GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — When women’s hockey rivals Team USA and Canada face off for the gold, NBC Sports’ game broadcast will be led by a woman for the first time — and a Ludington native will be sitting in the producer’s chair.
This is the seventh Olympics for Kaitlin Urka, a producer for NBC Sports and Olympics. Her first game was the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when she was an NBC intern.
A self-described “proud Michigander,” Urka first got into TV when she was recruited to help with the student-run TV station while a student at University of Michigan. By her senior year, she was the general manager for the station. She later became a TV producer in Grand Rapids. Since that time, Urka has worked Stanley Cup games, Notre Dame football, Triple Crown horse races and more.
Because of the pandemic, she is producing the men’s and women’s hockey games for the 2022 Winter Olympics not from Beijing, but rather from Stanford, Connecticut.
“The amazing thing is, you would never know that,” Urka said. “Other than us telling you that’s how we’re doing it, most people would not even be aware.”
She’s producing around 15 games over 17 days. The gold medal game will be her second game of the day; she produced the Sweden-Canada men’s quarterfinal Wednesday morning.
“It’s been all hands on deck. We’ve been extremely busy. But it’s a lot of fun because you get to say you’re a part of the most-watched programming in America on every given night,” she said.
Urka said her goal is to help the audience connect with the Olympians, especially since a lot of people will only see the players every four years.
“As a producer, it’s my job to help build their stories, tell you who they are and then follow, obviously, the action of the game,” Urka said.
During the Pyeongchang Olympics, she was able to attend the women’s hockey gold medal game as a fan. Now, getting to produce the game so that other people can watch it, Urka said things have come “full circle.”
As the first women to ever produce the women’s hockey gold medal game for NBC, she hopes the game will inspire young girls and boys to play hockey or join sports in another way.
“I’m really excited, too, that I’m the first woman to get to do this job. That, to me, is really special and important and something that I don’t take for granted,” Urka said.
The women’s hockey gold medal game between Team USA and Canada will be broadcast live at 11 p.m. on WOOD TV8 and will also be streaming online. Urka said there’s no better rivalry to watch.
“There is no better rivalry in hockey — and some would argue in sport — than USA-Canada women. This is the pinnacle: It’s every four years, it is vicious, it’s exciting, every game is down to the wire,” Urka said. “Four of their last meetings in championships have gone into overtime. If you want highly contested, awesome, incredibly high-level hockey, this is what you want to see.”
