2022 Winter Paralympics Getty Images Photo Diary

Beauty comes in myriad, unexpected forms and the 2022 Paralympic Games were a perfect example. Here are the most iconic sports photos from Getty Images at this year’s event.

Our weekly roundups of the best sports photos from Getty Images are some of the most interesting features you’ll find here on FanSided, particularly because of the insights and detailed commentary provided by the photographers who actually took them.

Here six photographers from their Paralympic coverage team share some of their favorite shots and share about the experience of trying to photograph the best athletes in the world.

What I’ve just witnessed in Beijing has been nothing short of breathtaking. Every athlete at the Paralympics is a true superhero, a superhuman. After covering six Olympic Games, this is my first Paralympics, and I honestly can’t believe what I’ve witnessed in the last week. These courageous and talented athletes have produced the most incredible show for our team to photograph. Until you see these athletes in the flesh, storming down the icy Alpine course, checking their opponent into next week in para ice hockey or showing such finesse and control in wheelchair curling, you can’t even imagine how paramount their performances are. These Games, both photographically and inspirationally, have had more of an impact on me than any other event I’ve covered, and I am in complete awe of every single athlete to have taken part.

— Ryan Pierse

Davide Bendotti of Team Italy competes during the Men’s Giant Slalom Standing Run 1 on day six of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre on March 10, 2022, in Yanqing, China.

Zdenek Krupicka of Team Czech Republic celebrates victory after the Para Ice Hockey Preliminary Round Group B match between Italy and Czech Republic on March 5, 2022, in Beijing, China.

Jingyi Liang of Team China competes in the Para Alpine Skiing Men’s Super Combined Super-G Standing at Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre during day three of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics on March 7, 2022, in Yanqing, China.

Gold medal winners Team United States celebrate during the Para Ice Hockey medal ceremony after the Gold Medal game on day nine of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at the National Indoor Stadium on March 13, 2022, in Beijing, China. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

The Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games are a celebration of the human spirit, mind and body. I photographed a mix of events, but I was primarily assigned to the Beijing city, the B-Zone, which included para ice hockey. As a former player, current fan and regular photographer of hockey, the sport feels comfortable for me. Familiarizing yourself with a sport is the first step in predicting moments in coverage. Para hockey delivers the same bone-crushing hits, foolish dekes, diving saves and stick-flying celebrations as its Olympic counterpart. Our team was able to install a few remote cameras to show different angles of the sport. My favorite is the goal net camera, which is mounted with a wide-angle lens in hopes of capturing goals or players crashing into the net.

My favorite photos show the personality of an athlete, as if the viewer is there experiencing the moment with them. Before a Team USA practice ahead of the tournament, they dressed in their game day jerseys for a team portrait on the ice. I wanted to show the athletes getting ready and enjoying themselves before the competition brought a different energy to their faces.

The gold medal game always finishes with emotion. Because Paralympic and Olympic hockey do not have ice-level photo holes to photograph from like NHL venues do, it can be a challenge to capture the emotion cleanly without glass reflection or distortion. By photographing at an elevated position, the white ice offers a simple background for the viewer to more easily read the image and relish the players’ emotion.

— Steph Chambers

Jen Lee of Team United States celebrates with teammates after defeating Team Canada during the Para Ice Hockey Gold Medal game on day nine of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at the National Indoor Stadium on March 13, 2022, in Beijing, China. Team United States defeated Team Canada 5-0.

Eduard Lepacek of Team Slovakia slides into the goal during the Para Ice Hockey Preliminary Round Group B match between Slovakia and China during Day One of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at National Indoor Stadium on March 5, 2022, in Beijing, China.

Joshua Misiewicz of Team USA looks on before a training session at National Indoor Stadium on March 3, 2022, in Beijing, China. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

For the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Games, I have been blessed to cover men’s and women’s events in the mountain region of Yanqing — the Y-Zone. It has been a dream of mine to photograph downhill alpine events in an Olympic/Paralympic setting. As I got settled in and visited the course, my excitement turned to astonishment. How could these brave athletes ski down slopes this steep, icy and windy with various physical limitations? It is crazy to imagine flying down this mountain with one leg, no arms or sitting. I was in total awe of their passion, drive and commitment to the sport and most importantly to their country.  

 Being my first downhill event, I had to quickly learn the ins and outs of how, when and where we can take photographs. Photo positions were extremely limited and not often pretty. The mountain was spilt into two main courses — one for speed events and one for technical events. The speed course was more visually appealing because of the terrain and length of the races. Unfortunately, we were never permitted on-course and at times when we skied to the spot, it was moved or in my case canceled twice. On the technical course, we were permitted on-course, but this meant standing on a very steep icy surface, while handling large equipment. Unlike the Beijing Olympics team, we got fairly lucky with the weather. It was cold and windy but never as cold as it was for the Olympics Getty Images team. This was a big help and gave us a few days of beautiful sunshine. In the end, I believe we were able to provide some dynamic and inspiring photographs that documented the speed, scale and intensity of this incredible sport and event as a whole. 

— Christian Petersen

Hiraku Misawa of Team Japan competes during a training session for the Men’s Downhill Standing ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at National Alpine Ski Centre on March 3, 2022, in Yanqing, China.

Eva Nikou (R) of Team Greece, with guide Dimitrious Profentzas, competes in the Para Alpine Skiing Women’s Super Combined Super-G Vision Impaired during the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at National Alpine Ski Centre on March 7, 2022, in Yanqing, China.

Spencer Wood of Team United States trains for the Men’s Downhill Standing ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at National Alpine Ski Centre on March 2, 2022, in Yanqing, China.

It’s hard to quantify the Paralympic Games as words don’t do justice to the athletes’ performances. As with the Tokyo Summer Paralympics, there were still challenges with COVID restrictions and empty stands with no fans for the Winter Paralympics. Which meant it’s a larger call for us photographers to keep the imagery compelling as we document competition and not allow the extremely cold weather to impact our photos. In Beijing, we were part of a closed-loop system, so only able to move about the bubble between venues and to our rooms. We unfortunately weren’t able to go out and explore the city during any downtime. I

t can be very challenging to cover the same indoor sport multiple times, given restrictions, there’s only so much you can do to keep the images fresh. However, the athletes bring all the heroics, emotion, and an abundance of joy, all I have to do is document it all as it unfolds. With the use of remote and robotic camera technology in the indoor venues, we are able to capture different angles and views from above of peak action moments and emotion. I still believe in the specialty of freezing time for these athletes. Once we are on the ground for these major events, our sole focus is capturing the competitors in the most compelling way possible. Through my photos, it’s my job to explain the magic of these Games and document compelling stories and moments in sports history. 

— Carmen Mandato

Seungnam Go of Team Republic of Korea competes against Team Latvia at the National Aquatics Center during Day One of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics on March 5, 2022, in Beijing, China.

Julian Kasslatter of Team Italy unable to make a save on a goal during the Preliminary Round Group B Para Ice Hockey game between Italy and China on day four of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at National Indoor Stadium on March 8, 2022, in Beijing, China.

Giuseppe Romele of Team Italy competes in the Para Cross-Country Open 4×2.5km Relay during day nine of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre on March 13, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.

Radek Zelinka of Team Czech Republic comforts Alex Ohar of Team Czech Republic following their loss to People’s Republic of China during the Qualifying Final Para Ice Hockey game between China and Czech Republic at National Indoor Stadium on day five of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics on March 9, 2022, in Beijing, China.

For more than 40 years, I have been on every kind of ski. Professionally, I have skied many courses in the Alpine Ski World Cup, at World Championships and Olympic Games. I have always come down quite well everywhere with heavy camera equipment on my back. I admire athletes who stand confidently on skis, coming down at great speeds, who draw their tracks in the snow in a way that is worth seeing. In Beijing, I met Hongsheng Sun of Team China and after seeing him compete in the Men’s Downhill Standing, I am in full of admiration of his performance. I was particularly moved by his achievement. I saw him twice at the launch and each time he launched himself into the race from the start house with his loud cry of happiness.

It is really very rare that we can photograph sports in direct relation to the sun. In 30 years of sports photography, I have had this luck exactly four times. There were always fortunate circumstances in terms of timing, including this photo of Vanesa Gaskova of Team Slovakia competing in the Women’s Slalom Standing competition. Due to warm weather, the competition was brought forward by two hours, so we had the great luck to photograph the athletes in front of the rising morning sun. It was a real challenge to constantly look through the camera into the direct sun but wanted to get this photo. The sun moved upwards, I moved deeper and deeper into the snow to keep the optical line of the camera, athlete and sun as far as possible. After 20 racers, the opportunity was gone. It remains unbelievably inspiring how camera technology enables us to take these pictures at all — moments barely perceptible to the eye, with the freedom to implement ideas to perfection.

What makes a great ski photo? As always in sports photography, it is the moment. The moment of winning, the moment of peak performance or just the moment – which makes the champ. For years, we have seen racing drivers fighting for hundredths of a second on the tracks, full of courage and with a sporty, aggressive driving style. Especially in the technical disciplines of slalom, giant slalom and super-G, gates are approached extremely closely. This is the moment to photograph and what better way than to show speed and velocity. My goal with this photo of Andrew Kurka of Team USA was a fast descent on the piste with a longer exposure time, perfect for pan, which I believe I succeeded quite well here.

— Alexander Hassenstein

Andrew Kurka of Team USA competes during the 3rd training session for the Men’s Downhill Sitting ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at National Alpine Ski Centre on March 3, 2022, in Yanqing, China.

Hongsheng Sun of Team China starts at the 2nd training session for the Men’s Downhill Standing ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at National Alpine Ski Centre on March 2, 2022, in Yanqing, China. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Vanesa Gaskova of Team Slovakia competes in the Women’s Slalom Standing on day eight of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre on March 12, 2022, in Yanqing, China.

Having covered many major sporting events throughout my 36-year-long career, these Beijing Winter Paralympic Games were my first-ever Winter Paralympics. Traveling out to Beijing, there was some trepidation due to the freezing temperatures that my colleagues had experienced during the Olympic Winter Games. Fortunately, the temperatures were much kinder for us during Paralympics, however, melting snow became an issue. One of my favorite events ever was the London 2012 Summer Paralympics. I knew going into these Winter Games how determined, brave and humble Paralympic athletes are.

My main focus was the biathlon and cross country events in the Z-Zone, working alongside two other colleagues. We mixed our positions up each day from out on the course and finish line. Ahead of events, our time was spent walking the various courses looking for angles and variety as we’d be covering seven days of racing on similar tracks. The light was quite harsh as all competition days started mid-morning and carried through to mid-afternoon. There was no opportunity really for crisp early sunrises or dusk shots, unfortunately. The photo of an athlete from Team China silhouetted during training was the closest to golden hour light that I could get. Practice always finished at 5 p.m. and after waiting patiently each day for lone athletes, this was the only time an athlete was on the course.

The frame of Alexandr Gerlits competing in the men’s standing biathlon event works really well because of the blue colors in the sky, in his uniform and from the course barriers. His determination coming into the finishing straight stood out and shows just how hard he was working. Canada’s Mark Arendz celebrating gold leaping up at the medal ceremony was glorious to capture. His emotion and joy after years of hard training finally realized in this moment – it was just an explosion of emotion here.

I also had the opportunity to cover the snowboard cross competition, where I captured the image of Brenna Huckaby of Team USA and Lisa Bunschoten of Team Netherlands crashing into each other during the women’s Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 Big Final. They both cleared a jump together but clipped boards on landing sending them sprawling. It was bad news for both athletes but made for a dramatic shot for the gathered photographers.

— Michael Steele

Brenna Huckaby of Team United States and Lisa Bunschoten of Team Netherlands crash into each other in the Women’s Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 Big Final at Genting Snow Park during day three of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics on March 7, 2022, in Beijing, China.

Alexandr Gerlits of Team Kazakhstan competes in the Men’s Sprint Standing Paralympic Para Biathlon during Day One of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre on March 5, 2022, in Beijing, China.

A member of Team China trains during Day One of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre on March 5, 2022, in Beijing, China. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

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