What he does Best: From UNC to Tokyo, keeping athletes in touch with media, fans
Posted August 10, 2021 8:18 a.m. EDT
Updated August 10, 2021 10:53 a.m. EDT
The 2020 Olympics may have been impacted by a global pandemic, but the process for Kevin Best remains the same.
In the same way that Katie Ledecky and Caleb Dressel still had to jump into the water and smash world records, Kevin Best had to be by the pool waiting to accompany these athletes to their interviews at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Best works year-round for the ACC, managing media operations for the conference's 27 sports. But when the Olympics are on the calendar, his work is international. In the "Mixed Zone," Best assures that every country’s biggest news network gets the opportunity to interview the winning athletes right after they medal in competition.
Best works with Olympic Broadcasting Services to provide an unbiased feed of the games to the world, showing every swimming event at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre without singling out one country.
He has worked every Olympics since 1996, Tokyo was his 12th. And to hear him tell it, ithese Games were more familiar than not.
One big obstacle that many broadcast networks have had to combat during the pandemic is the social distancing protocols, but this was nothing new for Best’s team. “For example, Michele Tafoya of NBC has always interviewed athletes in a three-by-three box, even without the pandemic,” Best said.
The only big change between this Olympics and his experiences with the other 11 times he worked the Games was the required 14-day quarantine. “Besides that, everything else operated the same as usual in an arena that would usually fit 10,000 people,” Best stated.
