Speed Skating at the Richmond Oval

Yesterday was the first day of competition and yet it seems like we have been here for a month. The days are long and the schedule is really tight. Trying to get from the press center to the venues and then trying to get from one venue to another (always having to go back to the press center first, since it is the transportation hub). With traffic, protests and endless security checks, each trip ends up taking at least 40 minutes. And as we found out yesterday afternoon, you can not arrive at a venue 30 minutes before an event starts and try to get into a shooting position.

The day started with speed skating at the beautiful Richmond Oval which is out by the Vancouver airport. I had a good time shooting this sport but found that it was difficult to get an truly unique and interesting perspective. I tried motion blur shots, different angles, but in the end, many of the shots looked the same. Fun to shoot but I am not sure that I will go back for more. We'll see. At some point during these games, I need to get some sleep.

I will tell you this much, these guys can skate FAST! Enjoy the images.

It is always fun to key in on the Canadians. You can see the pride in their faces, win or lose.

The Americans did not do very well at this event. Both skaters disappointed the crowds with poor times. I do not know much about this sport, but even as I was shooting, I could see the one skater gasping for breath midway through the race and thought "this can't be good."

Sven Kramer was the winner of the race and had the majority of the fans in the crowd. The Dutch really love this sport and went crazy when he set a new Olympic record for the 5000 meter race.