Craig Conover can’t get enough of the Paralympics.
The 35-year-old Bravo star is in Paris taking in all the greatness of the 2024 Paralympic Games as a Team USA ambassador — and he tells PEOPLE that he’s “hooked” on the events.
“When Team USA asked me to come out as a creator, I jumped at the chance and it’s been an incredible experience,” Conover, 35, tells PEOPLE. “And a couple of the athletes have said I’m kind of on the team now, so I’m just going to run with it,” he laughs.
Conover and his parents — who he brought along on his Paralympic adventure — have been watching the Olympic and Paralympic Games since he was young.
“I got to go to the pool arena the other night after watching it as growing up watching the Olympics [and] the Paralympics my whole life. And I talked to one of the swimmers, Grace [Nuhfer], who got a silver medal, and she just could not stop smiling about the noise and how loud it was,” he recalls.
He adds, “And so when our athletes are winning medals or even when they’re finishing their events, everyone’s cheering, everyone’s going crazy.”
Conover even says the energy at the Paris Paralympics has outdone some football games he’s attended. “There’s 70,000 people at the stadium. I’ve been to NFL games before and it doesn’t even come close to the stadium we were at the other night.”
“I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, you think you know about the Paralympic world or the para-athlete world until you really get here and it’s so positive and everyone’s so welcoming and everyone’s cheering for each other,” he explains. “But the competition is — it’s a competitive place to be.”
Highlights for the Bravolebrity so far include sitting volleyball — “a lot of fun,” says Conover — and fencing, which he got to try out for himself in Paris. He says, “I got to fence on my first day here. I didn’t want to tell anyone, but my arm was getting extremely tired and the coach just kept saying, ‘Again, again.’ “
“I think that an average Joe should have to play on the television before any Olympic or Paralympic sport just to show you how hard it is,” laughs Conover.
Moreover, Conover says it’s been inspiring watching the athletes and getting to know them during this experience. “The athletes themselves have just been great, and they’re the best athletes in the world, they just happen to have a physical disability, so to see how fast and electric these guys and girls are have been awesome.”
The Southern Charm fan favorite, who also appears on Bravo’s Summer House alongside girlfriend Paige DeSorbo, says his better half inspired him to bring his parents with him to France. Conover admits that in the past, he preferred to “kind of hide my TV world from my parents,” or rather, “maybe not hide it, but I just didn’t bring the two together,” he says.
From Left: Craig Conover and Paige DeSorbo at Century City Park on Feb. 12, 2022.
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
“But Paige does such a good job including her parents in everything that I’ve started to bring my parents,” Conover shares, adding that DeSorbo wishes she could be in Paris with him but is currently filming a new season of Summer House.
“So they went to BravoCon and now they’re here with me in Paris, and it’s really fun to see them explore a new city because my little brother was like, ‘How are you going to take mom and dad to Paris and not be with them all the time?’ ” the reality star shares. “But I told them the other night, they’ve been great and I’m really proud of them and they’ve made friends with everyone.”
