadden, understand how old sports are improving with modern tools and go inside...

The Olympic Torch’s potential to inspire in times of chaos only deepens its power in the extraordinary leadup to Tokyo 2020. We start a brand new season of The Podium grasping the power of the flame. Relive Janet Evans’ triumphant 1996 torch relay with Muhammad Ali, hear a first-hand account of Catriona LeMay-Doan’s very public cauldron malfunction and discover how a clown saved a closing ceremony...

Over the next 12 weeks and right through to the closing ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have defined the Olympics and those that will shape the Tokyo games. But we’ll also give you an intimate look into the unseen details that only the athletes themselves can tell. From sophisticated sports tech to athletics dynasties, opening ceremony jitters to gold medal storage...

The Paralympic Games start March 8th. In this episode, host Lauren Shehadi looks at how advances in technology have created better prosthetics, which have made it possible for more athletes to compete in the Paralympic Games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

NBC Olympics Special Correspondent Chef David Chang is the founder of the Momofuku Restaurant Group and just opened Majordomo in Los Angeles. Lucia Cho is the CEO of Seoul's Bicena and the Michelin three-starred Gaon. They talked with host Lauren Shehadi about the diversity and traditions of Korean food, and what to eat in Pyeonchang, host city of the 2018 Winter Games. Hosted by Simplecast, an Ad...

Host Mike Tirico reflects on his first time hosting primetime Olympic coverage, the U.S. women’s hockey team's gold medal game, and the Games's impact on diplomatic relations between North and South Korea. Plus The Podium team tells the story of chance meeting between North Korean cheerleaders and two young South Koreans at the Games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com f...

Speedskater Maame Biney and her father, Kweku, stop by the studio to talk about Biney's favorite experiences at the 2018 Games, and what she hopes will be different for 2022. Plus, a look at what led to Norway's dominance in PyeongChang, as the country has now earned the most medals in Winter Olympic history. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our c...