Olympics highlight TWU alum’s TV career

Feb. 12, 2026 — DENTON — Vanessa Miranda lives and breathes the Olympics. Her favorite parts are the opening and closing ceremonies, and her must-watch Winter Olympics sport is figure skating. 

But the Olympics is more than an exciting sporting event that she tunes into every four years. It’s her job. 

The Texas Woman’s alumna is the studio scheduling manager for NBC Sports. Part of her role includes serving as the hiring manager for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. 

“We hire pretty much any technical position that is needed for a show or for a live production to go on air,” Miranda said. “So it's a lot of dealing with freelancers, negotiating rates, asking them, ‘Can you come and work figure skating?’”

Miranda has hired 120 freelancers, including audio engineers, graphics operators and designers, for the Winter Olympics. The hiring process for Miranda began nearly a year ago. 

The job didn’t stop with the opening ceremonies. 

“Once the Olympics start, we keep working with production managers to establish crew calls and resolve any issues we might have such as reacting to programming or production changes,” Miranda said. “And we do this for 20 days straight.”

One could say this isn’t Miranda’s first rodeo. She worked the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. In 2025, she received two Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Technical Team Event and Outstanding Technical Team Studio with the Paris Olympics. 

“They're my little treasures,” Miranda quipped. 

The Emmys are one of the many highlights in Miranda’s 25-year career in television. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Television is a tumultuous industry. Miranda endured two layoffs and was able to bounce back both times. 

“Two layoffs could have marked the end of my career in one way or another,” Miranda said. “But instead, I bet on myself to try something else within the industry.”

Miranda’s career spanned from El Paso to Stamford, Connecticut. She spent a combined 10 years working the news on the technical side at the ABC local station in El Paso, CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, and then at Telemundo in Dallas. After the move to Connecticut she worked for 10 years at ESPN as an associate producer. Since 2021, she has been with NBC Sports in operations. And in 2025, she was promoted to studio manager. 

Her first layoff from Telemundo led her to Texas Woman’s. A severance package included money to go to school, and Miranda was interested in studying management and leadership.

“I saw the opportunity to go back to school,” said Miranda. “At the time, Texas Woman's University had the best program for working students.”

After she earned her MBA, Miranda’s move to Connecticut with her husband turned fortuitous. Their home was 20 minutes from the ESPN headquarters, and networking led to a producing position at the sports company. 

“And I really enjoyed my time there because I learned so much,” Miranda recalled. “I learned a different area than what I had been exposed to in news. So it became very fun. And then to be honest… how bad can it be if you're working and your job entitles you to work soccer games?”

Although the layoff from ESPN proved difficult for many reasons, it gave Miranda time to reflect on her life. She had a young family and was looking for a more stable job. With ESPN, she worked long hours, weekends and holidays. 

“So I started looking at production coordinator positions, knowing that I'm going to have to start again from the beginning because even though it's the same industry, it was going to be something new,” Miranda said. 

A five-month contract with NBC Sports to work the Beijing Winter Olympics eventually turned into a full-time position. She never imagined as a young girl growing up in El Paso that she would be working her third Olympics. 

“To someone starting in any career, I say stay true to yourself and just remember when one door closes, another door opens.  I sure can vouch for that.”