Newhouse Students Capture Excitement and Intensity of Empire State Winter Games

It was a tiring yet rewarding weekend for the nearly two dozen Newhouse School students who covered the Empire State Winter Games (ESWG) in Lake Placid, New York in early February. ESWG is the largest Olympic-style multi-sport winter event for amateur athletes. 

Twenty-two undergraduate and graduate students traversed the slopes of Whiteface Mountain, took in sled hockey games in Tupper Lake and worked early mornings and late nights to provide comprehensive coverage of the Games and its nearly 2,500 athletes through photography, videography, social media posts and website management. 

Picture Perfect Games 

With SONY-sponsored cameras in hand, 11 photographers captured everything from bobsledders barreling down the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Sliding Center tracks to the championship hockey games at the Herb Brooks Arena where the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” event transpired four decades ago.

The staff edited and captioned hundreds of photos daily before uploading them to the ESWG media website to be picked up by news outlets throughout the Northeast. 

“It was just so nice to be back in such a beautiful place like Lake Placid,” said Surya Vaidy, a graduate student in the multimedia, photography and design program who was participating for the second year. “The best part was just getting the chance to photograph future championship athletes.” 

In between sporting events, Vaidy found time for his side project called “Faces of the Games,” that captured athletes and their families between games, races and events. 

“I got a great set of photos that I think were evocative,” Vaidy said. “And I hope that the athletes and other people will think so, too.” 

Nonstop Action

Working alongside the photographers, four videographers had the task of capturing ESWG athletes in motion.  

Patrick Smith, a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism and part of the sports media and communications track, rose before the sun to get video of daily skiing competitions. 

“Going up there was so much fun,” Smith said. “I learned a whole lot that I didn’t know about videography. Whether you’re a photographer, videographer, content creator, or producer, you gain so much from this experience.”  

Keeping Things Running

Once the opening ceremony concluded on Thursday night, there was non-stop action on the slopes, snow and ice. Five public relations majors kept up with the results, posting on the ESWG and Newhouse Sports Media Center social media accounts while also writing press releases and daily newsletters for the games. 

“For someone like me who wants to go into sports and social media, this experience has been really great,” said public relations graduate student Katie Miller. “I just feel like the immersive part of this trip is going to lead to a lot of growth.” 

With the students getting to put time into writing and social media, the three days served as a great taste of what a career in sports and public relations will be like. 

Traversing Mediums

As a digital producer for this trip, I  witnessed firsthand just how hard all of these students worked as I constantly shuffled their edited footage and photos onto our ESWGMedia.com website nightly. 

From a public relations perspective, it was impressive how the entire team was prepared to write or post on social media at a moment’s notice while also helping to tell the stories of participants involved in the games. 

I — along with professors Seth Gitner, Jon Glass, and Jordan Kligerman — just tried to keep it all going. In the end, I think we earned a spot atop the medalist podium when it comes to making the most of the Newhouse School experience.