SPREADING CHEER IS RAPPER'S DELIGHT

Snoop Dogg leans into Ambassador of Happiness role for NBC at Olympics ahead of his big plans for '28 L.A. Summer Games

- By Sam Farmer | REPORTING FROM MILAN

MICHAEL KAPPELER Getty Images

THE UBIQUITOUS Snoop Dogg, shown following women's skiing, creates a buzz wherever he goes in Italy.

He's as smooth as a bobsled track and sharp as a skate blade.

Snoop Dogg, the rap rapscallion who puts the OG in Olympic Games, plopped down on a couch in the NBC green room and muted the TV. It's exhausting being everywhere at all times at the most spread-out Games in history.

Winter Whether he was carrying the Olympic torch, skiing with Picabo Street, sliding a curling stone or driving a Zamboni, Snoop was everywhere. He finished each day with a highlight show from the Milan studios.

So ubiquitous was the socalled Ambassador of Happiness, you'd swear NBC duped a Snoop - or maybe two.

"The Winter Olympics are underrated," he said in an interview Friday at the network's Olympic complex. "It's not highly touted like it should be. This is an event that is just as good as the Super Bowl, as the Summer Olympics. There's so much action and there's so much happening, and it's not just one day. It's not just four quarters. It's weeks of great competition on ice, for the most part."

It's almost as if the angular, 6-foot-4 Snoop is on ice as he glides through the back halls of NBC's temporary headquarters, wearing a white turtleneck under a red, white and blue leather jacket with "COACH SNOOP" across the front. He's wearing a gold-rope chain with the Universal logo as a pendant, and goldrimmed sunglasses that are square and lightly tinted.

He greets everyone he sees and a friendly assistant follows him, handing out Olympic pins of a tiny, cartoonish Snoop with his arms raised at his side, standing in front of an American flag.

Is it any wonder this guy creates a buzz in every venue he enters? He is the No. 1 celebrity sighting at the Games.