Dianna Russini Biography
Dianna Russini is an American sports journalist who began her career in 2003. The biggest break of her career yet came in 2015 when she joined ESPN as a SportsCenter Anchor. She also covers for the NFL. Dianna is popular among sports lovers not only for her talent but for her hot body which makes it incredibly difficult to believe her marital status. Read on as we reveal more about Dianna Russini, her ESPN career as well as her romantic life.
Dianna Russini Age
She was born on February 11, 1983 in Bronx, New York. She is currently 36 years old as of 2019. Her birth sign is Aquarius.
Dianna Russini Height|Weight
Dianna stand 5 feet and 11 inches tall. She weighs a total of 59 Kg.
Dianna Russini Early Life
As a child, Dianna was extremely curious. She attended Old Tappan High School in New Jersey where her interest in journalism grew. However, due to her immense passion for sports, Dianna never fully settled on journalism. In high school, she was a 4 sport All State athlete, playing basketball, soccer, softball and track. Her weakest sport was soccer and her strongest, track. However, she also excelled quite well in basketball with Brian Dunn as her head coach. Despite being a 5-foot-6 forward, Russini was a three-year starter for the varsity basketball team.
After graduating from high school, Russini enrolled at George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia campus) as a soccer walk on. Despite being her weakest sports, she was bent on proving to her friends that she’d make it at the Division 1 level. And she did as she rapidly improved to become the team’s starting striker by her sophomore year. Russini didn’t abandon her interest in journalism though, after her soccer practices, she’d intern with some local radio stations. However, she remained unsettled on which one to focus more until the 2001, 9/11 attacks happened.
Dianna Russini Career
As a college student, Russini became a Student Sideline Reporter for Comcast from 2003 until her graduation year in 2005. Russini graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. For two years, between 2005 and 2007, she reported for News 12 Westchester. Subsequently, she’d go on to work for WNBC, New York, Comcast Sports in Seattle, Portland, NBC 30 in West Hartford, Connecticut and NBC in Washington D.C.
Her ESPN job came in September 2015. In her interview with High School Sports, Russini revealed that prior to landing the job, she was working as a local sports anchor for the parents of the guy that runs SportsCenter. She revealed that they “put in a good word” for her.
Dianna Russini Husband
Russini has never once been married, although she has been romantically linked with a number of guys. In 2008, she dated American baseball player David Wright, but it seems the relationship didn’t last beyond a year. Wright married super model Molly Beers in 2013.
Fresh into her ESPN job in 2015, Dianna was accused of the unthinkable. Washington Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan’s wife Jessica McCloughan accused her of being her husband’s side chick and worse she claimed that Russini gave players BJ’s in return for information about the team.
Jessica McCloughan made the claims via Twitter only for the account to be deleted shortly after, causing many to speculate that her account was hacked. Mrs McCloughan later issued an apology saying that her actions were inappropriate. A good number of sports journalists slammed Mrs McCloughan for her behavior saying that her comments were only based on the usual false perception people often have about female sports journalists.
Dianna Russini Net Worth
Diana has an estimated net worth of 2 million dollars as of 2019.
Dianna Russini ESPN
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Dianna Russini Interview
“Interview with Double G Sports”
What sports journalists have you looked up to?
Robin Meade at CNN who I wanted to be more like and wanted to have her authenticity. Diane Sawyer, who I interned with and got to be around a lot and learned a great lesson to carry yourself with class and professionalism. At the local level, Jenna Wolfe at Channel 7 in New York City taught me how to handle the pressure and competitiveness.
What is your advice for aspiring female sports journalists?
Important to be your biggest fan, you’re going to be told no, not good enough and bad at this. Some point in your journey you can’t give into this and allow it to affect your dream. If you work at it and are committed to it, you will get better and I have seen it with myself and other anchors/reporters. Read as much, intern and reach out to people on social media and ask questions. One of my biggest mistakes I made around successful journalists is not asking the right question. Picking the brains that have done it and figuring if you really want this.
How was your first day at ESPN and what is your daily schedule like?
I was scared out of my mind because it was a difficult challenge and anchoring Sportscenter is a very difficult and you need the knowledge to handle the show, be a personality but yet a journalist. A balance of things when you have zero knowledge and understanding of the landscape at ESPN, it takes almost a year to feel like you can stand because you are drowning in so many difficult things that happen when you start in a new company.
Commitment is the key and I like that competitiveness. There are strict and difficult standards of who can do this job and I know I’m replaceable. I know there are a million women out there who could do this job and that keeps me sharp. I never rest and get comfortable here because I know it could change tomorrow. I started in news because it gave me a great foundation to understand how to be good at this and I’m still learning a lot but an athletic background helped me grow into this ESPN anchor that I am now
I’m up by 8:00 a.m. reading the newspaper and in the office by noon. I meet with a team of producers, directors and researchers. At 1:00 p.m. we discuss the day and start preparing, researching, writing, making phone calls and figuring out the best way I can put a show together and anchor from 7 to 9 p.m.
How do you handle the pressure of anchoring SportsCenter solo?
It’s a challenge with no one to lean on, just you. It is the biggest thing that happened to my career and it’s allowed me to make mistakes and figure how to get out of it. It has improved my anchoring ability by a lot and I love to pick out a lot of content and people I want to talk to. Letting me own those stories in the show and talk to analysts that stick out to me and have viewers care about something.