David's Olympic curling coverage points the way for journalism students

Huddersfield sports journalism lecturer David Easson has helped bring the gripping curling contests at the 2022 Winter Olympics to the world, and he hopes that his students at the University can follow his lead into covering diverse sports after they graduate.

The Beijing games were the sixth Olympiad that David has covered for the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS), and the second winter games in a row where he has covered curling by interviewing the athletes in the media mixed zone on the ice.

“I always use the Olympics and other global events to open students’ eyes to what’s available out there and what you can do,” says David. “I try to impress on them that they can use the skills they picked up at university to do more than they ever thought they could do, especially as a sports journalist.

Opportunities galore in ‘minority’ sports

“People tend to narrow it down to high-profile work like commentating on Match of the Day or working for Sky Sports News, but the OBS use over 8,000 people of differing skills at an Olympics. There is a World Curling Tour, so you could get on that and work with athletes every day, make films and other content. It is not just about what happens every four years.

“The University have been really good in switching things around so I could come here mid-year. I really do thank them for being so flexible, it is fantastic for someone to be able to pass on their experience to the students.”

David’s experiences in China have been very different to most of his previous Olympics, both away from the venues and inside them, with the curling taking place in the Ice Cube next to the famous Bird’s Nest stadium in the complex built for the 2008 summer games.

“It’s been a very different Olympics, we were essentially in a closed loop where we travelled from hotel to venue by bus, and that’s it. It still looks and feels like an Olympics, but you cannot go out and socialise.

“There were crowd who were very polite, and some ex-pat Norwegians at the curling all wearing jazzy jumpers. The atmosphere has been similar to the Crucible Theatre for the snooker.”

Curling growing in popularity

David covered Team GB’s only medals of the Beijing games, a silver for the men’s team and the women’s gold on the final day of competition.

“Curling is growing and seems to be gaining traction beyond the USA, Canada, the Nordic countries and Scotland. I like it, it’s very British in a kind of way, a bit like snooker, darts or bowls. It is a very mental, cerebral sport.

“It makes you think, like a cross between bowls and tic tac toe, and it is an athletic sport as well. If you see the shapes they do to get down to the ice, they need to do their yoga.

“It can be tough when there were four games on at once and the games finish at the same time. Our content has been used by Eurosport and NBC, but it has to be for everybody, it has to be neutral and we don’t talk about anything negative, so you don’t criticise the venue or the ice. I had some sweary Danish curlers, who debated what was or was not a swear word on their own language.

“I like talking to the Brits, who are great, but I have to be even-handed and neutral speaking to them. They always show up and always say something good, you get a nice relationship with them over the two weeks. I also get to chat to the other crews like NBC and CBC from Canada, and we have all been stuck in this bubble as well.”

Olympic games always produce quirky and eccentric stories, and Beijing has been no different with David filming a piece about how the locals helped make Team GB’s Scottish athletes feel right at home.

“There are no Scottish highland pipers here, so they had six guys from Beijing who have learnt to play bagpipes. They are really good, and we made a feature about that, as well as one about the Australian mixed doubles who were coached by the Canadians. They then had to play Canada but caught Covid, but were brought back from the airport to play Canada – and beat them!”