She has covered sports stories in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Japan, China, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
In 1990, while working at the Boston Herald, she alleged that she was sexually harassed by New England Patriots football players in the team's locker room.
She attended Apollo and Shadow Mountain high schools,[1] and graduated from Northern Arizona University's journalism program in 1987.
")[5] Later, on February 4, 1991, at a male-only sports banquet in Stamford, Connecticut, Kiam told the attendees a crude joke about the incident.
Referring to the United States military's use of Patriot missiles during the then-ongoing Gulf War, Kiam said to the audience: "What do the Iraqis have in common with Lisa Olson?
[7][8] Eventually, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue ordered an investigation under the aegis of former Watergate scandal prosecutor Philip Heymann;[5] the 60-page report concluded that Olson was "degraded and humiliated."
[4] On April 25, 1991, Olson filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts state court against the Patriots, Kiam, Sullivan, Oldham, and the three players (Mowatt, Timpson, and Perryman), alleging violations of her civil rights, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional damage to her professional reputation.
[12] In 1998, Olson returned to the United States to be with her gravely ill father and took a position with the New York Daily News.
[1][9] Later that year, Olson and Sam Marchiano were reportedly subjected to a profanity-laced verbal tirade by New York Yankees pitcher David Wells when they approached him at his home to comment on his sudden trade to the Toronto Blue Jays for Roger Clemens.
[1] She won numerous writing awards during her time with the Daily News, including "Best Sports Reporting" by the Society of Professional Journalists.
The documentary was about female sportswriters' struggles to gain access to male locker rooms in order to be able to do their jobs.
[13] Olson's ordeal was mentioned (although without her name, referring to her only as "a Boston Globe reporter") in the Sports Night Season One episode "Mary Pat Shelby," in which Natalie Hurley was assaulted in a locker room by football star Christian Patrick.