Hoda Kotb meant business when she sat down on Friday morning to talk to members of the former US Winter Olympics figure skating team. Despite the fact the Today host was alone on the couch in the absence of her friend and co-star Savannah Guthrie, the 58-year-old anchor was determined to make a promise with the US team.
Speaking on the show for a Today exclusive interview, the skaters revealed how they still have not been awarded their medals from the games. The US team won silver for figure skating at the Beijing Olympics, but their medal ceremony was cancelled after news broke that Kamila Valieva, one of the Russian figure skaters who'd led their team to gold, had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs two months before the competition.
Vincent Zhou, Alexa Knierim and Brendon Frazier – three of the nine US figure skating team who are still missing their medals – appeared on Today on June 23 to discuss the situation, revealing it still wasn't sure whether they'd be awarded silver or gold. After the skating stars discussed how there was still no news on when they'd be getting their medals and if a ceremony would take place to honor them in the future, Hoda stepped in to promise a ceremony would at least be offered by Today.
As evident in the video above, the star shook hands with the team members present, making it an official promise that the show would help honor the athletes' success – the best the US had ever achieved at the Winter Olympics – once their medals are received. The morning news anchor was seemingly very emotionally involved with the story, as she showed a lot of support for the young stars as she interviewed them on the show.
As NBC's resident figure skating expert and former Olympic Gold medal winner Tara Lipinski said in an earlier interview during the segment: "These athletes sacrifice so much of their lives for this one moment, and watching these athletes not get that moment is upsetting."
Savannah had been reporting on the Winter Olympics alongside Hoda, Al Roker and Carson Daly in 2022 when the skaters won silver. But as Hoda and Craig Melvin explained earlier on the show, she was away on Friday so couldn't be involved in the deal being made.
Meanwhile, Dylan Dreyer was away on a work trip in the UK in order to report from the horse racing taking place at Royal Ascot. It was touch and go whether Dylan would successfully make it to the ground in time for the special day, as she revealed to her fans via an Instagram story on Thursday.
"Everything was going so smoothly until my flight was delayed 2 and a half hours. #soclose! #notimetochangefromtheplane," she wrote in the caption of a flashback video she shared on the social site. Thankfully, Dylan made it safely to the course and was able to report live from the races, where King Charles, Queen Camila, the Prince and Princess of Wales and more made their appearances soon after.