CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Jacquelyn Martin is an award-winning photojournalist with the AP, based in Washington since 2006. She covers politics at the White House and Congress and has circumnavigated the globe as a pool photographer. A skier since she was 3 years old, she is pleased to be covering Women's Alpine at her first Winter Olympics.
Here's what she had to say about this extraordinary photo.
Why this photo?
U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn — who has arguably been the biggest story of the Winter Olympics — crashed during her fifth Olympic Games. It ended her Olympic dream after she competed on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left knee. The 41-year-old skier has become an icon of the sport, especially to women like me who are also in their 40s. It was shocking to witness this crash.
How I made this photo
Our team had scouted this position as a good location for a scenic image showing the racers among the gorgeous Dolomites. It was mainly planned as a pretty image to add to the action images being taken by my colleagues downhill. My priority was to make a strong image of Vonn and use the mountains to give the viewer a sense of place. I took three chairlifts and skied into place, then walked around the area to try to find a clean and interesting backdrop. To freeze her action, I used an extremely high shutter speed and put the camera on a high frame rate as I would only get a split second to capture images of her and the other athletes as they whizzed by. I was set up to capture peak action, and I was especially keen to capture a strong image of Vonn competing.
Why this photo works
The image shows the split second in which Vonn spun irrevocably out of control. Her body language shows the viewer that something is wrong, while the beauty of the natural surroundings contrasts with the gravity of the moment. She's surrounded by the white clouds above and snow below, spending a split second in the air before crashing to the ground.
