From Paris to Croke Park: Photographer James Crombie on capturing the biggest sporting events of the summer
Award-winning snapper will fly home from Olympics for All-Ireland final
JAMES Crombie crouches down in front of the boat house.
It’s Wednesday morning at the Stade Nautique on the outskirts of Paris, venue for the rowing and canoeing at this year’s Olympics, and the Westmeath man is pressing the shutter.
Coming towards him are reigning Olympic champions Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy carrying their boat to the water for a training spin.
“As a photographer, rowing is a tough one to photograph,” says Crombie. “If you’re down at the start you get some nice shots, but the problem is it’s two kilometres to the finish and they’re rowing away from you. If they’re celebrating at the finish, you can’t get it.
“There is a van, a kind of flat-bed van, you can get onto to go alongside them until halfway. “But generally it’s on a gravel track and you’re bumping away, so you can’t really get anything good.
“And then if you’re at the finish, they’ve often got their backs to you. So it’s not an easy one to capture.”
Crombie is a multi award-winning photographer for Inpho, who has documented the agonies and ecstasies of Irish sport at home and abroad for years with his camera.
He is also renowned for capturing the magic and mystery of the murmurations of starlings on Lough Ennell and will release a book of his work later this year.
But for the next three weeks the Olympics will consume everything he does and Paris will be his home. Except for Sunday.
“I’ll be home for the All-Ireland final, so I’m going to miss one day of the Olympics,” says Crombie. His routine at Croke Park is well established at this stage, taking a familiar perch in the corner between the Cusack Stand and Hill 16.
“The light is more forgiving there,” he says.
“Sometimes the story happens at one place and you’re at the other end and there’s nothing you can do. There’s always a story and you just try and capture that.”
Crombie will get a few hours with his family after the game, before flying back to Paris on Monday morning and beginning the Olympics again.
This will be his third time covering the Games. Each one memorable. Each one very different.
“Rio was my first and I thought it would be interesting to go up into the Favelas just to see if we could get an idea of what the Olympics was like for them,” he says.
“There’s a lot of poverty over there, a big contrast in wealth over there. I was trying to get an idea of the place.
“You’re trying not to follow the herd, but it can be hard. By week three you’re just a sheep!”
Rio is remembered as much for the medals won by Annalise Murphy and the O’Donovan brothers as it is for Pat Hickey.
The former president of the Olympic Council of Ireland was dramatically arrested in his dressing gown and detained over his alleged role in a ticket resale scheme — allegations he has always denied.
“I remember having a nice steak the night we heard about Pat Hickey, everyone had to down tools and get back to work,” says Crombie.
Hickey became ill during the arrest and was taken to hospital where the Irish media quickly decamped.
“I was waiting for Pat Hickey to come out of hospital when Thomas Barr came fourth in the hurdles. Instead of being at the athletics, we were at some hospital in the suburbs of Rio,” says Crombie.
“I was outside the hospital for three days in 35 degree heat waiting for him to appear with the rest of the Irish press. I never even got a picture! There were two options, you were either papping the car or you were trying to get the long lens of him coming out underneath, which was a silhouette, which I didn’t get.
“I was on the car. All I got was a picture of myself reflected in the glass. But at least Dan (Sheridan), my colleague got the shot and that’s what counts.”
The exploits of rowers Paul and Gary O’Donovan en-route to silver was an undoubted highlight of Rio and Crombie was with them from the very start of the Games.
“I met them about three days before the Olympics,” says Crombie. “I went down to the rowing and managed to sneak into the boat place and take a picture of the two of them. I had no idea they were going to be the story of the Olympics.
“I remember ringing a colleague afterwards and saying, ‘I’ve met these two rowers and they’re either brilliant or absolutely useless, I’ve no idea what to make of them’. Then they started winning every heat, they were just amazing.
“And the craic in their press conferences, they were like Laurel and Hardy, they had everyone eating out of the palms of their hands. Pandemonium.
“They were great ambassadors for Ireland, so incredibly funny.”
Crombie takes up a new position on the other side of the arena to catch the competitors in the canoe slalom training. He was also in Tokyo for the surrealism of the Covid-affected Games.
His photo of Kellie Harrington in tears on the podium following her gold medal win would later win him an award, but with no fans or families allowed at the Games, he felt an extra weight on the work he was doing.
“It was so unusual, there were 10 or 12 Irish press there, but no families. Her parents weren’t there, her partner wasn’t there,” says Crombie. “So there was a big responsibility to try and get something that was going to stand the test of time.”
Harrington’s gold medal bout came near the end of the Olympics and it’s a day Crombie will never forget.
“It was a huge sumo wrestling venue, but there was nobody in it, except for about a hundred people, so you were able to run around and get different angles,” he says.
“I managed to go at an angle and I knew when they raised the flags she’d have to turn to there and that would probably be the most emotive part, so I was just lucky when they raised the flags I was in the perfect place to capture it.
“I was nearly crying myself, seeing the Irish flag and the quietness of the place.
“I don’t think if there was 10,000 people there I would’ve felt it as much. I just thought it was such a unique, strange moment to witness, but a brilliant moment to witness and I hope she does it again.”
Crombie will share photography duties in Paris with his Inpho colleagues Dan Sheridan, Ryan Byrne and Morgan Treacy. Between the four of them they will try and cover as much of the 133 Irish athletes in action as possible.
“The first week will be helter-skelter and hopefully you ease into it,” he says. “So you’re always on your toes. Where’s the next story? What’s the angle there?
“For journalists, I suppose if a story comes out of nowhere you can still write about it, even if you’re not there. If we’re not there, we’ve no pictures.”
Crombie and his wife Ann have four daughters; Hayleigh (13), Anna (11), Chloe (8) and Sarah (7). He admits Ann takes up a lot of the slack when he’s away for long periods covering major championships and he’s grateful of the chance of a few hours at home after the All-Ireland men’s football final.
And then it will be back to Paris and back into the thick of a helter-skelter Games. One he hopes contains a medal for Rhasidat Adeleke in the women’s 400m on the track.
“She’s such an amazing athlete and I can’t wait to see her compete on the biggest stage for the next three or four Olympics. I think she’s going to get better and better,” he says.
And Crombie will be there to capture as much of it as he can. One frame at a time.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
