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Hoda Kotb talks Olympics, gymnastics with KARE’s Morgan Wolfe
The TODAY Show anchor and NBC Olympic correspondent spoke about her excitement for Paris and navigating work-life balance as a mom.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — An old saying warns you to “never meet your heroes” because how you envision them might not correlate with reality.
But for me, that didn’t apply to Hoda Kotb at the U.S. Olympic Team Gymnastics Trials last weekend.
The warm, big smile and bubbly personality that greets America in the morning on NBC’s TODAY Show With Hoda & Jenna is exactly what you will experience in person.
The NBC veteran journalist has earned the right to parachute into a city to cover an event and only focus on her assignment. But that’s not Hoda. When asked if she would be available for a sit-down interview with me, her team happily agreed to find time in her packed schedule.
As I made way to our interview, I met her in the hallway.
“It’s so nice to meet you!” Hoda said as she hugged me.
She asked me about my career; where I was from, and told me about a time in her life when she once applied to a job in Minneapolis and didn’t get it. Concluding the conversation by complimenting the legacy and work of KARE 11.
Once we walked into the suite where we were shooting the interview, she exclaimed, “I can’t believe we have a three-camera shoot. Who are you people?!” Which brought a big smile to our photographer’s face.
When asked about her excitement for the Paris Olympics, Hoda said she is ready for a “redo” of Tokyo.
“Toyko was such a weird Olympics. It was unusual. It was masked. No family was there. It was just such a different Olympics, and I am so anxious for this to come back, and especially for these gymnasts,” Hoda said.
She began covering the Olympics onsite in Torino in 2006. She joked, “I think Roker has covered more!”
But when you have a passion for gymnastics like Hoda, covering the Olympics is an easy assignment to commit to.
“I just hugged Simone, Suni and Jordan. I feel like I have known them since forever,” Hoda said. “Simone was 19 when she won the gold in Rio and she’s 27 now. I feel like I have watched them grow up and mature and there is something special about them still being together right here right now.”
“When was the last time you actually got to be an eyewitness to someone’s life changing? It’s like one minute, ‘Who is that person?!’ The next minute they are a household name. You get to watch it in real-time. The country comes together, these kids’ lives are changed. It’s celebration city.” Hoda said.
For media covering the Olympics, it’s comparable to running a marathon every day for nearly a month. It’s a feat that journalists are lucky to cover once in their lifetime, but it comes with time changes, a rigorous schedule with events and interviews, live shots — and little sleep.
I asked Hoda, as a mom of two young girls: How does she balance her career and motherhood?
“I think ‘be here now’ works for me, and I try to teach my kids that, too. When I am at work, I am 100 at work. When I step in the door, I am a 100 at home,” Hoda said, admitting that balance still feels tricky to her.
Journalists get a front-row seat to the tragedies and triumphs of humanity. With that, mental health oftentimes is impacted, so I asked Hoda how she maintains her mental health.
“I think every single thing you put in your brain and your spirit become part of you. News to me is kind of that way, too. If you ingest morning, noon and night, it’s too much to carry. So, I am very careful about what I allow in. During my work hours, I let it all in because I want to know everything. When that time is done when I am at home, I am not constantly checking because my being can’t take it.”
Hoda climbed her way to the top of the industry with humble beginnings a small market in Greenville, Mississippi. From there, she went to work in smaller markets in Illinois and Florida before getting an anchor job in New Orleans. She began working at Dateline in 1998.
After more than 25 years of experience in life and in the industry, I asked Hoda what she would tell her younger self:
“I think I would say blessings come when it’s their time. Don’t worry. Everyone’s blessings come when they are supposed to come, and all of mine came after 50. I think I would have reminded her that work is important, but life is more so. And enjoy all of it. Be happy; you’re a fighter.”
A Swiftie like me, Hoda is known for wearing friendship bracelets made popular again by Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour. In honor of this year’s games, I made her several Olympic-themed bracelets.
“Are you serious?!” she said before giving me another hug.
I encourage you to go meet your heroes. Sometimes they’re better than you can imagine.
Hoda has numerous accolades from her work as a broadcast journalist, including one of the highest honors: a 2006 Peabody Award earned while working for Dateline. She also has a podcast and has written several publications. Her memoir, “Ten Years Later,” is a New York Times Bestseller.
Want more Hoda? You can watch her Monday-Friday after KARE 11 Sunrise.
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Melissa Barrett is 5-foot-2, 100 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue shirt and black pants.
MOORHEAD, Minn. — Moorhead Police are asking for help locating an endangered teen who hasn’t been seen in 30 days.
Melissa Barrett, 17, was last seen in West Fargo, North Dakota in mid-November. Officials describe her as 5-foot-2, 100 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue shirt and black pants.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Moorhead Police Department at (701)-451-7660.
*This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Three people were hurt and two are dead in a crash in north Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS — Two women are dead and two people have severe injuries after a crash in Minneapolis that also left a teen waiting for the bus to school injured.
It happened at the intersection of N 26th Avenue and N Emerson Avenue shortly before 10:30 a.m. Monday. Police say a car going north on N Emerson collided with a vehicle going east on N 26th. The vehicle on N 26th “veered off the road” and into the bus shelter, police said, hitting the teen. A KARE 11 photographer on the scene could see the vehicle flipped on its side against the bus shelter.
According to the Minneapolis Police Dept., one of the women in the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene. The other was extricated from the vehicle and taken to the hospital where she died. The driver and passenger of the car driving on N Emerson were also taken to the hospital, with police describing their injuries as “potentially life-threatening.”
The teen was also taken to the hospital and police say he is expected to survive.
A woman who identified herself by her first name Candy spoke to KARE 11 after the crash, saying people often drive at high speeds in this area and go through lights at this particular intersection. She said she’s been rear-ended just a block away from where this crash took place and thinks more patrols in the area would help stop dangerous driving.
“You gotta always wait, even if the light’s green, wait because they’re gonna hit y’all,” she said.
Police Cheif Brian O’Hara said the cause of the crash is still being investigated, but speed is “likely a contributing factor.”
“I want to emphasize the importance for every driver to drive at safe speeds and stay hyper-focused and engaged while operating a motor vehicle,” he said in a press release.
The ex-Minneapolis Police Officer was convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020, sparking worldwide protests and reckoning over racial injustice.
MINNEAPOLIS — The ex-officer convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020 is challenging his federal conviction and is asking the court to let his defense team test a new theory about how Floyd could have died.
Floyd, 46, died in May 2020 after ex-Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pinned him to the ground with a knee on Floyd’s neck as the Black man repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. The killing, captured on bystander video, sparked protests in 2020 as part of a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice.
Chauvin is making a longshot bid to overturn his federal guilty plea, claiming new evidence shows he didn’t cause Floyd’s death. According to a motion, Chauvin is arguing his attorney Eric Nelson gave ineffective counsel.
According to the judge’s order, Nelson was reached out to by a doctor who said it was his opinion Floyd died “due to a catecholamine crisis.” Nelson did not consult with Chauvin on this issue and the opinion was not tested, the order says.
Now, Chauvin is asking the court to have tests performed that could support the doctor’s opinion. The tests will require access to Floyd’s preserved heart tissue slides and photographs, along with other fluids. A judge has authorized these tests be done.
If Chauvin is unsuccessful at overturning his federal conviction, he won’t be released until 2038.
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