It has been just over a month since the curtain closed on the 2020(or 2021) Olympic Games and while New Zealand (well Auckland in particular) is stuck in Lockdown, I decided to share my games experience as the team photographer for Athletics New Zealand and the Vantage New Zealand Black Sticks and to give a little insight on what it was like to be a photographer at the Covid Games. It’s a little lengthy so sit down with a cuppa and enjoy some yarns.
Firstly, pre planning. Planning to be a photographer at an Olympic Games actually starts about 21 months out from when you depart. That is when you have to start with the accreditation process. Initially I was going as just the team photographer for Athletics. A bit of background: have been the lead photographer and lead designer for Athletics New Zealand since 2015 now with the role growing gradually through the years which has been super fun, covering domestic events as well as 2x World Championships, a Commonwealth Games and now an Olympics. I also still compete in Athletics but that is another story to tell.
Around about one year to go is when you find out if you have an accreditation secured. There are two types for photographers: EP, meaning access to all sports and EPs which is access to a specific sports you have applied for. I was granted an EP pass meaning I could shoot all sports, which was super exciting and later proved very useful when my pal Simon Watts, owner of BW Media the official team photographer of the Vantage New Zealand Black Sticks was unable to come to the games after the postponement I was able to cover for him. Which was an amazing and fun opportunity in itself. This is when you start your planning, accomodation via the Tokyo system, insurance etc. When the games was postponed, all this just got moved to the next year.
Then we have that one annoying person no one wants to invite to the party: Covid. Ol mate Covid made history forcing the Games to be postponed for the first time in history (it has only every been fully cancelled due to war). A year ago we would think Covid had gone and fucked off about now, but Covid is a bit clingy and lingered to heavily restrict these games including the most obvious one: no crowds. This also included heavy precaution measures for every single person involved in the games to minimise the risk of an outbreak with the Olympics and worse, to the general population of Japan. First on this was to get fully vaccinated. This was not compulsory but recommended and honestly you would be bloody stupid not to get it before you left. Not only to reduce the risk to catch it from others at the games (one positive test and you are done pretty much) but also to reduce the risk to bring it back into our beautiful country!
Another major factor for these games was the heat. The heat and humidity in Tokyo is no joke and as a photographer you are spending hours and hours out in the field, wearing 8-10KG of gear in the most unergonomic way, in an extremely high pressure environment where you have to make split decisions on the fly and anticipate and react to the action in front of you to capture key moments. Then of course you have to wear a mask so that is going to hinder your breathing. For this all athletes, staff and media were encouraged to heat train and to be fit (I train roughly 10-15 hours a week for pole vault so fitness wasn’t too much of an issue). For this I used the Sauna at AUT Millennium. The sauna there turns off at 3pm so 2-3 times a week I would do a running session to get fatigued, jump in the sauna at 2.30 and use this time to read my documents (using my brain) and stay in there for half an hour. Then I would go do my normal gym session. Then twice a week, after my pole vault sessions, I would jump in the evening where the sauna was off so not as hot, but still hot enough to break out a sweat. I would sit there with long tights and long sleeve top and a mask. To stimulate my brain, working on concentration as well as reaction times, I would play Temple Run the whole 30minutes I was in there as it is all very well to just sit in there and vegetate for half an hour but the point of heat training is so you can work/perform in the climate. Appreciation to friends: physiologist, Lucy Jacobs and Black Sticks Women’s strength and conditioning lead, Nicolai Morris for helping me out for this.
We also had to submit activity plans 4 weeks prior to departing of rough whereabouts of your first 14 days in Japan to be approved by the Japanese government prior to departing (ideally) and have a bunch of health reporting logins and applications working and ready with all your information in it. Each organisation/freelancer had to appoint a Covid Liaison Officer, abbreviated to CLO to be the one responsible to ensure apps and logins work, test results for yourself and your team and organising activity plans as well as all the documentation you needed to enter Japan (the stress of forgetting one!) Cue us CLO’s calling each other on the regular for help/emotional support and I know we all grew a few grey hairs after this process but it was all worth it in the end. The hardest thing was this hasn’t happened before, and this is the biggest sporting event in the world, a logistical nightmare! Hats off to the Tokyo2020 team for putting up with all our stupid questions.
Then of course, we all were required to take two saliva tests prior to departing for Tokyo. One 92 hours prior and one 72. I tell ya what I was bloody slow filling up the vile with spit the first one taking half an hour! Thank goodness I got much quicker and more efficient at this after my many spit tests within the Games. My top tip is to do it when you are STARVING haha.
Oh of course there is the fun game of finding a spot in Managed Isolation on returning to New Zealand.
And finally we leave New Zealand.
Upon arrival to Narita Airport, we had to take another saliva test and then sent to a holding bay in the airport while we waited our test results. You were given a number and a seat and had to sit there until your result came through. We did have a bathroom and we grabbed a bottle of water before we took our seat. This was a character building process as it took 5 hours from when we got off the plane to when our test result came out and we were free to go collect our bags and get our accreditation validated. Then we finally got to our hotel which over a 2 hour drive from the airport.
Day 1 - 3: Self Isolation in the Hotel
The first night was fun as my air conditioning didn’t work! But alas the staff at my hotel were super helpful and I moved room the next day. I had a three day quarantine in my room before I could go out and about in the Olympic Bubble. We had to order tests to be dropped off at our hotel for every day in these three days and phone every day for a pick up. My three day quarantine was a good time to catch up on some sleep, as I find it difficult to sleep on planes and prior to departing was a very busy time. Not only that, take my time to repack my camera bag (as you have to strip it down to fly) which as you can guess, I left until my third day haha. It was nice to just chill before the storm began! Also a great time to familiarise myself with the venues, the photographer and media guides, the transport system, the booking system (we have to pre book every session before we attend, this is to ensure there aren’t too many photographers for the venue for social distancing) and the testing system. And you can bet your ass I did some shopping on Amazon!
My hotel room that was my home for the next 18 days including my three day quarantine
Day 4 in Tokyo: Day 1 of freedom within our 14 day bubble.
Day 4 in Tokyo, I was free and now the fun begins! The first task is heading to MPC (Main Press Centre) which is the hub for the Olympic Media. Here we received our media packs (including a snazzy new backpack). I got to see my friends Vera (New Zealand Rowing and Canoe team photographer) and Chrystel (World Athletics designer, illustrator and photographer from Lebanon) who showed me around the press centre and it was nice to hang out with people again! I went to go see Canon Professional Services and got a free rain cover (which was very useful) and loaned out another 1DXII and a 200-400 F4 for the Hockey match in the evening. Also was a good time to get all my gear serviced! You might ask why I only loaned a MKII not a MKII or an R5 and the answer is a: would have to update my Lightroom and we know some updates glitch so didn’t want to play with that. Also I own a MKII so it is so easy to load your settings from a card onto the new camera. Plus you can only hire one card, so having the same cards is super handy. Now I was able to shoot with two MKIIs which was a dream. Now all the admin was all finished and it was time to dance!
Finally some photography! Day 4 - 26th July 2021: New Zealand Black Sticks Women vs Japan. Oi Hockey Stadium.
First day and Olympics Debut was photographing our Black Sticks Women take on the home side in their second pool match. They came off an epic win against Argentina and were looking to back that up. I haven’t photographed much Hockey to be honest. Maybe a handful of games a few years ago which I always did enjoy. When Simon asked me to cover for him, I went down to Hamilton to photograph the North v South game to warm up and get my eye in before I got out there for the big dance!
Stepping out on the turf in an Olympic games to photograph for your team, your country is such a surreal feeling, a feeling I experienced every single game. Maybe it is the athlete in me but when you walk out onto the turf you get in the zone. Suddenly, no matter drenched you are in your own sweat, you forget about the heat because you have a job to do. And hearing your national anthem play at the Olympic Games gives an enormous sense of pride I can’t quite explain.
Our amazing women continued their winning streak, taking out Japan 2-1 with goals from Olivia Merry and Hope Ralph. Even though the stands were empty the atmosphere was incredible! They had an awesome DJ who kept the vibes on point. The turf is also beautiful! The blue is so electric and the lighting is amazing with the right amount of warmth to balance out the blue. The turf is wet so the lights hit the water making for some epic shots! There is also something that is pretty bad ass when you photograph athletes with a ‘tool’ (pole, bat, hockey stick) as it makes it look like a weapon with the players out on the battlefield. I am actually so impressed on how fast and fit hockey players have to be! The game is so fast and hectic with the ball getting fired around at such pace it was a fun challenge to photograph!
This was the first time I used the 200-400 as well. It is a beast of a lens, far too heavy to use handheld but I have a carbon fibre monopod which is nice. I personally don’t like using monopods as I find it limiting and is much more cumbersome to switch camera on the fly but for a lens of this weight and a linear sport you might as well save your body. I found 200-400mm fantastic as the range meant I could get away with just using the one body for the action.
Day 5 - 27th July: New Zealand Black Sticks Men v Japan. Oi Hockey Stadium
Well today I might as well be back in Auckland with the weather. A classic nice sunny day, massive downpour and just drowning all your stuff to back to being sunny again. Sounds familiar? On a positive the rain today made the temperature much more pleasant as this game was at 11.45am. I ended up taking off the 2nd and 3rd body off my BlackRapid and put them in my backpack and quickly putting my waterproof bag on top of them as the top of my backpack just pooled with water as I continued shooting (I didn’t have my laptop on me thank goodness). Pretty much as soon as I got my rain coat out for myself the rain finished. Something I was used to being an Aucklander! It was a challenge sending photos on a wet screen, using my wifi transmitter (I did put my phone under some plastic as I wasn’t going to test the water resistance of the iPhone 12 Pro out here). However what was great was the game was either in overcast or rain, meaning there was always a sufficient amount of cloud to diffuse the harsh midday sun enough to minimise casting from the bright blue turf giving off much more even skin tones. The boys played an epic match in trying conditions and drew 2-2 with the home side with goals from Nick Wilson and Sam Lane.
Day 6 - 28th July: Double day! Morning game: New Zealand Black Sticks Women v Spain. Oi Hockey Stadium.
Last night was my last night until the end of the games when I got to bed at a reasonable hour (ha). The girls played Spain in 31 degree heat in the middle of the day and we were blessed by some scattered clouds but when the sun came out, boy it was hot out there! There is absolutely no cover turf side for us photographers so I absolutely baked in the sun a bit and got some interesting tan lines from when my camera straps (or sweat) wiped off my sunblock (someone forgot to reapply as you can see). One thigh in particular was pretty pink and worse when I put my laptop on my lap on the bus ride home, the heat from the laptop on my leg was not fun. Much less cloud cover than yesterday means some pretty heavy casting from the blue turf so I had to turn up my white balance (temperature) pretty high to balance it out so better skin tones! The girls had a good battle with Spain coming out short 1-2 with Kelsey Smith scoring.
I had some time to kill in-between and after our first 3 days we had to test every 4 days. To ensure that we kept on top of our testing we would just test as much as we can. So found my American friend Jeff ( epic athletics photographer, check him out on Instagram here) and took a spit test at MPC. Jeff got a sneaky snap of the testing centre.
A view into the photographer work room in MPC
Game two of the day: New Zealand Black Sticks Men vs Australia Kookaburras. Oi Hockey Stadium
Back to the turf for another night game and nothing like a classic Trans-Tasman clash from with our neighbours across the ditch. Due to covid, the only international hockey these two teams played for ages was with each other in the brief period when the New Zealand and Australia bubble opened. The boys held out the Aussies well in a fierce battle but fell 2-4 with Kane Russell scoring both goals. It was disgustingly hot, we found the humidity picks up in the afternoon. While the zero cover at the hockey isn’t fun in the morning session it is a blessing in the afternoon as you get some breeze to help cool things down. I also decided tonight to hand back my 200-400 as I was unsure if I was going to MPC the next day (you have to return it every 24 hours and re loan equipment out. MPC is another 10 minute bus ride from the transport centre where all the busses head to). Going back to hand held for this match was super nice and my 300 is fantastic. As well as having 2.8 for the night session. Now I was hand held it was much easier to swap camera bodies on the fly and I even had some fun and tried some pans. Hockey panning shots are so difficult as the players don’t go in a straight line often, but it was a fun challenge!
Day 7: Time to check out the Olympic Stadium! For a recce and media briefing for athletics. Olympic Stadium.
The massive excitement to head over to the Olympic Stadium! Along side from the briefing this was an excellent time to get familiar with the layout of the stadium, especially as the session starts at 9am the next day so you don’t have much time to figure out your spots or access in the morning. It is a good way to have a look at photo positions to see if they could work with the ideas you have in mind covering different events. When you photograph enough athletics, when you see where the field events circles and pits are placed it is easier to visualise the event happening to get an idea of what angles might and might not work. This is all helpful when running off 3 hours sleep and having to navigate through other photographers to find spots, also when something on the day obstructs your angle (TV camera for example) you can move somewhere else. This was also an awesome time to get a walk on the actual track! I took my 5DMKIII and a 24-70 out to get some general views of the stadium.
Game time: 29th July - New Zealand Black Sticks Women vs Australia Hockeyroos. Oi Hockey Stadium
Another fantastic Trans-Tasman clash, this time the girls were up! Super hot evening again again with the game starting at 8:45pm. Same situation as the boys, these two teams only international games for ages was against each other, played when the Trans-Tasman bubble opened. The girls had such a fantastic high octane game against our neighbours across the ditch just loosing out 0-1! No panning shots were attempted here as the game was so fast and hectic! Super fun to shoot tho. We usually play on the North pitch but these past two games against the Aussies were on the South pitch, the same thing but the main difference is the photo positions on the turf are on the same side as the main stand, meaning you were underneath the other players and staff from each team so you got a sense of atmosphere hearing them cheering their mates on.
Day 8: 30th July - Day 1 Athletics. Olympic Stadium.
The first day of Athletics kicking off and for the Kiwis, Hamish Kerr was first up in the High Jump. Running on 3 hours sleep for a ruthless turnaround from the night game yesterday to the morning session, I got there nice an early so i could pick a pretty good spot for the high jump, top of the stairs to the moat meaning I was standing track level or one step down. Due to covid, the seats had one empty seat between each photo designated seat and it was expected to have social distancing in the moat, which means you couldn’t just squeeze in last minute so if the shot you are thinking of needed a pretty specific spot to get it, you had to get there early. Hamish jumped epic and booked his spot to the final on his debut Olympics! In the morning I also took a long trip to the top of the stadium to get a top down shot of the Women’s 100m heats running over the Olympic Rings that were painted on the track. Getting to this spot involved navigating your way inside the stadium and finding a lift, then walking out to the stadium and only then did you really see where you were around the track. Then at the top you can walk around to get to your spot. A big effort but pretty sweet view from the top as well! Plus you got some breeze. Wouldn’t recommend if you were afraid of heights though.
The night session of the first day of athletics featured Dame Valerie Adams and Maddison-Lee Wesche in the Women’s Shot Put Qualification and Camille Buscomb in the 5000m heats. Boy today was HOT. The shot put qualifying was out on the back bend so I positioned myself low in the moat. The moat for photographers is in a trench that separates the track from the spectators with scaffolding in place to stand on so you shoot though the railing and you are just above eye level from the track, which does make for cool angles but you have to avoid the rail bars and shoot past them. We had about a foot and a half in front of us taken up by wires for broadcasting that ran around the whole track, up on another level of scaffolding, so we couldn’t have our cameras past the railing. Also we would have people walking past and it was very hard to move around on the scaffolding as it was quite narrow (walking past other photographers was also a challenge, lucky I am small!) It was a bit of a game to get shots while avoiding obstacles. Because we are down below it is like a SAUNA in there! No breeze gets into the moat so your beige media vest just gets darker and darker as the session commences with your sweat haha. It was job done for Val and Maddi, both booking their ticket to the final in a couple days time. It was extremely tough for Camille out there, I couldn’t even imagine what it was like to run a 5000m in this heat. She had a gutsy run out there but unfortunately didn’t make it to the final.
Day 8: 31st July - New Zealand Black Sticks Women vs China. Oi Hockey Stadium
Last day of pool play for the girls and today was an absolute scorcher out there!! The game kicked off at 9:30am so not as brutal as the past games that started at 11:45am but it felt worse out there as we had zero cloud cover. There are two spots you could choose to photograph from, the stands or the turf and you could only move at half time. The stands provide a clean background as you are shooting from high but I personally prefer being down at eye level as I feel more immersed in the game and feel I can get more emotive shots from eye level. Plus there is more opportunity for Tokyo and Olympic branding from eye level. I was the one of the only photographers stupid enough to brave the full exposure of the sun and heat but I am only out there with two hours (by the time you add up entry 30 minutes prior and quarter and half time breaks) so I just dealt with it, which was worth it! Hydration tablets and Hydraflasks keeping your water cold is a life saver and I felt the heat out there didn’t effect me too much so I guess my heat training back home was beneficial, plus it helps if you are reasonably fit! It was an action packed match with China in the end defeating our girls 2-3, with goals from Ella Gunson and Rose Keddell but our girls still booked their ticket to the quarterfinals in two days time with their performance across all of pool play. Today I also captured probably my favourite hockey image from the games of Rose celebrating her banging goal with Sam Charlton and Liz Thompson right in front of the Olympic rings. I also gambled a bit and had another crack at some panning shots.
31st July - Athletics Day 2. Olympic Stadium
Back to the track again and this time I could have some fun as we had no kiwis competing. Tonight was also the largely anticipated women’s 100m final as women’s sprinting is on FIRE at the moment! This was the last event so I spent earlier in the session exploring some angles of the earlier events which included the Men’s 100m heats and the Women’s 100m semi finals as well as the inaugural mixed 4x400m relay final. For the 100m final I like to be halfway around the bend as then you get the celebration shots past the finish line of them running past. Also shooting with a 300 allows you to get the story of the finish as well as wide enough to get the athlete running past without being too tight. Often the athlete won’t react until a few metres past the line so this is a good spot to get this. However it is the worst spot to pick the winner as you can’t often tell with your angle who is the winner so often you are relying on reacting to celebrations in the milliseconds you have. We also got a light show to hype up the 100m finals, we experienced this in Doha for world championships in 2019 every night and it was always so epic. It just sets the scene for the race and even more important when you had no public in the crowds just to get the hype up. The athletics stands do have many more people in them as every athlete’s support team/coaches are in the crowd so the numbers add up and provide atmosphere but it isn’t near the numbers or a proper sold out stadium.
The 100m final did not fail to disappoint. Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica stormed to a victory and a new Olympic record, defeating the current world leader, reigning world champion and world all time number 2, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica). This performance pushed Elaine to the second fastest woman to ever walk the earth. I was absolutely fizzing after seeing this and I was super stoked with my images, as I did think Shelly-Ann was going to take it out and had to quickly adjust to focus on Elaine instead as she claimed victory! Such an incredible and electric experience being in that stadium that night.
Day 9: 1st August - Athletics Day 3. Olympic Stadium
I had about 3 hours sleep the night before but woke up absolutely fizzing over what I just saw last night and super excited for today. Not really feeling that tired as I was running off adrenaline but knocked back a canned ice coffee from the vending machine outside my hotel and off I went to the Olympic Stadium. Today’s excitement had our first final for New Zealanders, the highly anticipated Women’s shot put final with Dame Valerie Adams and Maddison-Lee Wesche and I am getting goosebumps just typing this. First up in the session was Julia Ratcliffe in the Women’s Hammer in her Olympic Debut. Job well done for Julia, booking her ticket to the final! Hammer was very challenging to shoot as there was no infield access so I was finding positions in the moat to manual focus though the net and then avoid as many obstacles as I could (TV etc). Hammer photos are always a challenge, using the widest aperture you could to try minimise the focus on the net making it almost invisible. It works better the closer you are to the net or the further away the athlete is to the net (both quite challenging with these situations). I was lucky to get some I was happy with, as well as reaction shots of Julia making the final! Then I had to move fast to get to the position for the shot put final. I would have my first major clash with Lauren Bruce in the second qualifying group for Women’s Hammer at the same time as the shot put so I would have to settle to getting images from my shot put vantage point (they can only have one hammer competition running at the same time so have to split the times). I ended up starting in a similar spot to where I was for the 100m final the night before. I had spotted the NZ coaching and support team to my right so I knew the athletes would look there and that was where I anticipated the celebrations would be, however that was not a clear shot of the circle (puns) so I didn’t sit as far to the right as I could to be near the coaches to get a clear(er) shot while trying to avoid all the obstacles.
I was in position and in the first 3 rounds I opted to get throwing shots in a small opening, as much as I could from behind. Maddi spins so more opportunity from behind than Valerie. Maddi had a fantastic competition with her last throw lifting her up to 6th place from outside the top 8 so she could remain in the competition (12 in the final and after 3 throws, the top 8 remain). She has a bright future that one! So bright she popped her sunnies on and I did spot a meme of Maddi wearing her shades looking cool. Valerie was sitting in the Bronze Medal position. I moved down to a lower level of photo seats as I had a clear opening to go to the far right of the section (to be close to the support team) while still remaining in the small opening of the circle to get an instant reaction shot of a medal. The final round, 4th place thrower, right here is when you know if the medal has been won or not. This is the throw you are generally most nervous about and all eyes are on the indicator board. Then you know, has she medaled? Confirmation she had, but she still had one more throw with the opportunity to upgrade. Once Valerie did her final throw she knew, we knew, she had won another Olympic medal, her first after having two beautiful children. She celebrated to the crowd and came out, I shot the initial reaction then slid on my knees (yes on my knees on concrete, no kneepads cause it was too hot so I thought would be better to have bruises instead..) to be considerate and avoid getting in the shot of the photographers behind me to get more emotion shots of her to her support team which was the most incredible moment (yes I cried). After this I opted to then make my way to the mixed zone as far I could get to see Val and congratulate her. She had the flag tied around her neck like a superhero cape and was holding up a photo of her two children. Her why. I ended up getting a lovely image of her, stoked as hell holding up the picture of her kids that still hits me in the feels. I can’t really put into words what it felt like being there and capturing this moment, but I just cried writing this so I will leave it at that. Very privileged.
The evening session consisted of another final for us Kiwis with Hamish Kerr in the Men’s High Jump final which would also be another historic night of athletics. Liking my position for the high jump in the qualifying rounds I decided to go somewhat similar for the final, as the qualifier was during the day the images would still look different and will have some great effects from the stadium lighting. Hamish jumped amazing, jumping 2.30m which was 1 cm from his PB and New Zealand Record. This high jump would also feature something so special and an incredible display of emotion, friendship and sportsmanship. Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy had completely even scorecards and instead of opting for a jump off to determine the winner, they decided to have two golds medals between them and share the top spot on the podium. Such a heartwarming moment that touched the world and I was so happy I got to experience that.
It was a fantastic night for Italy at the track as next up was the men’s 100m final. The past 3 Olympics, Usain Bolt won this title. The current World Champion was on suspension, leaving the playing field somewhat open with no real clear favourite, all the athletes were reasonably close in speed so it was going to come down to who would pull it out on the day. Marcell Jacobs of Italy stormed to victory, the first time an Italian has won the elusive 100m Olympic title! I had positioned myself similar to the Women’s 100m final and again, had to just react to the winner cause I couldn’t tell from where I was sitting! The atmosphere was absolutely electric!
Day 10. Women’s Hockey Quarterfinal: New Zealand Black Sticks v Netherlands. Oi Hockey Stadium
The first of the knockout stages after pool play, the quarterfinals. The hockey tournament for the players is so gruelling. They play 5 pool matches over 7 days which is absolutely nuts as its solid running for an hour in this insane heat, split up into 15min quarters with I think 2 minute break between quarters and 10 minutes between halves which is literally nothing!!! Then after that they have to play out of their skin for the important and crucial knock out phase: Quarterfinals > Semi finals > Finals. I am exhausted and sore even thinking about it, and the girls for their 6th game had their toughest ask yet: defeat World Number 1: the Netherlands in the Quarterfinal, who were undefeated this entire tournament. But this is the Olympics so anything could happen but HECK I was nervous!
While Netherlands did have the majority of possession, our girls fought bloody hard out there! When you follow and capture a team’s Olympic Games you just feel so invested and part of it and I in particular get so sucked into the emotion and triumph, when you are turf side you feel you are there with them. Maybe it is cause I am an athlete still or maybe cause I just love sport. These girls played like absolute guns right to the end and made me so proud and privileged to be able to follow their Olympics. Netherlands won with 3-0, putting an end to my time at the Oi Hockey Stadium. Yes I cried. You just feel for the players, twice in London 2012 and Rio 2016 4th place so you know how much they wanted a medal. Also you make friends people, photographers, Tokyo2020 team, volunteers, when you spend time at a venue so it’s always sad to say goodbye.
Day 11 - 3rd August - Athletics Day 5. Olympic Stadium
This morning we had the 1500m heats featuring our veteran legend, 2x Olympic Medalist Nick Willis and young grasshopper at 20 years old Sam Tanner lining up on his Olympic Debut! Sam had a tough race and just missed out on going to the next round but Nick ran an insane race, a season best and making the semi final at his 5th Olympic Games decided to shoot the start for this, giving me opportunities to shoot at the start as the 1500m is very tactical and often or not an athlete can be boxed in/hidden making it harder to get shots so shooting at the start ensures you get some starting emotion images too.
After this I headed to the side of the long jump to have a crack at some long jump pans while shooting my friend’s friend Jazmin Sawyers of GB (love the small athletics world). I was shooting between a fixed broadcast camera and an official in a small window to shoot some panning and standard shots of the take off from the side trying to get as low as possible (RIP to my back). I also couldn’t see the athlete until they entered my frame so that was a nice challenge.
And then, we had the Men’s 400m Hurdles final! A hotly anticipated race with Karsten Warholm of Norway the current World Record Holder (which he broke this year) and Rai Benjamin of USA who also was posting hot times this season. We knew it would take a world record to win but the question was how fast. I was still in the moat, trying my luck to see if I could get a clean shot of the first hurdle in this position if he was in lane 4 (he was not lol). This race was SMOKING! Karsten’s World record was 46.70. Not only did he absolutely shatter it to smithereens being the first human in history to run under the elusive 46 second barrier running a hot 45.94!!!! AND Rai also ran under the previous world record running 46.17, not only that third place Alison dos Santos from Brazil ran a 46.72!! Three under 47seconds makes for the most insane 400m Hurdles race the planet has ever seen!
The evening session had plenty of action as well. We had Julia in the Women’s Hammer final first up. Shout out to Julia for 9th place on her Olympic Debut, plenty more in store for her! Got some cool opportunities for images under the lights as I positioned myself in the moat again for the same hammer and net challenges. Then we had a rather stressful Men’s Shot Put qualifier. Tom had a foul in the first throw, then the red flag came up on the second! He got it reinstated thank god, but it was only 20.38m and not an automatic qualifier and not enough to get him inside the top 12. Then in his third round the red flag came up again!!! Lucky that throw got reinstated and it was in fact an automatic qualifier and he was safely through to the final, successfully giving New Zealand a heart attack. Then we had Jacko scrape through with 20.96m to book his ticket to the final. Job done for the boys and just getting into the final is all that matters, it is a new day in the final.
Then I headed around the track to the business end of the Men’s Pole Vault with the King of pole vault, world record holder Mondo Duplantis of Sweden. The kid is only 21 which is super young for pole vault with athletes often peaking in their late 20s/early 30s! As you all know, I have photographed a lot of pole vault, from New Zealand events to 2x World Championships and Commonwealth Games but I have never photographed a 6m jump! Mondo won the Olympic crown, cruising over 6.02m (why they didn’t set the height to 6.04 for a new Olympic record I don’t know) and then he sent that bar right up to 6.19m! The first attempt was so close and it was an incredible moment for me to see a 6.19m bar be attempted in real life! Also Chris Neilsen of USA won Silver in his first major medal with a new PB of 5.97m! With Olympic record holder Thiago Braz of Brazil jumping 5.87 for the Bronze.
Day 12 - 4th August: Athletics Day 6. Olympic Stadium.
Another exciting day of athletics with another hot 400m Hurdles on the cards, the Women’s Final. I had no Kiwis today at all so I was able to enjoy the entire day and just enjoy being an athletics nerd and capture some incredible moments. Just like Warholm, Sydney McLaughlin of USA (another young gun who is only 21), had already broken the 400m Hurdles record earlier this year, but Dalillah Muhammad another from USA, the former world record holder, is still hot on her heels so we knew it would take a world record to win, but the question was how fast? And BOY it was fast and not only this, BOTH of them broke the previous world record and ran under 52 seconds and almost three with Femke Bol running 52.03, with Sydney clocking an absolutely smoking 51.46s!! I feel like I am repeating myself saying this also was the most insane 400m Hurdles race the planet has ever seen but both men’s and women’s 400m hurdles were phenomenal! Tokyo is hot but athletics is SMOKING.
The evening session we had another hotly anticipated final (I am repeating myself I know but thats how fire athletics is currently), the Men’s 200m final. But before I was keen to get some shots of the legend Allyson Felix in the semi final. The final I would want to be near the finish line so this would be a good time to try for a low shot in the last bend with a better background. It was risky because there was a good chance another runner on an outside lane could be in front of the stagger, but I was pretty happy with the image. The 200m final wasn’t to disappoint. We knew it would be a good match between Andre de Grasse of Canada and the Americans Noah Lyles and Kenneth Bednarek but de Grasse held out for the win in a new PB and National Record of 19.62s!
Day 13 - 5th August: Athletics Day 7. Olympic Stadium.
Me sounding like a broken record saying another massive day at the track. An extremely hot day, 36 degrees feeling like 41-42 meaning every photographers’ beige vest were a few shades darker today. But this morning was the Men’s Shot Put Final! Another big event for us Kiwis! Same circle as the Women’s final but less happening I think so there were more openings on the lower platform. I decided to move around a bit to get some different shots in different openings. Both boys spin giving more opportunities than if they did the glide technique. Light was harsh, no cloud cover at all which did mean at times you could have a darker background because of harsh highlights on their face, in theory.
Jacko finished in 9th so didn’t progress to the next 3 throws. Still epic to get top 10! And Tom was sitting in the Bronze medal position. Deja Vu all over again! I had the same plan for the 6th round as I did with Val, shoot the gap for the celebration then destroy my knees and move over to the right. My poor body is getting so abused. Fourth round stress happened all over again, all eyes on the indicator board. Confirmation, Tom had won another medal now the question was could he upgrade so my focus was on the reaction and here is where I got one of my favourite photos, Tom celebrating with his best throw and jumping for joy, to the point he looks like he is jumping over the line of photographers! Massive stoke for New Zealand and Tom to score another Bronze Medal. Also for the first time in history, the podium was identical to the previous Olympics with Americans Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs in Gold and Silver.
Once I had got all my Tom images and sent them away, I ventured to the top of the stadium again to go play with these harsh highlights and the heptathlon javelin was still going. There were strong shadows from the stadium roof I could play with.
The afternoon featured an event obviously close to my heart, the women’s pole vault final. Way too invested but understandable in your own event and your friends’ event. I had friends jumping in this as well so it was amazing to be able to witness it! But also tonight was our legend Tom’s medal ceremony and also the legend Nick Willis in the semi final. For these shots I decided to work the back bend to give different images to last time and more opportunity for photos (plus it’s the bend that is run the most). Nick ran the fastest time he has run in four years, 3:35.40 at 38 years old, such an inspiration to us all!
Back to vault, Katie Nageotte (USA), world leader who has had one heck of a road. From catching Covid-19 (yes you read that correctly) to having her poles broken in transit (now she is on different ones) to breaking personal bests left right and centre and was the current world leader with 4.95m! She gave us all a heart attack in her opening height of 4.50m clearing it on her third attempt. No one wants to third attempt your opening height but it is not over until it is over. The field was much larger than usual 15 appose to the usual 12, I wasn’t at the qualifier (shooting our Black Stick girls) but it was raining pretty bad and they abandoned the competition and whoever was left was in the final. The World Championships in Doha in 2019 had a similar field size of 17 as well and the officials did the same thing as they did in Tokyo: aggressive increments to speed things up. This means the opening height was 4.50m and the following height was a massive jump to 4.70m! (A friendly reminder in Rio for the Olympics it went 4.50 - 4.60). 4.70m cut out most of the field with only 4 girls remaining in the competition. (In Rio only 6 cleared 4.70).
Katie won the competition in her first Olympic Games with 4.90m to top a stella competition with Anzhelika Sidorova (ROC), the current World Champion jumping 4.85m and Holly Bradshaw with 4.85 as well for Bronze. I got one of my favourite images of the Olympics in this competition of Katie celebrating clearing the winning bar with Tokyo 2020 branding conveniently next to her as she is falling.
Tonight also featured an incredibly heart warming moment in the Decathlon final. Young gun Ashley Moloney from our friends across the ditch was sitting in the bronze medal position prior to the 1500m. His training partner, Cedric Dubler had no heighted in Pole Vault meaning his Decathlon was pretty much over, but still finished the event. During the 1500m, Cedric dropped back to yell and encourage his training partner to keep pushing in the final lap when you are right in the hurt box. Just seeing that display of sportsmanship and friendship was so heart warming I felt like I was going to cry (again) as it was just such a heartwarming moment. After the race you could see how stoked Cedric was for his mate which was just so special.
Day 14 - 6th of August: Athletics Day 9. Olympic Stadium.
The second to last night out here at this stage that has delivered day in and day out. Tonight we had the Women’s 400m Final which I was super excited about. Here we could see the legend Allyson Felix, most decorated female track and field athlete of all time, run in what is likely her last Olympics, her last individual race, come back after having a baby. Allyson is someone I have looked up to for a very long time so being here for this moment is pretty special.
We had a bit of time before the 400m final so I had a play at the start of the back straight with some risky pans before heading back up to my spot for the 400m final, classic mid bend finish line/celebration shot. This final was absolutely smoking with 6 girls running under 50 seconds! Shaunae Miller-Uibo ran a fire 48.36s for the win! With yes, Allyson at 35 years of age, winning yet another Olympic medal coming in for the Bronze!! Such a special moment for athletics and I was so happy I got to witness in the flesh.
We then had the drama filled 4x100m relays. Jamaica to no surprise won the women’s event, they clean swept the 100m final claiming all top 3 spots so we knew they were the ones to beat in the final. The men’s final was going to be an open race up for grabs. An upset of USA not making the final, could Jamaica defend their title? Or were we going to have a new sprint relay champion? It was a race that came all the way down to the wire, the final leg with England and Italy both storming down to the line. None of us had any idea who won, England was in front but Italy came storming at such pace, the question was had they done it? All eyes were on the screen as the photo finish was being determined to alas, Italy had taken the title! It has been described as a fairytale gold as Italy have never won the 4x100m title.
Day 15: Final night of Athletics. Olympic Stadium
Here we had the last night of an unforgettable experience and this would be the last time I walked out at these Olympic Games. The last time I will see my friends again until World Championships next year.
When you spend this amount of time in the same media room, in the media pits, there is a sense of camaraderie. You all become friends, you all bond over getting bugger all sleep and sweating your butt off. You all just gradually lose the plot more and more each day.
Today was also when I was officially ‘cleared’ via the Japanese Government via one of the Covid apps. This means I could go outside the Olympic Bubble and explore Japan. Jeff and I took to the streets of Shinjuku and explored the famous multi-storey camera stores! Here we picked up a Tokyo 2020 Camera strap. We also went to the official Tokyo2020 shop in the Japanese Olympic Museum to buy some more merchandise. We had already got some stuff from the shop inside MPC but this shop had some different stuff. Don’t ask me how much I spent on merchandise haha!
Being the last night of the track meant every single event was a final. That means the stadium is the most electric as every event is full of such emotion. We had Camille back in action for the 10,000m final. I decided to camp out in the moat, and walk around the entire thing to get images from all around the track, including for the first time, trying to get to the spot that is close to the finish line. In the moat you can get to about 10-20m from the actual finish line so I thought that could be a cool spot to try.
We also had an absolute stella Men’s 1500m final! Such a great race to watch with another young gun, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway taking out the Olympic crown! But tonight we had an event I was beyond excited for: the Women’s 4x400m relay. I messaged my friend Johnson Raela who was working with The NZ Team as a media liaison (I think) saying ‘you better be here tonight, we are seeing history.’ Fun fact, Johnson and I actually studied together at AUT for a Post Graduate Diploma in Communications in 2016 working together for a few assignments (he is actually this qualification, I am not). We talked on end about how bad we wanted to be in Rio for the Olympics as we were both athletics nuts. 5 years later, here we are!
The reason I was so unbelievably hyped for the 4x400 is Team USA has the most stacked field I had ever seen and could have threatened the World Record, one that has stood since 1988 by the Soviet Union. The team also symbolised the end and beginning of an era in women’s track. First you had the absolute legend, Allyson Felix who is 35 and the former world record holder in 400m Hurdles, Dalilah Muhammad who is 31. Then you had a couple of young guns, first is Sydney Mclaughlin, the World Record Holder in 400m Hurdles, Olympic Champion who turned 22 that day. AND Athing Mu who is only 19 years old is the 800m Olympic Champion and American Record holder.
There was a particular image that I really wanted, just because of what it symbolised. The one lap legends from one generation to another. Passing the baton on, metaphorically and physically. Allyson to Sydney. The thing is, none of us knew the exact order they were running in. In the 4x400m your first change is on the bend, and your next two are just before the finish line. I was still near the finish from the 10,000m for a shot that potentially would have worked.. It was risky but I was prepared to try. 20minutes before the race started I opened my phone on Instagram thinking USATF would post the order, and they did, confirming: Sydney, Allyson, Dalilah and Athing would bring it home. That changed everything so I bolted around the track (you had to walk the whole way round again to get out of the moat) and decided to get up to the head on platform, as that was one of the only clean shots you could get of the change, this time, Sydney to Allyson: Goat to Goat. Super stoked I got this image as what it means to athletics. We also had a fantastic Women’s High Jump final! I was shooting my friend’s athlete Nicola McDermott who won a fantastic silver medal!
Here completed my night and my time at the Oval office, the most unforgettable experience I have ever had and thanks to all my friends, new and old, for making this so much fun. The most whirlwind 15 days of my life. Arigato Tokyo, it has been a blast!
The end. Thanks for reading. Until next time!