Lydia Murphy-Stephans (born October 19, 1960) is an American

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marath ...

, television producer, sports media pioneer, and CEO of SportsBubble. She competed in the women's 1000 metres at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

. Following a short international career in speed skating, Murphy-Stephans worked for several television networks, including

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial America ...

, and has gone on to win multiple

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

. She was the first woman to run a national sporting network in the United States.

Biography

Murphy-Stephans was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, in 1960. She was inspired to take up speed skating, after watching the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

on the television. In 1976, Murphy-Stephans won the junior National Short Track Championship title. Six years later, she won the senior National Short Track Championship title and the North American Short Track Championship in the following year. In 1982, she graduated from

National Louis University National Louis University (NLU) is a private nonprofit university with its main campus in Chicago, Illinois. NLU enrolls undergraduate and graduate students in more than 60 programs across its four colleges. It has locations throughout the Chica ...

, and three years later, earned a master's degree at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. Between 1980 and 1984, Murphy-Stephans won four medals, one silver and three bronze, at the

World Short Track Speed Skating Championships The World Short Track Speed Skating Championships are a senior international short track speed skating competition held once a year to determine the World Champion in individual distances, relays and Overall Classification. It is sanctioned by th ...

. At the

1985 Winter Universiade The 1985 Winter Universiade, the XII Winter Universiade, took place in Belluno, Italy. The Soviet Union led in the medal standings. Medal table Sports * * * * * * * References 1985 The year 1985 was designated as the Int ...

, she also won two silver medals. At the

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, Murphy-Stephans competed in the women's 1000 metres event, finishing in 13th place. Following the Olympics, Murphy-Stephans served as the national short track coach at the US Olympic Education Center. In 1994, she was inducted into the National Speedskating Hall of Fame. In 1986, Murphy-Stephans began working at

, where she later became the first female vice-president of the organisation. While at ABC, she was in charge of their show '' Wide World of Sports''. By the end of the 1990s, Murphy-Stephans had moved to the television network

Oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

, in the role of President and Executive Producer. Three years later, she moved on to the

MSG Network The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by Sphere Entertainment -- a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provid ...

as their Executive Vice-president. In 2006, Murphy-Stephans had left MSG to form her own company, Peace Tree Media. In 2022, Murphy-Stephans founded SportsBubble, an internet-based company that provides software, marketing and services. With the launch of SportsBubble, Murphy-Stephans released the company's first product, the WatchSports app.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephans, Lydia 1960 births Living people American female speed skaters Olympic speed skaters for the United States Speed skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics Speed skaters from Chicago 20th-century American sportswomen American women television producers Television producers from Illinois