There seems to be something for everyone at this summer’s Olympic Games — there’s and , a pommel horse king and a rugby queen. Even Olympic veterans are saying this year feels different. “I’m so happy the fans are back,” Maddie Meyer, a Getty Images chief sports photographer in Paris for her fifth , tells .
Meyer was at the Tokyo games, where fans and families stayed home amid pandemic restrictions. This summer is a whole world removed from those memories. “There is this huge atmosphere, all these fans in town, it’s all over the city,” she says.
Plus, for a photographer, Paris has always been easy on the eyes. “Sense of place is something we think about with photography all the time,” Meyer says, and points to the images of beach volleyball players beneath the Eiffel Tower. “Paris is such an iconic city with such beautiful architecture and landscapes.
” Photographers on the ground for the games are tasked with capturing all the action. For first timers like Arturo Holmes, the job first felt a bit overwhelming at first. Holmes is a Getty red carpet photographer whose skills have taken him to the Super Bowl, the Met Gala, the Oscars and beyond — but he says these games are “on a whole different level.
” “You have to go within yourself to find the drive and the motivation to keep finding a key moment, navigating through all the tourists, [bouncing around] from different venues,” Holmes says of the initial overwhelm. He landed on his feet fairly .