by Gary Fong
Photographer: David McIntyre
There’s nothing like covering the Winter Olympics. It’s exciting to watch the best athletes in the world compete for Gold, or go home trying.
Ever since he finished the summer games in Beijing, Magazine photographer David McIntyre has been looking forward to covering the winter games in Vancouver. For the last two years he has been training for his Olympics coverage, as much as the athletes themselves.
When opening ceremony planners are making sure all four legs come up for the lighting of the Olympic flame; McIntyre is catching up on sleep, cause when the games start, sleep is a fleeting commodity.
When U.S. speed skater Apolo Ohno is working on his timing and acceleration moves; McIntyre is sprinting through airports from Hong Kong, to San Francisco, to Vancouver maneuvering 75 pounds of gear through security gates.
When U.S. snowboarder Hannah Teter is twisting and turning on the half pipe; McIntyre is figuring out what winterized gear he needs to pull out of his ThinkTank bags to ward off the freezing night snow.
Fourteen, 18-hour days of contiguous Olympic coverage is like running a marathon for a lone photographer against the Canadian winter wilderness. McIntyre spends three hours on bumpy bus rides from Vancouver to Whistler Mountain for coverage of the bobsled and downhill ski runs…and three hours back.
No time for sleep….just shoot, warm hands; edit, warm hands; transmit, warm hands; then crash. Get up a few hours later…to shoot, warm hands; edit, warm hands; transmit, warm hands…for fourteen grueling days.
It’s a tough life being an international magazine photographer. For his coverage he gains no cheering fans…no gold medals…only ”thanks and see you at the London Games”.
