By Jack McLoone

Fordham students study abroad for a semester all the time. John Furlong’s, FCRH ‘18, semester abroad is not like any other Fordham students’.

Furlong is currently in Pyeongchang, South Korea to work the Winter Olympics as an intern with NBC Sports. A journalism major who has worked extensively at WFUV Sports, including winning the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism, his experience falls right into this wheelhouse.

Furlong, a former swimmer at Fordham and lover of all niche and less-mainstream, sports has also always been a big fan of the Olympics. He was already planning to apply for the position when he received the application from one of his professors, Brian Brown, in his Sports Writing and Reporting Class. Brown worked on numerous Olympiads before teaching the class.

Furlong’s responsibilities in Pyeongchang have been almost as varied as the different events. He started as a logger with the Central Video Tape department, but now works in the Digital Archive.

“My main job right now is to take the files NBC gets from OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service, the company that owns all the footage you see on TV) and edit the metadata so our producers/editors can find them easier. And if there aren’t any clips coming in from OBS, I shadow/assist the producers in the main control room,” said Furlong.

While there is obviously a lot going on, Furlong doesn’t have a lot of time to just purely experience the Olympics; he works 12-hour shifts from eight a.m. to eight p.m. However, he secured tickets for both Ski Jump and Bobsled, which start after he gets off work next week.

“It’s exhausting, but there’s great camaraderie amongst us because everyone who works here loves the Olympics and is therefore so happy to be here,” said Furlong.

The crazy schedule means he can’t even really see former WFUV coworker, Drew Casey, FCRH ‘17, who is also working for NBC Sports in Pyeongchang just down the hall from Furlong.

The obvious question when you spend about a month abroad during a semester is how that affects your class schedule. For Furlong, since he knew this was coming, he was able to plan accordingly.

“I’m not taking any ‘traditional’ classes this semester, just an independent study based on my work here in Korea. And even though it was a bit of a logistical nightmare, I will still be graduating on time this May,” said Furlong. “Coming into senior year, I needed only six classes to graduate because of my AP credits. So I got special permission to take five of them last semester, and am now taking the independent study as my sixth and final class.”

He gave a lot of credit to John Dzieglewicz, S.J., senior class dean, and Dr. Beth Knobel, associate chair of the Communications and Media Studies department, for helping him organize his schedule.

While he may not have to worry about schoolwork, the time difference for the Olympics has him working wild hours, like a typical college students. Pyeongchang is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, meaning primetime there does not line up with American primetime in the slightest.

“Broadcasting the Olympics is so different from any other event because it’s 24/7. When it’s overnight here in Korea and there aren’t any events happening, it’s midday in America, so we’re on air recapping the events from the day before,” said Furlong.

Despite the long hours, Furlong said working the Olympics “ranks at the very top” of the list of events he has covered.

“Being at an Olympics is a dream come true for me. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve always been a huge fan of the Olympics and I made it my goal to work one at some point in my career. To achieve that goal before I even graduate college is something I never could’ve imagined was possible,” said Furlong.

And while the Olympics are different than anything he’s ever worked on before, Furlong still credits WFUV with preparing him for the experience.

“Everything I’ve done at WFUV sports, whether it’s my on-air or off-air work, has prepared me for experiences like this and I can’t thank Bob Ahrens and my fellow FUV coworkers enough,” said Furlong.

So after the experience of a lifetime, what does Furlong do once his time in Pyeongchang is done? The second semester-senior’s dream: “Just hang.”