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ST. Thomas University Journalism Alumnus Achieves Dream of Covering the Olympics

Guinevere Santaguida , , , ,
St. Thomas Univeristy Alumnus Phil Drost was associate producer for the CBC’s Olympic segment “While You Were Sleeping.” (Photo: Phillip Dost)

Phil Drost who graduated from St. Thomas University in 2015 fulfilled a lifelong dream of convering the Olympics.

Drost was an associate producer on a segment called “While you were sleeping” which featured highlights from CBC coverage of the Olympics that Canadians did not see due to the time difference in Beijing.

“It was very busy and slightly exhausting,” Drost explained. “We were working every day for about 20 days straight there on the Olympics. It was really fun to be there for all the big Olympic moments and talk to some of the athletes.”

He had the opportunity to work with Devin Heroux, the well-known CBC Olympic personality. Many Olympians were also featured on “While You Were Sleeping.”

Drost spoke to many of them including Meryeta O’Dine who won two bronze medals in snowboarding in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Drost said that speaking with her was a real highlight.

“[O’Dine] was the athlete who got smacked in the back of the head with a snowboard in her race, she had to get back up and made it down the hill from bronze. She told me how funny it was to watch that back afterward. So, it was cool chatting with her.”

The St. Thomas University Journalism program has many alumni who went on to report across the country. Journalism students were excited to see an alumnus working the Olympics as an associate producer.

I was one of those students who felt inspired and impressed with how he had managed to achieve his dreams.

In order to honour Drost as a role model, I created a satire video of his segment “While you were Sleeping”. The parody was titled, “While we were awake” and showed Drost’s family members doing everyday activities and then commenting on them as if they were Olympic events. The idea behind the parody was that Drost was awake all night to watch the cover of the Olympics in another time zone, and asleep during the day so he would not know about the simple things going on.

 

“I thought that it was pretty cool,” said Drost after watching the video and laughing. “You know covering the Olympics, I was missing out on a lot during the day, there were a lot of really exciting, really important things that I just wasn’t getting to see because I was sleeping while you were all awake. So, knowing that Joey was still struggling a little bit with his lunch and dad was sticking at it with the driveway was great to be caught up on. It warmed the cockles of my heart.”