Leigh Diffey made an entrance into NASCAR last season, taking up commentary duties for the final 14 races, and quickly garnered widespread appreciation from fans, drivers, and others involved in the sport. He attributed his seamless transition and the warm reception he received to the thorough preparation he undertook before stepping into the booth.
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Diffey’s commitment was particularly lauded given that he joined NASCAR straight after covering last year’s Summer Olympics in Paris. Reflecting on his diverse broadcasting experiences and the depth of knowledge required to excel, Diffey shared insights from his extensive Olympic tenure:
“This year in Paris was my sixth Olympics both summer and winter. I remember my first games were the Winter Games in Russia and so and it was all pretty like cool like I was excited and everything.”
He continued, “And then the day that came where I had to actually call I was like holy sh*t I’m going to call the Olympics. And so that was a little bit daunting but that seemed so long ago… I’ve always been a big fan of preparation and homework and you just have to make sure that you’ve done that.”
His broadcasting repertoire includes play-by-play commentary for NBC’s coverage of both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. His assignments have included covering luge, skeleton, and bobsled at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, rowing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and reprising his role from Sochi at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang. Additionally, he was named NBC Network’s lead track and field sportscaster ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Although for a decade he did drift toward motorsports, when Diffey joined NBC Sports in 2012, Sam Flood, his boss, remarked that since Leigh excelled at covering fast-paced events, he would be assigned a diverse range of sports, not all of which would involve motors. Diffey embraced the challenge with enthusiasm.
But despite this variety, Diffey’s assignments at the 2016 Rio Olympics didn’t particularly captivate him as much as motorsports did, which remained his true passion. He noted that while the Olympic duties were prestigious, they lacked the thrill he found in motorsports, where he had earned the nickname ‘the Motorsports guy’ among peers and fans alike.
Diffey shares insights from his 2024 Summer Olympics experience in Paris
When asked about his time at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Diffey noted that not all Olympic venues stir the same levels of enthusiasm and warmth that Paris did. He described the atmosphere in Paris during the games, saying,
“There were 70,000 people every morning and night and they’re singing and they’re waving their nation’s flags and they’re dancing and the spirit was good.” He reflected on past Olympics that lacked the vibrant, joyous atmosphere, emphasizing how Paris offered a particularly uplifting experience.
Diffey admitted that working in such an energized environment was both enjoyable and inspiring, making it difficult not to become engulfed in the emotional and exhilarating nature of live sports. He confessed that it was nice and fun to go to work, and it was pretty hard not to get swept up in the emotion and raw excitement of live sport, igniting how the backdrop of Paris enhanced his Olympic experience.
But amid the excitement, Diffey had a momentary lapse during the 2024 Olympics, mistakenly identifying Kishane Thompson as the winner of the men’s 100-meter final in a photo finish that ultimately awarded the gold medal to American sprinter Noah Lyles. The error was corrected, but it was a notable misstep in an otherwise stellar broadcasting stint.
Acknowledging his error, Diffey took to social media the next day to own up to the mistake, candidly sharing, “My eyes [and] instinct told me Kishane Thompson won. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. I shouldn’t have been so bold to call it, but I genuinely thought he won. I got it wrong.”
