Crampons, crashes and creativity: Tom Jenkins’ best photos from the Winter Olympics
#Winter Olympics #Sports Photography #Tom Jenkins #Italian Alps #Olympic Venues #Creative Techniques #Speed Sports #Medal Moments
📌 Key Takeaways
- Tom Jenkins documented his first Winter Olympics in northern Italy
- The Games offered stark visual contrasts between different sports and venues
- Technical challenges included capturing high-speed action and navigating difficult logistics
- Jenkins experimented with creative techniques to produce artistic sports photography
📖 Full Retelling
Photographer Tom Jenkins shared his favorite images and experiences from the Winter Olympics in northern Italy, where he covered multiple sports including ski jumping, big air, ice hockey, biathlon, and curling. Having attended six summer Olympic Games but never a Winter Olympics before, Jenkins was drawn to this particular event due to Team GB's anticipated record medal haul and the Games' accessibility in northern Italy. With nervous excitement, Jenkins documented the fast-paced action sports amid beautiful snowy landscapes, facing new challenges including learning unfamiliar rules and wearing crampons on icy surfaces. The Winter Games presented Jenkins with a visual feast of contrasts, from the gentle gracefulness of figure skating to the brutality of ice hockey brawls, and from the delicate precision of curling to the chaotic energy of short-track speed skating. Geographically, the venues offered diverse environments, with Livigno in the Alps resembling a modern snow sports playground, while Cortina in the Dolomites catered to the traditional skiing establishment. Milan featured modernist arenas accessible via metro, creating a different atmosphere for international fans. Despite these picturesque settings, Jenkins faced logistical challenges, including exhausting travel between venues and navigating treacherous mountain roads during blizzards. Capturing the essence of winter sports proved technically demanding, with athletes moving at extreme speeds—lugers reaching up to 93mph and skiers appearing suddenly over slopes—requiring split-second reactions from the photographer. Jenkins documented both triumph and disappointment, including American Lindsey Vonn's crash during the slalom and British skeleton racer Matt Weston's gold medal celebration, which he anticipated and positioned himself to capture effectively. For his ski jumping shots, Jenkins experimented with artistic techniques, over-exposing athletes against dark floodlit backgrounds to create an otherworldly effect that made them resemble astronauts, resulting in what he considers one of his favorite images from the Games.
🏷️ Themes
Sports Photography, Olympic Games, Visual Storytelling
📚 Related People & Topics
Italian Alps
%5B%5BWikipedia%3ARedirects+for+discussion%5D%5D+debate+closed+as+delete
Winter Olympic Games
Major international multi-sport event
The Winter Olympic Games (French: Jeux olympiques d'hiver), also known as the Olympic Winter Games or simply the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were...
Entity Intersection Graph
Connections for Italian Alps:
🌐
Valdidentro
1 shared
🌐
Winter Olympic Games
1 shared
🌐
Bormio
1 shared
👤
Alex Ferreira
1 shared
🌐
Livigno
1 shared
Original Source
A multiple exposure of Sofia Samodelkina of Kazakhstan in the free skating section of the women's figure skating. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian Our photographer shares his favourite images from the Games in Italy By Tom Jenkins I ’ve been lucky enough to attend six summer Olympic Games, but I’d never before photographed a Winter Olympics . They’ve always been too far away and the UK has never been a major snowsport country, which has limited their news appeal. This time it was different. With Team GB anticipating a record medal haul and the Games staged in northern Italy, I headed off with nervous excitement, lured by the promise of fast action sports occurring amid beautiful snowy vistas. I covered ski jumping, big air, ice hockey, biathlon, curling and much more. A lot of it was alien to me but it was very enjoyable. There were new rules to learn, new challenges to face – I’ve certainly never had to wear sharp crampons at a football match. The Games were full of contrasts. From a sporting perspective, the gentle gracefulness that I observed at the figure skating was offset by the full-on brutality of ice hockey brawls, while the delicate precision of curling was juxtaposed by the frantic chaos of short-track speed skating. From a geographical and cultural perspective, Livigno, which is perched high up in the Alps close to Switzerland, seemed like a giant playground for modern snow sports – geared towards those who like to twist and twirl high in the sky – while Cortina, in the Dolomites, was far more old-fashioned and populated by the traditional skiing establishment. Milan, meanwhile, featured a cluster of modernist, edge-of-town arenas, with international fans happily catching the metro to and from the events. But, in my experience, transportation wasn’t always so convenient. The huge amount of travelling between venues – I went to all but one – was exhausting and getting a late night bus over the mountains between Livigno and Bormio in a blizzard felt a ...
Read full article at source