Eileen Langsley has 4 excellent portfolios of photos from the World Gymnastics Championships.
On her blog she recaps the challenges of shooting there:
In Rotterdam TV introduced the Spidercam for the first time at a gymnastics event. This was a remote overhead camera, supported on four strong cables which were slung across the arena. …
For the photographers, the camera and its cables proved to be a real headache in that you would find yourself a nice clean angle to shoot a piece of apparatus then at the last moment Spidercam would move into the background and become a feature of the image. …
… A number of people were accredited as photographers who had little or no experience of working in this kind of environment. Not only did they shoot as if there was no tomorrow, creating the most unbelievable amount of motor drive noise but they felt it was quite alright to speak to the gymnasts, try to get them to pose for pictures and so on. On a number of occasions I had to move away from some of these snappers …
Inevitably with photographers at the same level as the gymnasts and coaches, it was very easy to get images blocked when they moved around, warmed up or a TV crew moved in for a shot. …
An interesting read. Certainly Japan next year will have even more media. Coaches and athletes should be better protected than in Rotterdam.
(via Full Twist)
Gymnastics Coaching.com 