I gotta be honest, with the exception of the opening ceremonies, shooting Olympic events has been just another day another sport for me. Of course you have a lot more hassle such as the amount of media and being in a foreign country but after all that it is like any other event where you need to do what you do best and that’s shoot.

Day 3 of the Olympics finally gave me a true Olympic moment as the men’s 400m X 4 relay swimming event produced a stunning comeback that is already being called one of the best comebacks in Olympic history.

Ever since a few months before I got to China everyone has built up Michael Phelps and his quest to win 8 medals, the most in Olympic history. 

I know nothing about swimming (other than I don’t like shooting it) but I gotta admit the hype of Michael Phelps had me a bit excited when I got assigned to shoot it for a few hours this day.

The excitement was quickly diminished when I got the “Water Cube” to see that we would be packed like sardines into the photo spots, which had a lot of crappy backgrounds and wires going through our field of view.

President George Bush was in attendance so it was fun to fire off shots of him with the first lady and their cute daughter. Something is cool about watching the most powerful man in the world hanging out having fun with the likes of Bill Gates halfway around the world from all the economic problems facing our country back home.

I shot some of the semi final races as we waited for some of the finals. I didn’t get crap that was anything I liked but hey we all have those days.

I always enjoy the contrast between jube and dejections at events because while most photographers (myself included) concentrate on the celebrations there is always the dejection going on at the same time.

Then came the historic moment as the men’s relay team came from behind in the last 50m to pass France to win the gold. USA was so far behind the last segment that I actually started shooting the French swimmer. As they went away from me to the end of the pool I started shooting Phelps because I wanted the dejection. Next thing I know he’s screaming at his swimmer as he’s heading towards the finish. I wasn’t really sure why he was so intense because I assumed they were still behind. Here is Phelps and a teammate right at the finish as they look up to the scoreboard to see who won the photo finish.

Then they went crazy as they screamed at the top of their lungs in celebration of their come from behind victory.

It was wild seeing the crazy jubulation on top of the thousands of clicks from the cameras of myself and the other 100 shooters around me.

So with the historic comeback Phelps was on track for his goal of 8 gold medals in this Olympics which would be the most ever for one Olympics.

Any shoot following that would be tough to replicate the excitement and energy of that. So with that in mind I embarked onto Syncronized Diving and let me tell you something. It totally did NOT live up to the excitement of the swimming!

I will admit that the sport was intriguing and could have been much more fun but the photo positions were HORRIFIC with terrible backgrounds. I snuck into a different area for some cleaner shots but was kicked out rather quickly. And with that my day ended and I was happy to get the hell away from that venue.

-Mark J. Rebilas is a freelance sports photographer based in Arizona. His work is seen regularly in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, USA Today and many others around the country. Visit www.markjrebilas.com to learn more about his work.

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