Shooting for gold

By Cody Boteler on July 23, 2021

To catch his first flight, Patrick Smith ’09 had to be out of his Baltimore home before 5 a.m. Then, Smith flew to Atlanta before boarding a 13-hour flight to Tokyo, where he’s capturing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for Getty Images.

“It’s hard not to be excited,” says Smith. “We dream, as sports photographers, to go to the Olympics.”

He’ll be covering events like tennis and skateboarding, but his bread and butter will be track and field, called “athletics” in Olympics lingo.

It is a category that Smith is familiar with. He regularly covers track and field events and has covered world championships for Getty Images for more than five years. Smith also traveled to Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Despite his familiarity with the events, there are several unknowns to brace for, Smith says. He’ll have to get tested for COVID-19 multiple times and where he’s able to travel will be limited. Capturing sporting events without fans in the crowd will be a change for him too, he says.

“But it’s also super historic; we’ll never see anything like this in our life again.”

There are a few things Smith did to prepare for traveling to the other side of the globe. One, of course, is packing. “A lot of packing, a lot of rearranging,” he says.

That included hundreds of pounds of camera gear and laptops, in addition to his personal items. But preparing for Tokyo involved more than filling suitcases.

“It’s also taking the kids to the aquarium, mowing the lawn. I went to the beach last week with the family to swim in the ocean,” Smith says. “That’s my peace.”

He graduated with his B.S. in mass communication, with a concentration in journalism and new media. He credits the opportunities created at Towson University for launching him to where he is now.

Smith says, for example, he’d be remiss to not mention his time as photo editor of The Towerlight, an independent, student-run newspaper at TU.

“Learning how to gather news with other like-minded students at The Towerlight, that was really my start to my career,” Smith says.

The faculty helped prepare him too, he says. The morals and ethics discussed in class are principles he still thinks about and being surrounded by other journalism students kept him going.

“Having a campus newspaper and other journalism students to help guide me through my ‘successful failures’ led me to my career with Getty Images,” he says.

Just like it’s Smith’s second trip to the Olympics, it’s also his second time going to Japan. Last time, though, he was a student.

Smith recalls being hugely influenced by Kanji Takeno, who was until recently TU’s director of photographic services. Smith, when he was an undergraduate, took a Japanese course with Takeno.

“With his influence, I visited Japan in college; he gave me the push to go do it,” Smith says. “I’m going back to the world’s largest sporting event because of his and Towson’s guidance.”

Smith says he’s excited to come back and tell Takeno about his time there.

“I think it’s great that students at TU can find mentors, not even in their field or major, and they can become lifelong mentors or friends,” he says.

Learn more

Interested in journalism or communication?

Towson University offers a major in mass communication with three tracks: journalism, advertising or strategic public relations. Follow the link to learn more about the mass communication major.