Yahoo adds three Olympic gold medalists to bolster Milan-Cortina coverage

Yahoo Sports is making a big investment into Winter Olympics coverage.

The outlet has hired three former U.S. Olympic stars to serve as correspondents during the upcoming Games. Yahoo Sports announced it has signed figure skater Nathan Chen, alpine skier Julia Mancuso, and speed skater Apolo Ohno to contribute recaps and analysis about their respective sports for Yahoo during next month’s Olympics. Each contributor has won a gold medal in their sport, and they combine for 15 total Olympic medals between the three of them.

The trio will also contribute features that help “bring fans behind the scenes in Italy” throughout the competition.

“Nathan, Julia, and Apolo know what it takes to compete – and win – on the world’s biggest stage,” Yahoo’s head of sports content Sam Farber said in the announcement. “We look forward to them bringing their expertise and insights to fans across platforms during the Olympics.”

Coverage from the three former Olympians will be available across Yahoo Sports social and digital channels, including the Yahoo Sports Daily live morning show airing on the newly-launched Yahoo Sports Network FAST channel.

Considering that NBC, as the exclusive live broadcaster of the Olympics in the United States, gobbles up much of the name-brand talent during the Games, these are three impressive pulls for Yahoo Sports. Chen, Mancuso, and Ohno are all stars in their own right with high name recognition among the American Olympic audience. Each should have the ability to breakthrough on social media and Yahoo’s other digital platforms.

“We wanted to pick sports that we thought were particularly resonant among Olympic fans,” Farber told Sports Business Journal. “The way that I think about this engagement is it’s sort of a deconstructed studio show,” he said. “Instead of bringing everything to one place physically on a set with a branded coffee mug and bringing people to one destination … we are essentially like deconstructing that and pushing everything out both physically into the field. So these three are going to be all over the place. They’re going to be talking to fans, they’re going to be talking to athletes.”