From Modesto to Italy, Olympic superfan is off to his 19th Games. How he’s done it
The XXV Winter Olympic Games in Italy begin this week, and while athletes are in their final preparations, so are the fans. And if medals were awarded for Olympic fandom, Modesto resident Jeff Kolkmann would win gold.
Kolkmann is an Olympics superfan. It started the day his father brought home a television set when Jeff was just 6 years old and has grown into a lifelong passion. The now-63-year-old will attend his 19th Olympic Games this week.
The limo driver and solar panel salesman has witnessed countless legendary moments of victory, collected oodles of souvenirs, eaten plates upon plates of cultural fare, and worked a variety of jobs during his time at the Games. But what he loves most about going is the human connection.
“It’s a really interesting place to be, no matter where it is in the world, it’s always the same. You can’t speak all the languages, but you still have camaraderie,” he said. “You’re cheering for your team, you don’t hate other people. It’s a very peaceful, wonderful thing. I literally find something in common with everybody in every country I’ve ever been to.”
Kolkmann described feeling an electric excitement in 1968 when he first watched athletes compete in the X Olympic Games set in Grenoble, France. “Jean-Claude Killy won three gold medals. I wouldn’t forget that,” he said. “I ended up meeting him years later, and I’ve met him several times since.”
Watching Killy win three golds in downhill alpine skiing made Kolkmann feel connected to his Norwegian heritage and inspired him to one day see the Games in person.
In 1984, he got his chance. The Games of the XXIII Olympiad were hosted in Los Angeles, and it was a familial connection that helped Kolkmann achieve his dream. He reached out to his cousin Brad Holland, a rising star in the NBA who had been part of the 1980 Los Angeles Lakers championship team. “He said, ‘Well, I know some people who work in the Olympic organizing committee. You’ll just have to dress up in a suit and tie, get your resume ready, and we’ll see what happens.’”
There were 700 people there hoping to get a job and Kolkmann was among those hired. He started as a logistics coordinator for the basketball events, putting up nets and getting materials to coaches and players.
Working for the Olympics committee is one of Kolkmann’s strategies to get into the Games. He has worked at several, usually in logistics. In recent years, he has worked for television and radio stations, doing whatever jobs they ask, from being a runner to entering scores into updates and preparing videos of Olympic moments for broadcast.
Kolkmann said there is a lot of downtime, and once the particular event concludes, he gets access to the rest of the Games.
Because he is a devout Seventh-day Adventist, Kolkmann keeps the Sabbath and will not work on a Saturday. “It’s my day to unplug, but once the sun goes down, I try to find an event to go to,” he said.
One game that everybody gets in on
When he attended his first Winter Olympics, the 1988 Games in Calgary, he discovered pin trading. Called the unofficial other sport of the Olympic Games, pin trading is played among athletes, spectators, employees and other collectors. All Olympic competitors are given pins to trade with other athletes and the activity became so popular that companies, volunteers, city officials and even visitors started making and bringing their own pins to bring and trade.
Kolkmann said he brings about 400 small American flag pins to give out. He said the official ones from the athletes are the most sought after. “I have a lot of favorite pins. I have so many. I probably have close to 4,000 pins,” he said.
Kolkmann doesn’t collect just pins; he saves almost any souvenir he can find. During the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, he saw NBA greats Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson win gold as part of the historic Dream Team. “I remember really wanting one of their jackets, jerseys, shoes, or whatever,” he said. It was common for players to give out items after the game to fans and volunteers. Kolkmann’s friend asked Michael Jordan for his game-winning shoes. “He got a pair of shoes from Michael Jordan, and I had my Sharpie pen ready. I said, ‘Brian, have him sign those,’” Kolkmann said. Decades later, those shoes sold for over $190,000. “I thought, wow, collecting Olympic stuff, there is a real reason for these things. I just like having the stuff. It’s just kind of fun,” he said.
He does a lot of planning before leaving for the Games: contacting friends, arranging places to stay, deciding what to bring and ordering pins to exchange. But when he arrives, he mostly goes in without a set plan. “I just wing it,” he said.
Sometimes he will work or volunteer to ensure entry and other times he relies upon his vast network for tickets to particular events. Even his accommodations are in the air, as he arranges stays with friends or goes through his church for help. “It’s all part of the fun, and the experience,” he said.
The language barrier isn’t even an issue, Kolkmann said. “I have met a lot of different people whose language I don’t speak and they don’t speak mine. But when you’re at the Olympics, it’s the pins that speak,” he said. Kolkmann speaks fluent French and Norwegian.
Kolkmann doesn’t have a favorite Olympics, he said each is incredible and special. But he does prefer the Winter Games to the Summer Olympics, given his Norwegian background and because it reminds him of the first Olympics he watched.
He won’t say he has a favorite event, but is partial to the skiing events. A rule he has is that if a new sport is introduced in the Games, he will try to see it. This year, ski mountaineering makes its debut. “Nobody’s seen that before, basically what they’re doing is an older, traditional type of skiing,” he said.
This will be his 19th Olympic Games; he has only missed three : Seoul 1988, when he could not find a job to attend, and the two Games that were postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is excited for his 20th, which will be back in Los Angeles in 2028.
“A full-circle moment for me, back where it all started,” Kolkmann said. He is particularly excited to attend again in his home state, because California has its own type of fan club. “California happens to be extremely popular all around the world, wherever I’ve been. ‘Oh, you’re from California?’ That’s just immediate high status,” he said.
He encourages anyone interested in going to experience it, even if just once. “You will never regret it. It’s more fun than you could ever imagine,” he said.
The Games are more than just sports to Kolkmann; he said it is all about relationships. “That, to me, is 100% number one. That is the most important thing to me,” he said. “ It’s all about the friends I have made throughout the years. I will keep going as long as I am able.”
The Milano Cortina XXV Winter Olympic Games begin this week, Feb. 6-22. The Games will air on NBC and the streaming app Peacock.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
