Bulls’ Kinas Shares Final Thoughts After Return from Olympics

Durham Bulls Radio Announcer/Account Executive Patrick Kinas landed in Raleigh on Tuesday, August 23, after almost a month in Rio, he didn’t have long to reflect on his amazing adventure. Kinas drove straight to Charlotte to meet the Bulls’ team and resume his baseball radio announcing duties for the game that night. Although he’s back in the swing of things for the final few games of the 2016 Bulls season, Kinas kindly took a moment to share a few final thoughts on his Olympic adventure with Capcom:

As a kid – heck, even as an adult – what I thought the experience of broadcasting the Olympics would be like compared to the actual reality – was trumpeted up at least 10-fold. The days were long, the crew was small, the challenges were real, but it was the job of the 17 of us to tell the story of the Olympic Games as thoroughly as possible for our nationwide audience. Fortunately – and certainly not to my surprise – all of my colleagues were pro’s pros. The pride and elite skill with which they worked was evident from the first moment I walked in the studio. The bar for all of us was at Gold-medal high jump level – and expectations could not have been higher of all of us. After watching all of them absolutely kill it over our 24 days in Rio, I couldn’t be prouder of my colleagues and the work that they did, and welcoming me into this special group as easily and quickly as they did – I truly felt like I was their family.

The stories I covered, the races I called, the experiences I had – are memories I hope I can maintain forever – as vividly as they are in my head and heart right now.

My wish is that everyone who has a dream still unfulfilled – get an opportunity to fulfill it – whatever “it” is. I can’t begin to explain what experiencing that moment feels like, but I’m forever grateful for those who gave me this chance. No matter what my life or career has in store, Rio will forever remind me that pipe dreams of a seven-year-old boy can come true.

From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: Ciao, Rio. You’ve made one of my lifelong dreams come true

Rio — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: I covered the final day of the women’s Olympic golf tournament, which awarded the first women’s golf gold medal ever. This is my view from the booth above the 18th green.

Rio — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: A gold medal embrace after South Korean Inbee Park made her final putt on 18 to win the gold by 5 shots. Interestingly, it was her first competitive round in two months after an injury.

From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: Your first-ever Olympic Games women’s golf Gold medalist, South Korea’s Inbee Park. (If you’re an Olympic die-hard, you’ll know this isn’t the first women’s golf champion, but the winner in 1900 wasn’t awarded a gold medal, but instead some kind of bowl.)

Patrick Kinas & Carol Lewis — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: Track & Field star and three-time Olympian Carol Lewis, who was our analyst for the track events on Westwood One. Her brother Carl was also on site for the Games.

Patrick Kinas & J'Den Cox — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: Quick pic with Olympic bronze medalist J’Den Cox in freestyle wrestling.

PJ Carlesimo & Patrick Kinas — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: Our Westwood One basketball analyst and former college and NBA head coach PJ Carlesimo.

From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: USA men’s volleyball captain David Lee wearing the flag after they rallied from two sets down to beat the Russians in five electric sets for the bronze.

From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: Pre-match hype at Maracanazinho before USA-Russia.

Kyle Snyder & Patrick Kinas — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder in freestyle wrestling. The Ohio State stud has won an NCAA championship, a World Championship and now an Olympic Gold medal ALL within the same calendar year, which has never happened in American wrestling history. Oh, he’s only 20.

Olympics Closing Ceremony — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: One of the first visuals I had when I arrived at our broadcast commentary position for the Closing Ceremony.

NBC/Westwood One Radio at Olympics — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: A look inside our NBC radio/Westwood One offices where we spent about 14 hours a day.

Media village view — From DBBC’s Patrick Kinas: My final look outside my media village window before leaving. Quite a view of ….construction? I’ll miss the 7am construction noises and the 24 hour a day rooster cock-a-doodle-doing. Freakin’ animal couldn’t tell time. It was sunrise somewhere.

His WRAL-TV counterparts shared their adventures with their CBC co-workers late last week. Check out the capcom story: