One of the other events I attended during my stint of being an accredited photographer for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games was the Alpine Super-G up at Creekside, Whistler BC.
For those who are curious what the difference is between regular Downhill and Super-G is, I guess you can sum it up being that Super-G is Super Giant Slalom. It combines the speed of the downhill but with more precise turns of the Giant Slalom. The Super-G course is also shorter and the fastest time down the course determines the winner or placements.
My buddy and I caught the earliest bus to Creekside at the IBC which departed at 7:45am. Even though we did not stop over at WOP (Whistler Olympic Park) we arrived fairly quickly at Creekside. Not in time for me to switch my green armband for a blue one though, which was a big disappointment. Did I mention that they had me sign the sheet the previous day so that I would get a blue armband? I was a bit frustrated at not being able to change my armband because we did not get to Creekside in time. We took the earliest bus we could and even though my name was on the list to get a blue armband, I was just out of luck.
What is the significance of the blue armband? You will notice that when I was last up at Creekside photographing the Alpine Downhill event I was able to get closer to the action. Blue armband photogs were allowed to move up alongside the course to get closer, which would help me since my longest focal length is 200mm; not a great focal length for sports of this type. Anyway….
I wandered between the two platforms at the Finish Line but, I just could not get the shots I wanted. It was still fun and a great experience to watch the Paralympic athletes coming down the course, but I could really only photograph them after the Finish Line.
The Men went first as the snow was harder which would allow for the Women to ski down on softer snow (or so the theory goes).
Yup, that is Chris Williamson (for Canada) in the above photo, he made a clean run down this time. Happy with his course run as well.
There were a few falls as well during the Men’s run. No one was seriously hurt but hitting the Finish Line gates or colliding with the air-bag barricades I am sure isn’t the most pleasant feeling.
One of the cool aspects of being at an event like this, is listening to the crowd. They shout, cheer and make crazy amounts of noise. The level of noise increases as the athletes would come over Hot Air and down the last stretch of the course towards the Finish Line as well.
So many fans from many different places came out to cheer for all the athletes. Though you could easily tell by the sound of the crowd when a Canadian was on course.
I actually ran out of memory cards (16GB and 8GB) during the Men’s competition. When there was 40 athletes in just the Standing category alone, and taking roughly 10 shots per athlete, it really adds up! Which is odd, because I did not run out of memory during the regular Downhill event. So because I was out of memory, and was a wee bit sunburned, we did not stay around to photograph the Women.
This was the last event I attended and my overall experience was just amazing. Watching the Paralympic athletes competing, the crowds cheering, everything, made it a once in an lifetime experience that I will never forget.
I also hope that I also get the opportunity to photograph more of these events in the future as I really do enjoy sports photography.
Some random stats during the 3 events I photographed:
- Photos Taken: 2152
- Storage Space Taken for Photos: 42.b GB
- Approximate Total Traveling Time Between Home and Events: 10 Hrs
- Approximate Total Time at the 3 Events: 15 Hrs
- Days that I did not eat because I was too busy taking photos: 1 Day
Don’t forget you can check out the rest of the photos I have uploaded to Flickr of this 2010 Paralympic Winter Alpine Super-G event.