BUFFALO, N.Y. — We have been sharing the stories of Western New York athletes who are competing in Tokyo, but there are also some of our own behind the scenes, including a former Channel 2 staffer.
Photojournalist Matt Gould is on the NBC broadcast team and helping to bring all the action from Tokyo into your living room. We had the chance to catch up with him last week and talk about the experience.
Gould says it has been challenging with all of the COVID restrictions, social distancing, constant COVID testing and trying to operate a camera with a mask, and not having the viewfinder fog up, but above it all he says nothing can take away the thrill of the games. Gould was poolside when 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby became the first Alaskan to swim in the Olympics, not to mention win gold.
"So she's won gold, she is still out of breath, she hasn't even gotten the medal around her neck and is coming over to us for the interview," Gould said. "I have a monitor on my tripod that is showing her the celebration in her hometown of Seward, Alaska right on the fly. Her eyes are just so big and she's like "wow," during the interview. So being a part of that, being able to bring their family to them, even if it is virtually, and watching her reaction, being just three, four feet away from me and then to see her on the medal stand with gold on, that part brought a tear to my eye."
This is actually Gould's second Olympic experience, he also worked the 2018 winter games in PyeongChang.
