Taking place on a global stage, the Olympics are made possible by thousands of dedicated individuals working behind the scenes. Numerous Parker alumni, faculty, and parents are contributing to the 2024 Olympics—from athletes and coaches to physicians and caterers.
John Crisafulli – Behind the Scenes Catering
Taking place on a global stage, the Olympics are made possible by thousands of dedicated individuals working behind the scenes. Numerous Parker alumni, faculty, and parents are contributing to the 2024 Olympics—from athletes and coaches to physicians and caterers.
John Crisafulli is a parent to two Parker alumni and the owner of Behind the Scenes Catering. BTS has been catering for NBC Sports broadcast employees for 24 years, including 13 Olympic Games.
Behind the Scene’s relationship with NBC started prior to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. At the time, NBC was bidding on the broadcast rights for multiple Olympic Games and was looking for seasoned vendors. They were leaning towards a large multinational company for catering and initially rebuffed Behind the Scene’s proposal.
Confident that his catering company was right for the job, John flew out to Sydney, Australia, without so much as a contract. Once there, John joined NBC for a site survey, and shortly after his trip to Sydney, NBC made the decision to sign with BTS as the catering company to provide food service for their 3,000 employees working at various Olympic competition venues. What originally started as a contract for one Olympic Games, turned into a contract for three, and has since lasted through 13 Games.
Providing catering services for all of NBC during the Olympics consists of many moving parts. BTS produces the menus to feed thousands of people with a variety of dietary restrictions in mind, but according to John that’s the easy part. The true challenge is the logistics. His team must build temporary kitchens, often in foreign countries with varying health and safety laws. They must ensure they have the correct local health permits, hire and train the local service staff, and run background checks to determine which local vendors BTS should use and trust.
Planning catering for the Olympics requires extensive pre-production coordination and a seasoned and experienced team with the knowledge and political savvy needed to navigate working relationships with local governments, customs officials, the Olympic Organizing Committee, and the International Olympic Committee.
“The most rewarding part is to watch all the moving parts, all of the people and equipment come together at the largest sporting event in the world, to broadcast images of life-changing competition between countries,” said John. “Further, knowing you and the team you are working with is an integral part of the operation of bringing these indelible stories to the global audience, which is an awesome feeling.”
John recounted that many of his favorite memories over the years center around his incredible team of chefs and managers. “It’s like a big family that we see every 1.5 to 2 years in different cities around the world as the Olympic Games move around,” he said.
Two couples met and got married within the team, and there is a Dutch Manager who, for many years, has made his way onto the field of play to march with the athletes in the Opening ceremonies Parade of Nations. He even landed himself on the front page of the Dutch newspaper with a caption: “Who is the Mystery Man Walking with the Dutch athletes?”
BTS was founded by John and his sister, Theresa Villa, and started as a small catering service that operated out of their residence. Theresa passed away at the age of 36 due to an aggressive form of breast cancer. With an incredible and loyal team of employees, the company ventured on and continued to expand its customer base. BTS has worked at major public and private events around the US and the globe, including The Olympic Games, The Masters at Augusta National, The Rose Bowl Game, NFL Superbowl, LIV Golf, PGA Golf, AIDS/Lifecycle bike ride, and many more major events.
Michelle Look – Tournament Medical Director for the Paris Olympic Men’s and Women’s Rugby Tournament for the World
Michelle Look is a current Parker parent and the Tournament Medical Director for the Paris Olympic Men’s and Women’s Rugby Tournament for the World. Michelle trains the Paris 2024 medical team on emergency procedures and oversees the team physicians for 26 other countries from around the world.-
While Michelle has served as a team physician for many collegiate, professional, and mass participation events, her love for sports medicine started as a desire to focus on wellness.
“What I love about sports medicine is not just being there when unfortunate injuries occur but being part of a team and supporting an athlete to perform at the highest level. Doing this involves making small changes in their training, eating patterns, sleep, and stress,” Michelle explained. “For elite athletes, very small lifestyle changes can be the difference between a podium finish or not. This is no different from what I do with my patients in my office, whether a weekend warrior or obesity medicine patient wanting to be more active, assisting to make small changes in their lifestyle can have amazing outcomes.”
Since entering the sports medicine world, Michelle has served as the physician for the Women’s United Soccer Association professional women’s soccer team, the SDSU team physician, and the X Games. She was a Staff Physician for the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista for 10 years, traveling as the USA Olympic team physician for the Beijing and then the Vancouver Olympic games, overseeing multiple sports teams.
While working as a physician for multiple teams, Michelle began to miss the camaraderie of being a part of a singular team. So, after the London Olympics, she left the US Olympic Committee and became the Head Team Physician for the USA Men’s and Women’s National Rugby teams, a role that consists of traveling to many World Cup championships and tournaments worldwide. Eventually, Michelle began to serve as the tournament medical doctor for International Rugby tournaments in the U.S. and became a World Rugby Independent Concussion Consultant.
Michelle had the honor of being selected to be the Tournament Medical Doctor for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was disrupted by COVID and without any fans. Michelle was selected once again for the same role in the Paris 2024 Olympic games, and she is most excited about working in a sold-out stadium of 69,000 fans at the main stadium of the Olympics, the Stade de France.
During the tournament, Michelle’s role is the Head Doctor on the field. She is responsible for reviewing all head injuries and making the final call on whether a player is to be removed from play due to a suspected head concussion by using a computerized system called Hawkeye. The team combines what they see on the field with the 13 camera angles from Hawkeye to evaluate each suspected contact. “It is a very stressful job but so important to protect the safety of our players which in turn ensures the success of our sport of rugby,” Michelle said.
Aside from the rugby tournament, Michelle looks forward to her daughter Vesper, Class of 2029, and her husband, Tor, joining her after the rugby tournament to enjoy the croissants and cheese of Paris. They also have tickets to see the beach volleyball tournament under the Eiffel Tower.
John and Michelle are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Parker’s Olympic connections. In the upcoming months, look for more stories about Parker Alumni, Faculty, and parents competing on the world stage.
If you know of any more Parker connections to the Olympics that we could feature in future stories, please reach out to [email protected]
