China domination
I started my day off at Gymnastics to shoot the women’s team all around final. China and USA were projected to go head to head for the gold and they certainly lived up to the predictions.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th
Everything was going fine until Alicia Sacramone took to the balance beam in their second to last rotation. When she leaped up to the beam to begin her rotation she went off balance and fell to the floor to the gasp of the capacity crowd on hand.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th
After her fall she immediately got back on and did her routine but it was very obvious she was affected by the fall and lacked her usual excitement. After she finished she headed over to her coach who consoled her momentarily.
Nikon D3, 80-200mm, f2.8, 1/1250th
Next up was the final event, the floor exercise, USA went into that round exactly one point behind China and definitely still had a chance of passing China to take the gold. Sacramone was up first and perhaps had a chance to redeem her previous fall. Nope didn’t happen, instead she fell once and stepped out of bounds twice instantly sealing the fate of the USA.
Nikon D3, 400mm, 2500iso, f2.8, 1/1250th
As she stood there waiting for her score and finally seeing the low score pop up you could see the pain and disappointment all over her face. The last two USA gymnasts did their routines and theirs were sloppy as well and they were left to sit on the sidelines and watch China.
Nikon D3, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm) 4000iso, f4, 1/1250th
China put in a safe floor routine to easily take the gold medal by 3 points, leaving USA with the silver.
Nikon D3, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm) 4000iso, f4, 1/1250th
With that finished I transmitted real quick then hopped a bus over to Water Polo. I stayed there about 45 minutes to shoot a preliminary match between USA and Italy.
Nikon D3, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm) 4000iso, f4, 1/1250th
Water Polo is an easy sport to get some cool images at but for some reason I really don’t enjoy shooting it too much.
Nikon D3, 400mm with 1.4 convertor (550mm) 2500iso, f4, 1/1250th
As I was shooting I noticed the roof had a cool pattern to it so I threw on a wider lens and waited for the action to get close to me and fired off a decent overall shot.
Nikon D3, 24-70mm , 800iso, f2.8, 1/800th
The game ended in a tie and I rolled out of there, caught another bus and went to shoot Judo. By this time I was pretty tired and I got to the event late so I just shot from an elevated position and really didn’t get anything I liked during my hour spent there.
Nikon D3, 400mm, 2000iso, f3.5, 1/1250th
The one good thing was a USA athlete won a bronze medal so right after I shot that it was back on a bus to the main press center to transmit and then get the hell back to the hotel to get some sleep before my next full day of events.
-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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