Rick Madonik wins the 2010 Sports Media Canada George Gross Award for Outstanding Photography.

Rick Madonik wins the 2010 Sports Media Canada George Gross Award for Outstanding Photography.

From the press release put out by Sports Media Canada, 

"For a professional photographer, there is nothing like being in the right spot at the right time. For Rick Madonik of the Toronto Star,he'll always remember where he was on February 28, 2010. He was at Canada Place in Vancouver capturing the Crosby goal and the ensuing celebration ledto personal recognition. His work that day makes him recipient of the 2010 Sports Media Canada George Gross Award for Outstanding Photography. "It wasthe moment of the Olympics for me and I will hold it dear for years to come," said Madonik."

Sidney Crosby Crosby and Scott Niedermayer and Team Canada celebrate after winning the Gold Medal  game between Canada and USA in Men's Hockey at Canada Hockey Place . All part of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games hosted by Vancouver. Canada wins 3-2 in OT

Other winners include Toronto Star Olympic Writer Randy Starkman for Outstanding Writer, Brian Williams, outstanding broadcaster, Bob Cole, Sports Media Canada's Lifetime Achievement Award.
And John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, has been named as Sports Media Canada's Sports Executive of the Year.

Rick Madonik blogged about the experience as his Olympic moment!

Toronto Star photographer have won this award twice before,

Lucas Oleniuk in 2008

 

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep celebrates winning a bronze medal win silver medalist Australian Sally McLellan in the 100 m hurdles at National Stadium at the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing.

Ken Faught in 2004

Austrian rider Raemmi Daemmi landed between the logs and lay stunned for a few moments during the cross country equestrian event today. Horse and rider were all right.

 

 

Comments

[Joel]

The first photo looks hardly professional - it is extremely soft, perhaps focused off the glass? Was there nothing better to post?

[Brandon T]

Agreed Joel, the shot looks very soft, probably because of the glass, but none the less, not a pro level photo imo.

[Kevo]

You're judging the content of the photo by how soft it looks when it's shot through glass? I've seen plenty of incredibly sharp photos that don't show anything useful or beautiful. Likewise, there are many WWII photos that are blurry or grainy but only serve to show what it was like at the moment when the soldiers were rushing the beaches on D-Day. I seriously doubt any other photographer got a photo of the goal scorer being congratulated by his captain in the midst of a chaotic win in a crazy building.

[Aaron]

Uh... guys? It's a low-res version. If you're going to be a photography critic, you need to learn to recognize low-resolution pictures.

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/71/47/c0ac36c544db921615ec3b4c549e.jpeg

[Stan Schurman]

I agree with Brandon. A photo like that captures the moment and can't always be technically perfect. Madonik might have had other, sharper shots, but would they have recorded an instant that was as dramatic as this one.

[Steve Russell, Toronto Star Staff Photographer]

Hey All,
Steve Russell here, I composed the blog post.
First off my apologies to Rick.
When I composed the posting I used an extremely low res image.
I have since updated the image, it looks a lot sharper now.
On that note, is the picture technically perfect?
No, Rick is shooting through glass that has a layer of plastic stuck to it that is extremely unsharp.
That is why we shoot through holes at the Air Canada Centre, Olympic hockey rules forbid those holes.
Rick would have loved for the people beside him and behind him to have worn dark coloured clothing.
I always tell people that the most important aspect of a picture is the moment.
And he did capture the moment, there were about 200 still photographers at that game and maybe another 50 cameras on remotes and nobody had this as nice as Rick.
Photographers filed by Rick in the filing room for a look over his shoulder at the image.
I wished that I had that frame.
Well Done Rick!

[Aaron]

There it is, in all its glory. I think that's the largest you've ever published it, too!

Beautiful, just beautiful.

[Dave]

Where's Cigar Guy? He needs to be photoshopped in to the Crosby shot ASAP!

[Aaron]

Just know that's he's back there... somewhere in the crowd... and he is smiling.

[Aron]

I think it is a great capture. Jealousy will get you nowhere. Congrats!

[Kevo]

Thanks for the reply & info, Steve.

[atithi]

its a really great capture :)