Manolo Romero

Spain’s Manolo Romero was the founder of the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and spent more than 50 years in the industry. Romero’s career began in 1965 when he got a job at the Spanish TV network TVE in their engineering department. Whilst there he chaired a working group to look at sharing television programming on an international scale via the use of satellites.

Romero attended the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and went on to work at several sporting events over the next decade including the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain. Two years later at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics he took over the full oversight of the host broadcasting operation. Romero continued in the role up to and including the 2012 London Olympics.

Romero was awarded with the Olympic Order in Silver in 1996. In December 2022, just a few weeks before his death, he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.