European Athletics Team Championships

Among all the events at the summer games, athletics has always fascinated me alongside marathons. Many years ago I used to love watching tv broadcasts of the Diamond League events. I was always curious about what it would be like to experience everything live at the stadium. However, it wasn’t until recently, after years, that I had the opportunity to witness such an event in person during the European Games held in Krakow. The European Athletics Team Championships took place at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow city.

We decided to go to Chorzow, not to take photos, but to immerse ourselves in the atmosphere and cheer for the athletes. Before the event, I had read that amateur photography was not allowed at the European Games. So, I left my camera gear at home. Upon arriving and entering the stadium, I decided to ask security guards whether bringing my own photographic equipment was permitted. To my surprise, they responded, “Why wouldn’t you be allowed to bring the camera? We know nothing about such restrictions. Of course, it’s allowed!” It was a shock for me: my camera remained in Krakow as I thought it was prohibited. Events like this are rare, so after two or three hours of cheering for the athletes and lamenting the inability to take photos, we got back to the car to return home. I armed myself with the camera and long lense and drove to Chorzow one more time later the same day. And you know what? It was worth coming back the second time!

Now I’m wiser thanks to the new experience. It turns out that photographing an athletics event was one of the greatest photographic challenges for me. Everything was happening incredibly quickly. The athlete ran along the track, but their hand or foot would still extend beyond the frame. And if I didn’t release the shutter in time, I missed the opportunity because the 400-meter runner passed by me only once. However, if I managed to react in time, the photo could be blurry because I focused on the athlete in the fourth lane, while the one in the sixth lane, also within the frame, was already getting out of focus. Photographing athletes required predicting where they would be in a moment, and if there were several of them, as during a race, I had to keep track of all their positions. It was an incredibly interesting experience, during which I lacked… experience ;)

In the gallery below I included photos from the triple jump competition and several running events: 1500m and 4x100m relays, and 400m hurdles. It was the European second division, like a second league of athletics. But I still enjoyed it because, for me, it did not matter whether the athlete was a champion or the second league player. Each of them was striving for the best result, trying to overcome his weakness, and set his own record.