News

Olympics unites sport journalism students

Published 31 July 2012

The Olympics has united the country and has also brought together sport journalism students past and present.

Four imminent graduates – Tommy Curran, Chad Nugent, Sunni Upal and Jon Vale – were reunited with two old boys, Alex Shaw and Declan Taylor (now gainfully employed by leading sports agency Hayters, a regular work placement host for sport journalism students) as they rolled up their sleeves for the organisers, LOCOG.

Sunni Upal, Chad Nugent, Tommy Curran and Jon Vale.

In fact, Chelsea School would have had seven representatives had Giuseppe Muro, not been offered a plum job at the London Evening Standard, obliging him to give up covering the volleyball.

"We're all reporters for the Olympic News Service, the Games official press agency," explains Jon.

"There's about 600 of us altogether including volunteers, covering everything. Sunni and I are based at the main press centre covering press conferences with all sorts of people; Chad is doing archery, Tommy football and Dec's doing boxing, although I'm not sure where Alex is right now.

"The workload is pretty intense. During the Games time, we're expected to do 12-hour days, seven days a week, but that's the nature of the beast. It could well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cover an Olympic Games so none of the lads are complaining – except about the uniform."

Senior lecturer on the sport journalism course, Rob Steen said: "To see two different generations – as it were – of sport journalism students working together at the Olympics is an enormous source of pride for all of us.

"Even though opportunities in the media are at a premium, especially in newspapers, an increasing number of our graduates are finding employment relatively quickly. This is due in part to the breadth of knowledge and skills they acquire here and in part to the burgeoning reputation of the course in the industry, but also to the value we place on work experience. Thanks to the lecturers' contacts, we have a growing range of regular placements that span the academic year, even for second-year students.

"Our relationship with the Eastbourne Herald is a case in point. The current sports editor is Derren Howard, a graduate from the very first sport journalism cohort in 2003, who earlier this year was so impressed with one of his second-year work placement students, Maria Hudd, that he hired her."