CAMBRIDGE - When Cambridge residents tune into the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics over the next few weeks, they'll be greeted by a couple of familiar faces.
Brenda Irving and Mark Lee, who are both enshrined in the Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame, are part of the CBC broadcast team.
Irving will be the commentator for the gymnastics events, while Lee is handling the call for athletics.
A Preston native and 2015 inductee, Irving's broadcast career has taken her all over the world to cover some of the biggest events, including the Olympics, Stanley Cup, Grey Cup and Queen’s Plate.
During the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia, she was a member the team that brought figure skating into the homes of people across the country.
She was also the first female rinkside reporter for Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts in 2002.
“Covering Olympic sport is now my passion,” Irving's induction page reads on the sports hall of fame's website.
"There are far too few journalists telling the stories of our amateur athletes. We hear so much about pro sports and far too little about those who toil away in relative obscurity. So going out with a cameraman, interviewing these athletes and finding out what makes them tick is what still motivates me.”
Lee grew up in Ottawa and is a resident of Cambridge. He was a 2019 inductee into the local hall of fame.
Lee began covering the Olympics in 1984 in Los Angeles and the 2021 Tokyo games were his 15th as a broadcaster.
Over the course of his career, he's worked Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts, done play-by-play for the CFL and interviewed boxing great Muhammed Ali.
He's won two Gemini Awards for his work.
“I have had some fun with my three children over the years, calling live play-by-play over the loudspeakers of the Waterloo Region elementary school track meets and doing the team introductions at the 'Day of Champions' Cambridge Minor Hockey Finals and at the annual Cambridge Roadrunners Girls Hockey Tournaments," Lees induction page reads.