Junior to intern with NBC at Olympics

1:59 p.m., Feb. 10, 2006--From the opening ceremony on Friday, Feb. 10, to the closing ceremony on Sunday, Feb 26, UD student Tyler Kupper plans to be among those cheering for members of the U.S. Olympic Team during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

A junior sports management major from Weston, Conn., and a member of the UD golf team, Kupper is attending the games as an intern and senior guide for NBC Universal. NBC Universal owns and operates news and entertainment networks, a motion picture company and various theme parks, and is owned by General Electric and Vivendi Universal.

Kupper's latest internship at the games grew out of an internship he served with Sports Illustrated during the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

“Susan Lynch was my boss at Sports Illustrated, and she recently moved to NBC Universal,” Kupper said. “When she asked me to come aboard on Jan. 20, I was ecstatic.”

During his Italian internship, which runs through March 2, Kupper will be one of five senior interns responsible for leading a team 25 junior interns. Responsibilities include making sure that NBC Universal clients get to see the Olympic events, as well as the sights and sounds of Turin.

In addition to his Olympic Games internship, Kupper has worked in the corporate marketing division of the PGA Tour, based in Jacksonville, Fla.

“I worked with different marketing partners for the tour, including banks and health care businesses, and served as a liaison between the PGA Tour and other sports,” Kupper said. “It was a great experience, and I got to play golf every afternoon.”

A member of the UD golf team, Kupper, who began playing golf at age 3, earned 12 letters in soccer, ice hockey and golf at Weston High School, located about 50 minutes northeast of New York City. His most-prized moment as a golfer, he said, was finishing in 95th in the USA 2002 Junior Amateur Championship, the same tournament Tiger Woods won three consecutive years.

Kupper also serves as president of the Student Athlete Advisory Council, an organization he describes as being a liaison between the 700 scholar athletes at UD and the administration.

In October, with a $1,000 professional development grant from UD's Lerner College of Business and Economics, Kupper participated in an American Applied Association of Sports Psychology conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

When not on the links, in the classroom or serving an internship, Kupper enjoys taking weekend trips and running, and plans to participate in the New York City Marathon in November.

Although he came to UD as a business major, Kupper said the switch to sports management was the logical next step in his academic and professional career.

“Even in high school, I knew I wanted to be in sports,” Kupper said. “Sports management lets me combine this with communication and leadership skills, something you need to be successful in business.”

Kupper said that working an intern during the 2004 Olympic Summer Games gave him a sense of international community spirit that the games are designed to foster.

“Being in Greece was nice, because we dealt with people from other countries, and for three weeks everybody there forgot about politics and that kind of thing,” Kupper said. “The main thing that interested people from all over the world was what was happening at the Olympic games.”

While plans for the Winter Games include working hard while enjoying the local ambience, Kupper said he and staff also will be following the exploits of UD Figure Skating Club's Kimmie Meissner and other members of the U.S. Olympic Team.

“There is no feeling in the world for me like hearing the National Anthem played when they award the medals at the Olympics,” Kupper said. “I never get tired of hearing that song.”

Article by Jerry Rhodes
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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