4-man bobsleigh

Bernard Weil, Chief Photographer/Multimedia

The big guys finished their competition yesterday. The first and second rounds a day earlier produced a lot of nasty spills. No less than seven teams ended up on their side. Speculation was the weather may have had something to do with it as the ice surface was mushier and it was snowing.

In the end though, team USA 1 won gold, the first time in 62 years for the Americans. Bravo.

Canadian team Pierre Lueders, Justin Krispps, Jesse Lumsden and Neville Wright get things going in the first heat.

Canada 1 team of Lyndon Rush, Chris Le Bihan, David Bissett and Lascelles Brown brake hard in to the finish area and hold on for a bronze medal.

Great Britain streaks over the rings in turn 10, during the third heat. A day earlier they crash and slid down on their side.

The USA 2 team of John Napier, Charles Berkeley, Steven Langton and Christpoher Fogt take it on the chin as they slide through turn 16 after flipping over at turn 13 area during the second heat.

USA 1 comes to a halt in the final heat as team members begin the celebration.

USA 1 team of Steven Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and CurtisTomasevicz  celebrate their gold medal win, the first for them in 62 years.

USA 1 team of Steven Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and CurtisTomasevicz  celebrate on the track.

Jesse Paine, 24, from Whistler, seems to be pondering the hockey game ahead between Canada and the U.S.A.

   

More Early Mornings

Tara Walton/Staff Photographer

I'm not a morning person. Lucky for me, traveling three time zones west has helped ease the transition of waking up at the crack of dawn. Many people probably don't realize that being in a photo position for an event that begins in the early afternoon often involves an early start, a couple of trips on different shuttles, and a fair amount of caffeine.  All of this is of course well worth it. The early morning trips (when not snoozing) have lent themselves to some magnificent sunrises and there is the benefit of course of having a front row ticket to watching the best athletes in the world compete at the highest level possible.

This past Sunday was one of those great days that started incredibly early with a 5 am wake up call.  A couple buses and a few hours later I was at Cypress Mountain ready to cover men's ski-cross on what turned out to feel like a beautiful spring afternoon.  The sun was shining, the crowd cheering and the athletes tearing up the course with some spectacular mid-air collisions. 

Here's is a bit of what I saw...

6:15am - made it to my shuttle with 15 mins to spare.

Lucky for me there were plenty of seats available.

 

Making our way to Cypress the sun starts to rise.

 
7:30am - Finally at the media centre after making it through
security and hiking a fair distance to the media centre.

Spectators take to their seats for competition.

Stanley Hayer and Chris Del Bosco of the Canadian Men's Ski Cross team
take the chair lift to the top of the Men's Ski Cross Course.

Christopher Del Bosco of the Canadian Men's Ski Cross
team exits the course after crashing in the final race.

Golden Medal Hockey

Richard Lautens/Staff Photographer

 

When I speak to my friends about covering Olympic hockey, the usual response is ‘Lucky-that must be awesome’, and frankly it is on one level. 

It is also a huge amount of hours and work to be successful at covering it.

Yesterday I was at the women’s gold medal hockey match.  It is a big deal for my paper and our country.

I thought I would outline a typical day here at the Olympics.

 

My colleague Rick Madonik has a rest on the bus from our hotel around 7:45am to the Main Press Centre.

 

After the bus we head to the Skytrain that is almost deserted at that time as we head down to the arena.

The arena is quiet after we clear security.  It is important to get there so early to grab a good spot for the action.

Photographer André Forget both guards his spot and catches a nap 6 ½ hours before the puck drops.

The game finally begins and now it is a combination of standing on milk crates, shooting shoulder to shoulder and massive panic to send back 10 pictures in the 15 minute break between periods.

 

Of course I send back some action pictures

Goalies always are part of the story

 

Celebrations after a goal

With 10 minutes left in the game, I had to go down and wait in a tunnel for the game to end to be able to go on the ice for some celebration pictures.  My colleague Rick Madonik stayed on the shooting platform to be able to see and shoot the end of the game.

My view of the end of the game.

 

Shoot some of the players celebrations, then hustle to a spot right on the centre line for the traditional team picture at the end.


The captain and her team celebrate

Not as dramatic as many of the pictures, but definitely tells a story.



Finally, after a half hour of furious filing of images, noises came from the empty arena as some of the players came back for their own celebration photos.  Quickly shoot and file some more pictures.

 

By the time we are finished, it took approximately 13 hours to cover the 2 hour game.  I still feel lucky to be there, lucky but tired.

For more pictures of the game, go to http://www.thestar.com/fplarge/photo/771840

Richard Lautens/Toronto Star

Biathlon

Bernard Weil, Chief Photographer, Multimedia

I have a newfound appreciation for a sport I knew little about. Combining both cross country skiing and rifle shooting, the biathlon has to be one of the more grueling competitions at the Olympics. The athletes endurance levels and ability to stand or lie motionless while shooting a circular target as small as an egg from 50 metres are beyond what I can imagine.

Contrasted against this was the beautiful scenery of the surrounding mountains and forest. 

I took advantage of an early morning snowfall as eventual gold medal winner Magdalena Neuner, of Germany, climbs a grade during Women's Biathlon 10km sprint, February 16. By the end of the event, most of the snow had already melted.

Exhausted, Canadian Megan Tandy crosses the finish line and collapses during Women's Biathlon 10km February 16, 2010. 

Canadian Rosanna Crawford slings her rifle after shooting at the target during biathlon training.

Lying prone, athletes have to hit five targets 45mm in size and 50 metres away. A penalty loop of about 150 metres is added for each missed target.

Canadian Jean Philippe Leguellec trails American Tim Burke during the men's biathlon 15km mass start, February 21.

 
Skiers bunch up as they approach a hill.

 

Silhouetted against track marks left on the course, skiiers take practice laps to test out different ski and wax combinations prior to the men's biathlon 15km mass start.

Canadian Jean Philippe Leguellec is framed by mountains during the men's biathlon 15km mass start, February 21, 2010,

Skating with Joannie Rochette

Steve Russell/Staff Photographer

I've covered a lot of stories that have put me right up front with people going through the best times of their lives and a lot of stories with people who are going through the worst times of their lives, tough emotional times.

While, I knew Joannie Rochette's skate would be a tough emotional skate for her, it wasn't what I was expecting for me. When I was assigned to the Women's Figure Skating free program, I knew that the only story of the day was how Joannie would cope performing on the biggest stage in her sport after the biggest personal loss a person could experience.

I thought that my photo position (high up) and my equipment, a 300mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on it would insulate me from the emotion that is out there.

Once the skate started, I knew that I was wrong, it magnified it.

 

It shouldn't be a surprise, it magnifies what I'm looking at, brings me closer, helps me see her eyes and that was what I was looking at, hoping to see something that I could capture to bring across the depth of her loss.

I saw it a few times.

But it hit me hard when it it hit her hard.

At the end of the routine, she finished with a smile. It quickly changed to reflect the pain of her loss.

All the emotion she skated through and maybe with came out in the very end.

As quickly as her routine ended so did Joannie Rochette's face.  

As the crowd roared it support and as Joannie skated around thanking them for it on the verge, I noticed that I was shaky, my vision felt like it was going.

I had to compose myself, still shooting, I took a couple deep breaths.

Joannie Rochette, emotional, looks skyward. 

When all was over and we put down our cameras in the photo area, a few commented on how much that affected them, how hard it was to shoot.

We all picked it up, photographers, writers, volunteers and the fans.

Everyone has lost someone and everyone knows how much it feels.

Everyone could identify with her.

Rochette is comforted by coachs after her skate. 

In fact, it must have been really hard to be the four skaters that had to follow her.

These women spend a lot of time together. Many share the same coaches and training venues. 

For those skaters to be warming up and feeling the building rock as the crowd helped Joannie through each jump and spin, it must have been hard for them to shut out the emotions as well.

I'll be covering the final tonight. While I am a little more prepared for the emotion I do not know if will have any less effect on me.

Skate! Joannie! Skate!

Joannie jumps early in her short program.

Rochette's preformance placed her in third heading into the free skate.

Rochette is a seven-time Canadian Champion.   

-srussell@thestar.ca

Hockey night in Olympic Canada

By Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer

As the Vancouver Winter Olympics wind down, the focus is squarely on hockey. Lets face it, if Canada doesn't win Gold in hockey, the Games are a failure in the eyes of many.

Own The Podium (or OTP as the athletes refer to it) is the politically driven angle of the Games. Being a host nation who had never garnered Gold, was a problem of optics - and some might say national pride. Therefore, it was mandatory the medal haul was more significant then ever before, and Gold had to be won. Although Canada won't end up winning the most medals, it certaintly has harvested a solid number - with a fistful of Gold. Today alone, FOUR medals were won. Clara Hughes ended her amazing career (beginning back in 1996 in Atlanta) with a Bronze on the Long Trace in Richmond, and stands as one of the finest athletes this country has ever produced.

But hockey remains the ever present thorn-in-the-side. Gold IS the only option. Coming 2nd just doesn't cut it. Bronze would be embarrassing. Out of the medals would have been cataclysmic.

Tonight I shot the USA v Switzerland and Canada v Russia games. Team Canada, to me, finally looked solid. Being ice level (I had shot previous games from above where I could follow the action at both ends of the ice) I had a rather restricted view. But what developed in front of me turned out to be enjoyable. The mood inside the building, the intensity of the play was only baffled by the need to file pictures as quickly as possible between periods.

Here's a look at what I saw through my lens - and some really bad plexiglass.

Crowd gets stoked after 1st goal during Hockey matchup at Canada Hockey Place between Canada and Russia.

Canada's Sidney Crosby works the corner 

 Canada's Eric Staal gets smashed up by Russia's Ilya Nikulin 

Canada's Corey Perry celebrates his goal 

Canada's Dan Boyle retaliates on Alexander Semin

A glove save by Canada's Roberto Luongo

Russia's Sergey Zinovyev, Alexey Morozov and Victor Kozlov hang their heads as they leave the ice

 A fan has some thoughts for US goalie Ryan Miller

Switzerland's Jonas Hiller can't stop the puckas USA's Zach Parise works in front of the net

A man holds up an infant with a flag the half the size of the baby

Switzerland's Mathias Seger loses his led courtesy of USA's Ryan Kesler

USA's Jamie Langenbrunner and USA's Zach Parise celebrate the 2nd goal to solidify the win over Suisse

Filing at 30 degrees.

Steve Russell/Staff Photographer

30 degrees!

Celsius? Close. Fahrenheit? I think we surpassed it a few times. While the that number seems plausable for temperature, its not what I mean, I'm talking about the slope of Cypress Mountain's Mogul and Aerial runs.

The three hour time difference from Toronto means that it is very important that we file pictures of the Canadian Athletes as soon as we get them.

The sooner they are back at the paper the quicker that the paper can be laid out and the website is always looking for pictures.

This adds to all the gear we carry to the Field of Play, now we always think about having the laptop with us.

We have to be ready to file from anywhere. If we cannot use the Olympic Games wireless network we use our iPhones to get the pictures back.

We do not always have the luxury of a desk, we have to improvise.

For one of my first assignments here, Moguls practise, I decided to go halfway up the hill. That position allows me to cover both jumps, one above and one below as well as the mogul section between them.

Vincent Marquis takes off from the upper jump.

Jennifer Heil works the moguls between the two jumps.

Alexandre Bilodeau, who would become Canada's first gold medalist on home soil, does a back flip off the last jump   

We waited for Jennifer Heil and as time became more of an issue I was glad that I had my laptop with me. I wanted to save the five minutes it would take me to walk down the hill and five more to walk back to the Media Centre. But the question was where do I file from?

The only place was to go to the tree line and set up there to move some pictures.

The picture below does not do justice to the slope of that hill. I was worried!

Filing from the side of a steep hill is a challenge, you have to keep your gear under control and yourself, note the crampons.

Jennifer Heil rehearses her final jump on the hill during practice, her positioning gives you some idea on the slope of a moguls hill that was built to be favorable to Canadian Athletes.   

In the end I did not have to leave my location and made my deadlines.

The other side of the laptop question was on the night of the Women's Mogul Final.

It was pouring rain and although Rick Madonik and I would have loved to have had our laptops on the hill with us, the wet weather conditions made us decide to rethink the issue.

A Japanese fan's face painting washes down his face in the rain at Cypress Mountain. 

It was way to early in the Olympics to have a laptop die.

We were not prepared to subject our laptops to the elements like this inventive photographer 

That is the hardest decision to make, it means that we have to really plan our exit from the event. One of us will run, grab cards from the other and then sprint to the Media room and begin the edit and file, while the other worked the flower ceremony.

-srussell@thestar.ca

Curling Rocks

Rick Eglinton/staff photographer

   For any of you none believers who think that "Women's Curling" is nothing more than a bunch of  elderly "Blue" haired ladies lined up like birds on a wire waiting to have their hair done. Boy are you wrong! For last night I witnessed first hand one of the best curling matches to date when Canada's women battled it out on a roller-coaster ride with China's world champion team. The match which ended 6 to 5 for China in an extra end was simply superb. Let's hope team Canada can get it together for a Golden moment.

Rick Eglinton/Toronto Star

Men's figure skaters make their heads spin!

Steve Russell/Staff Photographer

Figure skating presents it own challenges when shooting the event. Preparation when the skaters take to the ice to warm up is valuable to us "learning" the routine, it gives us the insight to where the major jumps are.

The rule of thumb is that where there is a jump there will be a, how to put this in a way not to offend all the skating fans, well, a goofy face, that rule also applies to spins. 

Canadian Vaughn Chipeur competes during the Men's Free Skating long program at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games 

The skaters cannot help it, we all remember that black and white NASA footage of astronauts in that big centrifuge, the face can do some weird things. 

I would love to get into the physics of skating spins and jumps, but inertia, gravitational pull, velocity, etc, are all things that I don't really understand.

What I do understand is that these guys can jump! These guys can spin!

There was controversy when Torino Gold Medalist Evgeni Plushenko said that Evan Lysacek could not be considered "a true men's champion without a quad."

A friend of mine, Ken Mueller, a former skater and teaches now says that he recalls reading about Kurt Browning's quad, the first ever in competition, that his quad lasts about seven tenths of a second, which translates to almost 350 rpm.

Wow! It is also estimated that a skaters arms may experience 4 Gs of force in a spin or jump. Some skaters might get almost a metre off of the ice!

No wonder their faces get a little goofy, the effort of the jump with battling the G-forces and effects of the spin, there is no way they can control it.

Italian Paolo Bacchini performs a hair raising spin 

Hair and chains flying Artem Borodulin from Russia spins 

Takahiko Kozuka of Japan has the Thriller look  

Denis Ten of Kazakhstan shows amazing flexibility. 

Patrick Chan gets the tongue out during the Men's Free program 

Evan Lysacek's hair product cannot contain the G-forces of his spin to win gold.

How Oba Nobunari of Japan can do this is just incredible.

Swiss Stephane Lanbiel has another hair raising spin!

Spins give Johnny Weir an Edward Scissor Hands look.  

Maybe because he does so many jumps, Evgeni Plushenko's face shows little effort or effects.

srussell@thestar.ca

From 145 km/h to zero braking with your toes

Steve Russell/Staff Photographer

With Canada in the hunt for medals in the Men's and Women's skeleton we decided to double team the final runs.

Bernie got to the track early while I covered the women's cross country 15 km pursuit and then raced out of there to make it to the sliding track to find a back up angle to Bernie.

Bernie had arrived at the track very early to stake out a spot in an ideal position were he had a view of the athletes coming in, breaking, walking back with their sleds and then going to the finish house to watch the other riders.

I grabbed a spot that covered a couple of Bernie blind spots.

I positioned myself with a view straight down the braking chute, so when the athletes passed Bernie I still had a view of their faces. And when the camera man chased them down the course, blocking Bernie, the Star still had a view of the athlete. My position was a challenge, I arrived near the end of the women's third run, late!

Kerstin Szymkowiak of Germany crosses the finish line and sees that she is guarenteed a medal, she ended up with silver.

There were already about 20 some photographers in that spot. 

I could have been a little closer to the track but I was looking for a straight on view to make the most of my positioning and the pictures a little cleaner.

Mellisa Hollingsworth is consolled by her coach, you can see the camera man that blocks Bernie on the left. 

Thankfully there was a road behind the photo position and I walked up about 10 metres behind the photo pit and was high enough to have a clear view of the finishing track. 

After finishing the third run, the area began to fill with photographers and I had to maintain my photo position to protect it from the late comers who would try to set up in the gap and block my view.

The position worked well for the women's final run, unfortunately our Canadian did not. I filed from my position so I could keep an eye on late comers.

A lot of photographers left after the women's final but it was dark and the temperatures began to drop. The photographer in front of me put on a toque that increased his height by about ten centimetres, I could not see as much of the track as I would of liked.

I did not want to move further up the hill, I was already pretty far back for the 400 with a 1.4x converter.

So I ran to the side and picked up some rock to stand on. 

I had to stand on those shaky rocks for the entire third and fourth runs.

In the end it worked, Bernie scored A1 with a tight picture of men's gold medalist Jon Montgomery, I scored the sports front with a picture of him breaking!

Canadian Jeff Pain hits the braking padding at the end of his track in his last competitive run, he retires after the games.

Jeff Pain greets the crowd, for the most part all the skeleton athletes get up from their rides and celebrate, maybe its the adrenaline left over from going down the track at 145 km/h with their chin inches from the ice.  

Adam Pengilly of Great Britian hits the pads after his final run, you can see the little spikes in his shoes that they need for the start.

Kazuhiro Koshi from Japan slide into the finish  in the final run of the men's skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Italian Nicola Drocco hops on his sled surfer style in the run off area.

Kiwi Ben Sandford is not impressed with his final run of the men's skeleton.

Jon Montgomery arrives with a Gold medal winning time in the final run of the men's skeleton.

Jon Montgomery celebrates winning the gold medal  in the final run of the men's skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler.

The stone that I used to improve my photo position.

Steve Russell on the Rocks! I guess it is fitting, I am from Sudbury, What we can't see is the main pit up front. Thanks to John for the pictures.

See a gallery of Jon Montgomery winning

-srussell@thestar.ca