John F. Morgan (born December 10, 1950) [1] is an American broadcaster and television producer from Saranac Lake, New York.
Before becoming involved in broadcasting, Morgan played rugby union and was a bobsled racer. [2] A member of a prominent bobsled racing family, Morgan's father and brothers were all involved in the sport, and his brother, 1976 Olympian James "Nitro" Morgan, died in a bobsled accident in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. [3]
Morgan was on the U.S. National team from 1978-1979, but did not qualify for the 1980 Winter Olympics. [4] After he failed to qualify, he landed a job with ABC Sports.
Morgan has been the American network's bobsled commentator at the last nine Winter Olympic Games, starting with ABC in 1984 and 1988, then with CBS in 1992, 1994 and 1998, and with NBC in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018. His broadcasting career began with ABC at the 1981 FIBT World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, [5] where he called the race that took his brother's life. [3]
From 2002 to 2007, he was a broadcaster for bobsled and skeleton World Cup races on Speed Channel, working with Tim Singer. For 2007-08, the World Cup competitions could be seen online at NBC Sports' website and live on Canadian television.
Morgan has a cameo appearance in the 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings , a movie about the Jamaican bobsled team. In the film he plays opposite NBC Sports commentator Al Trautwig. [6] [7]
Morgan founded JFM Sports, Inc. in 1982. The company created a TV series in 1989 called Rugby World, and bought the rights to the Hong Kong 7's and other Rugby properties. This 12-week series started on Prime Network and moved to espn2 when it launched in 1995. JFM also created the American Patriots, a USA Rugby League Team that competed at the Sydney 7's. Morgan also created a USA-Ireland match that was staged at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC and televised live on ESPN in 1995. JFM also created Winter Speed, a 10-week series started in 1990 that featured bobsled, luge and skeleton events, and aired on Prime. In 1995 the FIBT hired JFM to coordinate its coverage of international bobsled and skeleton.
JFM continues to produce bobsled and skeleton World Cup races, which are shown on NBC/Universal Sports in the United States, Sportsnet in Canada, and in most major markets worldwide. In 2002, he was named an honorary member of the FIBT. [8]
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, also known as FIBT from the French Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing. National competitions are often governed by bodies such as the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, and the German Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton Federation.
Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of the sled.
Helen Lesley Upperton is a Canadian bobsledder who has competed since 2002. Upperton was born in Ahmadi, Kuwait as her parents involvement in the oil industry meant they traveled abroad. She holds dual citizenship of both Great Britain and Canada. Upperton won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics after previously finishing fourth in the two-woman event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. In 2020 Upperton won a Canadian Screen Award for “Best Sports Analyst” for her coverage of the Bobsleigh World Championship event with Mark Lee. She went to high school at Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School and graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a BSc.
Sandra Kiriasis is a German retired bobsledder who has competed from 2000 to 2014.
Noelle Pikus-Pace is an American retired skeleton racer who began her career in 2001. She won five medals at the FIBT World Championships, competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and won the silver medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Susi-Lisa Erdmann is an East German-German luger and bobsledder who competed from 1977 to 1998 in luge, then since 1999 in bobsleigh. Competing in five Winter Olympics, she won two medals in the women's singles luge event with a silver in 1994 and a bronze in 1992, and a bronze at the inaugural two-women bobsleigh event in 2002. She is one of only two people to ever win a medal in both bobsleigh and luge at the Winter Olympics; Italy's Gerda Weissensteiner is the other.
Hans Rösch was a West German bobsledder who competed from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. He won four medals in the four-man event at the FIBT World Championships with one gold (1958), two silvers, and one bronze.
The FIBT World Championships 2011 took place 14 February – 27 February 2011 in Königssee, Germany, for the fifth time, doing so previously in 1979, 1986, and 1990 (skeleton), and 2004. In 2007, the championships were awarded to Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy over Winterberg Germany, but Cortina withdrew in February 2009 to issues with the city of Cortina.
The Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run is a venue for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton in the United States, located at the Lake Placid Olympic Sports Complex in Lake Placid, New York. This venue was used for the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics and for the only winter Goodwill Games in 2000. The third and most recent version of the track was completed in 2000 with the track hosting both the first FIBT World Championships and FIL World Luge Championships done outside of Europe, doing so in 1949 and 1983. In 2010 the bobsled track was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Justin Kripps is a Canadian bobsledder and the reigning Olympic co-champion in two-man bobsleigh following his gold medal win at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Kripps won a silver medal in the two-man event at the 2017 World Championships and a bronze in the mixed team event in the 2012 World Championships. He has competed in the sport since 2006 and has many World Cup podiums. During the 2017–18 Bobsleigh World Cup he finished the season in first in the two-man and overall, to win the Crystal Globe as overall champion.
The Eugenio Monti olympic track is a bobsleigh and skeleton track located in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. It is named after Eugenio Monti (1928–2003), who won six bobsleigh medals at the Winter Olympic Games between 1956 and 1968 and ten medals at the FIBT World Championships between 1957 and 1966. It was featured in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, held after the 1981 FIBT World Championships, before the track was shortened to its current configuration. In January 2008, after a last bobsleigh race tournament, the track was closed.
The Utah Olympic Park Track is a bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in the United States, located in the Utah Olympic Park near Park City, Utah. During the 2002 Winter Olympics in nearby Salt Lake City, the track hosted the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events. Today the track still serves as a training center for Olympic and development level athletes and hosts numerous local and international competitions. It is one of two national tracks; the other is at Mt. Van Hoevenberg near Lake Placid, New York.
The Canada Olympic Park bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track is a bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track located in Calgary, Alberta. Part of Canada Olympic Park, it hosted the bobsleigh and luge competitions at the 1988 Winter Olympics. This track is one of only two of its type in the world to be featured in a non-documentary film when it was part of the 1993 American film Cool Runnings which loosely followed the Jamaican Bobsled Team during their competition in bobsleigh at the 1988 Games.
The La Plagne bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track is a bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track located in La Plagne, France. The track was the venue for the bobsleigh and luge competitions for the 1992 Winter Olympics whose host city was neighboring Albertville.
Kaillie Humphries is a Canadian-American bobsledder. Representing Canada, she was the 2010 and 2014 Olympic champion in the two-woman bobsled and the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist with brakewoman Phylicia George. With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title and was named flagbearer for the Olympic closing ceremony with brakewoman Heather Moyse.
Martin Lachkovics is an Austrian athlete and bobsledder. He represented Austria in athletics at two consecutive Olympic Games, in 1996 and 2000.
Bree Schaaf is an American skeleton racer who competed from 2002 to 2007, then switched over to bobsled as a pilot from 2007 to 2014. Her best Skeleton World Cup finish was sixth at Calgary in November 2006.
James Patrick Morgan, known as Jimmy, but nicknamed "Nitro" was an American bobsledder who competed from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. His death during the 1981 FIBT World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy at the bobsleigh track used for the 1956 Winter Olympics coupled with the death of a stuntman involved in the production of the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only would lead to the shortening of the Cortina d'Ampezzo track to its current configuration.
For the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, a total of eight sports venues were used. All of the venues used were new or rebuilt. To make use of television coverage for the first time in the Winter Olympics, the cross-country skiing stadium was constructed to allow the best coverage. Five of the venues used for these games would appear in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only twenty-five years later.
The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games and also known as Milano Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo beat another joint bid from Swedish cities Stockholm–Åre by 47–34 votes to be elected host cities at the 134th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 June 2019.