Molly Solomon will lead NBC's Olympics coverage, becoming the first woman to be an executive producer for a U.S. network sports division.

She succeeds Jim Bell, who announced Nov. 4 he was leaving the network.

Solomon was promoted Tuesday to executive president and producer of the network's Olympics unit. She will continue to be executive producer at GOLF Channel, a position she has held since 2012.

"I've had a great sports life," Solomon said. "I can't wait to dig in and work more broadly on the Tokyo Olympics."

Solomon has extensive history with the network's Olympic coverage. She has worked 10 Winter and Summer Games, beginning as a network researcher in 1990 and becoming coordinating producer from 2006-12. She oversaw the network's production of golf's return to the Olympics in Rio in 2016.

Pete Bevacqua, the president of NBC's Sports Group said in a statement that he was happy to see "a long-time and well-liked member of our NBC team return to her roots."

NBC Universal owns the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympics through 2032. The Tokyo Games next year are the second of three straight Olympics in Asia, which is 14 hours ahead of Eastern time.

As was the case for the Seoul and Beijing Games, many of the swimming and track & field finals are expected to happen in the morning in Tokyo so they can air in prime time in most of the U.S.