DBBC’s Patrick Kinas is headed to Rio to be the radio voice for swimming events at the 2016 Summer Olypmics.
While many of the athletes still have to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, Durham Bulls broadcaster Patrick Kinas already has his ticket to Rio.
“It was a dream come true,” he said.
Kinas will trade the baseball diamond for the swimming pool as the radio voice for swimming events in the Rio games.
“I still had two goals, one was to broadcast in the major leagues, I’m right on the verge of that,” he said. “The other was to get an opportunity to broadcast the Olympics.”
This summer’s aren’t just any Olympics, Kinas could find himself in the midst of history. His call may be the last for the most-decorated Olympian in the history of the games.
“It’s extremely humbling, and really nerve-wracking to know that I have the opportunity to be the soundtrack of Michael Phelps’ final Olympics,” he said.
Just like Phelps, Kinas is in training. He is currently spending as many as five hours per day diving in to Olympic swimming.
DBBC’s Patrick Kinas (left) works in the radio booth during a Durham Bulls game.
“There’s so much to learn,” he said. “From the history of the Olympic events, the greatest swimmers, the best times, the countries that have dominated the sport. Then (there’s) getting into the athletes, then getting into the rivals and watching a number of their races.
“It’s endless.”
But Kinas has been preparing for this his entire life. Even as a seven-year-old kid, he was pretending to broadcast the games.
“I went to my Commodore 64, which was the computer at the time, (I) would pop in the floppy disk of Summer Games, and I would play the Summer Olympics,” he said. “I would broadcast the summer Olympics.”
Now, that kid is heading to Rio
“I never dreamed that from that bedroom as a little kid in Pontiac, Illinois, a few decades later I would be heading down to Rio to broadcast the Olympics,” Kinas said.
The broadcaster is proof that not all Olympic dreams involve the medal stand.
Thanks to WRAL-TV’s Ken Medlin and WRAL.com’s Marilyn Payne for this capcom story & for these capcom photos.
