A Combo blog post - Diving and Swimming

Let me start this blog by adding to the last one. Today (after I posted the blog about the transportation woes,) it got even worse. I spent more than 6 hours either on trains, walking to/from train stations, and even had to use two Ubers to get me out of jams. This is definitely the most challenging Olympics for me to get around. The frustration is beyond words. OK, no more ranting.

I have been shooting at least two sports per day, and trying to keep up with all of those. Of course, I am photographing water polo every day for USAWP, but not blogging them each day. I will blog some highlights from water polo soon, but don't want to overload you with one sport.

In the mean time, I thought I would do a combo blog post today and show you images from diving and swimming.

Since diving is in the same venue as water polo, I have had a chance to capture images of the divers practicing. I sit so that I am straight-on to the Olympic Rings and have fun with the divers on the 3 meter boards.

It is all about symmetry here.

And something a little different...

And for swimming, I have been over to the main pool a couple of times, since it is actually walking distance from my hotel (thank goodness!)

I caught Gretchen Walsh doing butterfly.

And another amazing swimmer, Katie Ledecky, swimming freestyle.

Here is Katie diving in.

Photographing freestyle is really tough, especially down at the pool level. These swimmers barely come over the water line to breath and quite often there are other swimmers splashing in front and behind them. Focus is always a challenge. But I managed to get Katie in action.

Katie got the bronze medal in this race, and she didn't look all that pleased about that.

Still no smile...

But then, when she came by us photographers, she broke out a smile.

And then it was time for the men to swim the 4x100. Caeleb Dressel was the anchor. This is him diving in to try and bring home the Gold.

Here are Jack Alexy, Chris Guilano and Hunter Armstrong cheering Caeleb on. 

Caeleb touched the wall first, bring home the Gold for the team. I love the reactions here...

...and here...

...and here.

I was pretty far from the medal ceremony, but was able to grab this shot of the guys.

Last night, I was back at the pool to capture some more images. I photographed the amazing (Gold medal winning) Léon Marchand as he cruised ahead of everyone in the 200m butterfly. The French were VERY happy with his win!

Here is Kistof Milak from Hungary who also did really well.

Here is Thomas Heilman coming high out of the water for his butterfly stroke. This is my favorite stroke to photograph, since they come out of the water more than any other stroke.

Here is a photo of Regan Smith on her entry for backstroke. 

I was tired last night and ended up leaving the pool early to get back to my hotel and try to get some sleep. I ended up writing a blog first, but was able to go to bed by 1am, which is not too bad as the Olympics go. So much more to share. I have photographed tennis, fencing and a tiny bit of BMX in the last two days. And I finally used the Canon R5 MKII for action photos. Stay tuned.

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