Park City’s Carl Roepke off to Beijing to announce 9th Olympic events

Carl Roepke, pictured here, will announce for his ninth Olympic experience in the Beijing 2022 Games. Photo: USA Luge

PARK CITY. Utah — After Carl Roepke retired from the USA Luge National Team he never dreamed that he’d not only go on to win multiple masters national titles in both singles and doubles, but that he’d get to announce for nine Olympic experiences.

He’s been the venue announcer for Winter, Summer, Para, and Youth Olympic Games. In Beijing, he’ll announce over the public address (PA) speakers for the spectators who will be strictly Chinese nationals, the  International Olympic Committee (IOC) having banned overseas spectators due to COVID.

Within each athlete’s less-than-a-minute run, Roepke, then the French-speaking announcer, then the local language announcer concisely communicate to the crowd, the athletes, the TV producers, the officials, the track staff, and the medical professionals. Television audiences hear his voice in the background.

Sliding sports spectators buy tickets to a competition that they can neither see the action of nor sit down to watch. Therefore, his words have to feed their ears, their eyes, their brains, and their hearts in the way he describes start times, on deck, split times, bios, rankings, crashes, finish times, and nations’ medal histories all while educating newcomer-fans about the fun facts of a lesser-known sport.

He said, “It’s commendable for Olympians to have achieved their goals of even making it to the Beijing 2022 Games to represent their nations with passion, perseverance, and pride via pandemic protocols. They all deserve a gold medal.”

Prior to Roepke’s Olympic announcing, there was always one announcer for luge, another one for skeleton, and another one for bobsled. However, his first performance proved pansophical and he’s done all three ever since.

A handful of Olympians-turned-lifelong-friends gift Roepke their competition bibs right off their back. With mutually respectful tears in both their eyes, to this unsolicited gesture he replies, “Absolutely, not. I refuse to take that.” The irreplaceable, one-off artifacts can’t be bought in stores. He implores them to bring it back to their home country, to donate it to a museum, give it to their grandmother or save it for their grandchildren, but invariable they lay it down near the microphone for him and walk away.

25 years ago, Roepke not only got the job he still holds at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) but met his wife there as well, on day one. Carl had a background in sports and Michele had a background in broadcasting so together they’ve done sports broadcasting at past Olympics. Early on, they became the first married Olympic announcers. Their two teenage sons are Nordic combined athletes which means they get to play where he gets to work.

Carl’s crescendo of implicit international impartiality has had him shouting “USA, Italia, Canada, Korea, and Russia,” respectively, in their host countries as top-speed sleds slide across the finish line at previous Games. He’s looking forward to the opportunity, in the Beijing 2022 Olympics, in that moment, to possibly get to shout, “China.”