UNC student journalists to report from 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

This article, written by Emily Brietz ’28, is part of UNC Hussman student reporter coverage of the Olympics.

Starting Feb. 6 in Milan, some of the world’s greatest athletes will gather for Olympic competition, and in their midst will be 25 student journalists from the UNC Hussman School of Media and Journalism.

Led by Professor Charlie Tuggle, known affectionately to his students as Dr. T, the group will spend three weeks covering the Games.

Tuggle has previously led three trips to the Summer Games, the first being the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 

At the time, Xinshu Zhao, a former UNC Hussman professor with connections to the Beijing Organizing Committee, said there was a great need for English-speaking volunteers at the Games.  

“After doing that one, it was like, ‘Wow, this was such a great experience for our students. Let’s see how often we can repeat this,’” Tuggle said. 

He then took students to Rio in 2016, where they worked as media volunteers, and Paris in 2024, where they wrote stories and reported live for North Carolina news outlets. 

This is the first time students will be going to the Winter Games, and Tuggle said planning has been “a real challenge” due to something Milan organizers are actually boasting about: the venues being spread out. 

”I don’t find that a positive. An hour and a half in Rio to get somewhere, that was pretty standard, but we’re talking three, three and a half hours — we’d have to come back on the same day,” Tuggle said.

 The students are split up into teams of three reporters: print, audio and visual. Working together, they will create videos, written stories and social media content every day of their stay for their professional partners, including WRAL, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Telemundo and more. 

Since they aren’t accredited NBC employees, the students will cover the Games as street reporters, interviewing spectators and athletes outside the arenas and exploring how the Olympics have impacted Milan.

“Milan is going to be a culmination of everything, in a sense — flexing our hospitality and using our personalities to our advantage, making those connections, but also being talented behind the cameras,” Corey Davis ’26, a UNC Hussman senior, said. “This trip, especially as a senior graduating in May, is an end-with-a-bang type of thing, because I get to use everything I feel like I’ve learned over the past few years.” 

Most of the stories published by WRAL.com and other media partners will have a North Carolina tie, but the students will also be representing Philadelphia Denver and other major markets.  

Kyla McGhee ’26, a UNC Hussman senior who went on the 2024 Paris trip, said Milan will be trickier because there are fewer North Carolina connections to winter sports.

 “Paris, in total, the 20 of us found 300 contacts,” she said. “It was way more material to work with.”

 However, that has given the students freedom to be more creative with their stories. 

Tuggle said he’s excited for students to write stories about the history of Milan, a city with a deep and somewhat troubled past, especially around World War II.

Because Milan is one of the fashion capitals of the world, McGhee is interested in how Team USA’s designers approached the look of the team’s Olympic gear. 

Seven select students, including McGhee, will even have the opportunity to travel up to the Cortina mountains for five days and report on the events held in the Cortina d’Ampezzo alpine venues. 

“Now to say I’ve been to two [Olympics] is honestly a dream come true,” McGhee said. “I’m very excited, and honestly, I really want to focus on staying present while I’m there and enjoying the moment.”

Though this will likely be Tuggle’s last time leading an Olympic trip as a member of UNC Hussman’s faculty, future journalists may still have the opportunity to embark on similar amazing experiences.

“As soon as we get back from Milan, I’m going to help start and plan LA28,” Tuggle said. “My plan has been all along that I would come back out of retirement to help lead that trip.”

As students head off to Italy, they understand that they have a lot of work ahead of them, and there will also be time to enjoy the Games and the culture of Milan in what is sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

As Tuggle always says to his students, raising his hand high in the air, “We’re going to have fun, but we’re going to do it way up here.”