After a morning at the Men’s GS, I made it down the mountain to the media center and then back to my apartment. Traveling via the Gorki Media Center is not a direct route, but it involves the least walking and as such the least expenditure of energy and if I am lucky I can get a quick power nap in on the bus. That just doesn’t work as well for me when I am walking!
The Bobsleigh (yes it’s officially Bobsleigh no matter what they say on NBC), venue is actually the closest to me. It is a short walk to the Krasnaya Polyana Cableway and then a short ride to the venue. The cableway lets me off at turn 7 of 17. Which gives you an idea of how much I have to walk to get up to the start.
Although Delly and I had been there shooting during the day, I wanted to come back at night and get some start shots. It is at the start that you really get to see the interaction between the athlete and the Sleigh.
I found a great position, on the right side of the track just after the start. Although I thought I was in an official photo position, Oops. Nikita (with the pink hair) told two of us that we were in an Olympic Broadcast System (OBS) only area. We had however cleared it with the OBS Camera Man in advance so we were good to stay – frowned on but good to stay.
I also made a new friend up there – the security guy. It is not the uniformed security personnel that I worry about, it is the ones without the uniform. They just stand there with a don’t mess with me and step over that line look. With him here, the Photo Manager who was likely a really good guy, was the least of my concerns. Over the next couple of hours my new friend would come over look at the display on my camera and smile, give me the thumbs up. He even had me take a few snaps of him with his cell phone.
As he was getting ready to head down to the finish, he pulled out a red leather ‘wallet’ with gold embossed letters on the outside. I have no idea what it said, by it was enough to let me in on the fact that we was no ordinary security guy. He smiled, waved good bye and headed to finish. I exhaled and relaxed.
The bobsleighs are clearly built for speed and not for comfort. The US machines were designed and built by BMW. Getting in is a real issue, there is no easy way to do it. Think how a driver would get into a Formula 1 car, if they had to do it after pushing it to it started!
Here are a few shots of the various ways to get going and before you laugh too hard at the positions, think about if you could even fit in the bobsleigh let alone get in while it was moving.
Finally here is a shot of Lolo Jones pushing.
The Canada #1 Team took the Gold by 0.10 seconds, with the USA getting Silver and Bronze.
More soon,
Paul
Competitive Image 