Every few years when we settle in at home to enjoy the Olympics, we forget the privilege of experiencing it all at once. For journalists covering the event, there’s a sense of overwhelming abundance. Teams of reporters converge on the city to deliver every sport across various platforms.
This year, photographer Robbie Lawrence traveled to Paris for TIME to capture the beauty and dynamism of athletics. His photographic approach could bring any sport to life, but it’s impossible for one person to cover it all. “When I initially made the list of events I wanted to cover each day, I imagined seamlessly moving between swimming, dressage, and volleyball,” Lawrence says after his first week at the Olympics. “But I quickly realized my ambitions were rather naive. The events spread from the city’s regal center to Saint-Denis in the north to the grand estate of Versailles in the west. Photographers spend just over two weeks rushing from venue to venue, trying to squeeze every visual opportunity from this vast array of performances.”
Many would think that as an artist, having the choice of events and locations would make the job easy—choose your favorites or the most popular. But, often photographers find themselves fearing that by choosing one thing, they’re missing out on another. “After a few very trying days where I felt a constant fear of missing out, I eventually settled into a rhythm that allowed me to remember why I initially wanted to cover the Olympics,” Lawrence says.
When speaking about his inspiration and initial desire to capture an event like the Olympics, Lawrence says, “I’ve always loved [directors like] William Klein’s ‘…’ because they looked beyond the sport and tapped into the human experience of these tournaments. Both directors focus on the crowd’s attitude as well as the athletes, providing a holistic sense of the emotional atmosphere.”
In the days following his arrival, Lawrence spent time immersing himself in the emotion of the Games—capturing images inches away from Simone Biles and Team USA preparing for their routines, or catching the moment French President Emmanuel Macron embraced French rugby star Antoine Dupont. “I’ve found myself drawn to that proximity—the closeness to the tension between joy and despair,” Lawrence says. “Fundamentally, that’s what the Olympics are: years of training and emotional labor hinged on a few seconds.”
