Wheelchair Racer Changes Course to Broadcast Booth

Halfway through his 10-mile workout on a crisp Saturday morning, Bob Molinatti glanced at his cycle computer and grimaced. “I’m not having a good day,” he huffed, as he rolled down Pacific Coast Highway in a three-wheeled, alloy-framed wheelchair. His hands cranked the 14-inch push rims, forcing his speed up to 15 m.p.h. “My training schedule has been sporadic, at best, and I’m feeling tired.”

From a distance, he looked like a tumbleweed.

Dust and rocks exploded off his back wheels as he raced to beat a stoplight. The only sounds that cut through the roar of the traffic were the low-pitched squealing of his high-pressure tires on the hot gravel road and the trumpeting of a car horn by a passing motorist.

“They’re inspired by me,” Molinatti, 31, said, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “That’s why they honk. But it’s time the public stop focusing on our so-called disabilities. Wheelchair athletes are no different than other athletes. We’re competitive and we’re competent.”

Paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident 12 years ago, Molinatti is one of the country’s top wheelchair racers. He is a two-time winner of the Los Angeles Marathon (1986 and 1988) and he once held the national marathon record for the fastest time (1 hour, 40 minutes). “Only a handful of Americans are capable of beating me,” he boasted, after a rather uninspired Saturday morning workout.

Confidence aside, Molinatti lost last year’s marathon by three seconds. And he has yet to win an international competition. But it was his post-race interview in 1988 that captured the attention of Phil Olsman, producer of KCOP’s (Channel 13) Los Angeles Marathon Television Show. “Bob had that kind of personality that jumped off the screen at you,” Olsman recalled.

Opportunity knocked, albeit lightly, when Molinatti was invited to do the color broadcast for KCOP’s live coverage of the Los Angeles Marathon V on March 4. “This will do more for me than racing ever could,” the Huntington Beach resident observed.

Molinatti’s broadcasting debut is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. March 3 when KCOP airs its preview show, hosted by Barry Tompkins and Larry Rawson. The following day, Molinatti will take part in the pre-race show, conduct the post-race interviews and cover the wheelchair awards ceremony. He also may provide in-studio commentary with anchor Wendy Rutledge.

“I hired Bob because he knows what the hell he’s talking about,” Olsman said. “He’s been to hundreds of road races. He brings to KCOP an experienced point of view that’s well-suited for this particular event.”

Molinatti “pushed” his first marathon in 1984. Three years later, he was a top-notch athlete. Last year, he competed with the Paralympics team in Seoul, South Korea. His failure to capture a medal was his “greatest tragedy in life”--even greater than the accident that injured his spinal cord.

“The accident had happened a long time ago,” Molinatti explained. “I had gotten over that and was pushing on with my life. It was much tougher to come home from Korea empty-handed and have to answer to all the people who supported me.”

Not surprisingly, Molinatti’s “greatest tragedy” inspired him to focus on other areas of his life, namely a career in broadcasting. Although he holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Cal State Long Beach, Molinatti has limited experience in front of a television camera. “I just have to believe in my heart that I can approach this with the same level of confidence with which I’ve approached racing.”

It’s the same confidence with which he has also approached his position as wheelchair race coordinator for this year’s L.A. Marathon.

To that end, Molinatti has helped organize what may well be the largest field of wheelchair athletes in the marathon’s five-year history (the record is 64). “Bob went out of his way to make sure the concerns of the athletes were addressed,” said William A. Burke, president of Los Angeles Marathon Inc.

The city’s marathon is considered one of the top races for wheelchair participants. This year’s purse will exceed $20,000.

As for the race itself, Molinatti said he is only marginally disappointed that he won’t be competing. “I can always race,” he said. “But how many opportunities like this are going to come along in my lifetime?”

Besides, he will likely enter the Tom Sullivan 10k on March 18. It’s not nearly as prestigious as the 26-mile course that starts and finishes at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but at least it will keep him competitive--even though he concedes that he may have reached his peak.

“Jim Knaub, last year’s marathon winner, is a far superior athlete to me,” Molinatti said. “He’s hitting gears that I’m not hitting, and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s because of my desire to branch out and explore this broadcasting thing.”

Knaub’s view: “Bob’s still a competitor, but he’s too busy developing his skills as a commentator.”

Molinatti said he hopes to parlay his exposure from the KCOP assignment to other areas. He already has signed on with Wolfpack Personalities Inc. in Sacramento, a company that promotes sports personalities.

“Bob has got a great attitude and a high-level of personal achievement,” said Pete Crawford, Wolfpack’s vice president. “We’re putting together a promotional film right now to send to major networks and manufacturers.”

Molinatti’s dream is to be hired as a color broadcaster by some of the other independent television stations that cover wheelchair races. He also has some unfinished business at the 1992 Paralympics. “Once I get that monkey off my back, I’ll take this broadcasting thing wherever it leads,” he added.

And no doubt, he’ll go there with confidence.