Olympic Cameraman Wanders Onto Track and Disrupts 5,000-Meter Race
An Olympic cameraman disturbed a 5,000-meter run after wandering into the middle of the pack during a race — drawing criticism from the athletes.
The incident happened yesterday (Wednesday) in the second heat of the preliminary rounds as the runners entered the final four laps of the race. On the first bend of the lap, the cameraman is seen standing on the track but just as the pack approaches he inexplicably walks toward the inside lane without looking and directly into the racers’ path.
Explain to me what was doing a stupid cameraman in the middle of the 5000 meter run????? @Olympics @juegosolimpicos @COGuatemalteco pic.twitter.com/55dA6ZOUDt
— PAHP (@herrerandres4) August 7, 2024
The runners managed to swerve around him but some gesticulated angrily including the winner of the heat and favorite for the gold medal, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtesen.
“It’s amateurish. That should not happen in an Olympics,” Ingebrigtesen tells the Daily Mail.
“I was just far enough out in front to see that something or the other is happening. He has quite a large camera rig. He realized it quite quickly, but the damage is done. For some, their race is ruined.”
The Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) has released an official apology for the incident.
“OBS has apologized to World Athletics and Paris 2024 for the incident which happened this morning during the 5000m, Round 1, Heat 2, with the camera operator standing on the track and interrupting the athletes,” the statement reads.
“The OBS team will be extra diligent and take additional measures to avoid any interference by the OBS team with competing athletes.”
The camera operating team has been under the spotlight during the Summer Olympics. First, they were warned against “sexist” filming of female athletes at the Paris Games.
Then a string of incidents involving photographers and camera operators including Olympic skateboarder Jhancarlos Gonzalez who flew into a “moment of rage” after a camera operator ignored his warning to move out of the way before doing a trick.
And then an Olympic gold medallist Wang Chuqin was left distraught after photographers broke his table tennis paddle immediately after his first win. He was forced to use his backup bat and lost his next game.
