Olympic dreams are coming true for one Syracuse student

Among the highlights of Suzanne's summer internship (besides posing in the olympic rings) was meeting Apollo Anton Ohno. Photo courtesy of Suzanne Grassel

More Interns of the Week Lauren Kobylarz (Duke) Willie Bodrick (Georgetown) Elizabeth Bohnsack (Rutgers) Kiley Harris (WVU) Drew Weatherford (FSU)

By Greg Beaton

Name: Suzanne Grassel
School: Syracuse
Age: 21
Major: Magazine journalism and sport management
Job: Media Intern, USA Boxing, USOC
Paid/unpaid: Paid
School Credit: Yes
Hours: 8-5, Monday-Friday
Duration: May 30-Aug. 27 (with a week off in the middle)

About a month into her summer as an intern at the United States Olympic Committee's training center in Colorado Springs, Colo., Suzanne Grassel wandered into the facility's cafeteria for a quick snack and spotted the most recent winner of ABC's Dancing With the Stars.

Apollo Anton Ohno, the two-time Olympic gold medallist in short-track speed skating, was in town for a few days of training and was taking a break to grab an early dinner. Giddy with excitement, Grassel hurried to tell her fellow interns she had just spotted Ohno, whose picture hangs on the wall of the mess hall where he was eating.

"It was one of those moments where you really become the fan and think, 'Oh I work here,'" Grassel said.

Grassel, who played volleyball and lacrosse in high school, saw her days of playing competitive sports come to an end when she enrolled at Division I powerhouse Syracuse. A huge fan, she didn't want to give up her love, so she followed the same piece of career advice that has led many a sports writer and publicist into the field: "If you can't play sports you might as well write about them."

At Syracuse, Grassel's academic pursuits have put her on the fast track to a career in sports media. She began as a major in magazine journalism at Syracuse's renowned Newhouse School, and when the Big East university added a sport-management program within its College of Human Services and Health Professions, she tacked on a second major.

Grassel has extended her academic training beyond the classroom through two prestigious sports internships. During the spring semester of 2006, she joined NBC's small army of interns at the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. With more than 30 Newhouse students taking part in the program, Syracuse even offered those interns an abbreviated semester abroad in London once the Olympics were over to allow them to keep up with their academic program.

This summer, she applied and was accepted to the USOC's internship program. It seemed like another dream come true, but there was a catch: the Long Island-native would have to work out of Colorado. She admits she was "a little homesick" at first. But her two months living in the training facility's dorms and working as a media intern for USA Boxing have changed her perspective. "I don't even want to go home now," she says.

Working alongside the hundreds of athletes who live at or visit Colorado Springs, one of the USOC's three training facilities, Grassel has written press releases and magazine articles, among other tasks, for several USA Boxing events and publications. She didn't know anything about boxing at the beginning, but at her first assignment -- working at the U.S. Championship Tournament -- her boss helped her understand the sport better. Now, she's practically an expert in amateur boxing.

"Amateur boxing is much different than professional," she says. "I didn't understand that before this internship. It's really about skill and agility compared to just beating up the guy."

Grassel says the best part of the whole experience for at the USOC might be living in the dorms with the other interns. One of the other interns is from North Dakota, where the closest mall is -- gasp! -- 100 miles away, Grassel says, and the other interns needle her about her thick Long ("lawng") Island accent.

Nevertheless she says, "This internship has really just opened my eyes and showed me this is a career I definitely want to pursue," Grassel says. "I've been really lucky -- I think back about what I've done so far, I can't believe I've done so much."