Celebration, heartbreak, determination: Best Getty Images photos from the 2024 Paris Olympics

Despite the ubiquitous television coverage, it's hard to imagine the Olympics without the iconic stills provided by Getty Images. They deployed a team of 140 photographers and editors (more than double the number involved in their coverage of the last two Olympics) to shoot and edit more than 5 million images from the three weeks of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Their staff has already shared some of their favorite images and stories from the first, second and third weeks of the games. For a final roundup of the best photographs from the games, a dozen of their photographers shared their favorite images along with the stories of how each was captured.

Naomi Baker

To capture this image, I utilized one of the glass screens on a scoreboard at the foot of the beam. It was a challenging shot because I had to align the beam perfectly for the composition to work. I positioned my camera directly along the scoreboard screen, and everything came together beautifully. Discovering a new angle or approach to capture a sport is always exciting and having the chance to photograph Simone was amazing. She wore a white leotard that day, which stood out perfectly against the black stadium background. It’s a shot I’m really proud of. I’ve attempted this type of shot before with different apparatus at various gymnastics events. During the first few days in Paris, I looked for this opportunity, but the scoreboard screens weren’t facing the right way until that particular day. When I saw there was TV in that spot, I seized the opportunity to try it!

Patrick Smith

Everyone struggles sometimes, but it's how one handles themselves. When Michelle Jenneke of Team Australia took a fall in the Women's 100m Hurdles Round 1 heat, she could have easily walked off the track. But she kept pushing to finish the race, ultimately still struggling. Her perseverance and determination to do so inspires more than those winning gold which makes an image such as this graphic one so memorable.

Jared C. Tilton

At the beginning of every session, the venue would play a light show prior to the event starting. I had photographed it in a few other ways that did not really showcase what they were displaying. So, on this day I took a different approach and broke out a lens I very, very rarely use. But it sensed like the right opportunity to use it in the corner of the track, creating this beautiful-looking image with vibrant colors and movement.

Lintao Zhang

This was my first time shooting beach volleyball at an Olympic Ganes. When I saw the promotional video for the Paris Olympics, I was amazed by the scenery of beach volleyball and knew it would make for some compelling images both during the day and especially at night. The shooting challenge with beach volleyball was to follow the rules and not move freely during the competition, so I chose to shoot in the media stand in the first round of the game and then return to the ground. Using a wide-angle lens to wait for the perfect moment, I was able to capture athletes while the Eiffel Tower was in the background. The Eiffel Tower, Olympic rings and Paris 2024 branding all over the venue, provide a picturesque backdrop for all the emotion, action and beauty happening throughout the competition and will be photos that we look back on for years to come.

Robert Cianflone

For reasons that were not very clear to us, the medal ceremony was held off to the side of the pitch behind the goal area. Normally, the ceremony is held in the middle of the pitch facing the main grandstand, with photographers placed on the middle of the sideline. This year though the photographers had to stand off to the sides and or over the other side of the pitch, which is where I chose to capture this image with a 400mm lens. This posed another challenge with the Spider Camera dropping down and blocking most of my shots, but wanted to focus on getting Team USA celebrating their gold medal win with fans in the background. You can see the varied emotions of the players taking in the moment.

Adam Pretty

For the Men's 3000m Steeplechase, I had the opportunity to place the camera in the steeplechase water obstacle. It enables you to capture a unique image and angle of the athletes as they jump over the hurdle and the water. It also illustrates how close together they are and the precision with which they are able to jump even when running at 100% I used a 10-20mm lens and Canon R5 in a Nauticam underwater housing.

Ezra Shaw

What a night! I have probably covered over 1000+ basketball games in my career, but I don’t think any of them have been as exciting as this one. My favorite athlete to photograph of all time is Steph Curry, and he was playing great that night. The problem for the USA was that Serbia couldn’t miss a shot. When he was taken out of the game with less than 10 seconds left just after he sealed the game with two free throws, I decided to stay focused on him on the bench as time expired. When the buzzer went off, he went running out onto the court, and it was great to see how excited he was. The fact that the Serbian player was lying on the ground and fans were holding up a giant USA sign in the background definitely helped the picture.

Hector Vivas

I have been working with the team at Getty Images who for nine months have been thinking about projects to try to have an approach to the Olympic Games from another perspective. The Layers of the Games photo series is one of these creative projects, and this was the image I made during the Paraguay and Mali group match. For Layers of the Games, I put a fixed camera shooting at the most important moments of a game or a day of competition, and then in post-production I place the layers of the photos on top of each other until I achieve this effect. It shows the action, emotion and movement all on one half of the field.

Alex Davidson

During the match, Team Denmark were constantly blocked and hampered by the defense. I tried to encapsulate this here. Kristiansen and Herrem for Team Norway epitomized the way their side had gone about the business of overcoming their Scandinavian rivals. In many ways, there are far more exciting shots from the match but I was looking for an opportunity to highlight the level of commitment Norway gave versus the struggle of Denmark. I was able to pivot onto this shot as the players turned towards me and if you look at the expressions of the three athletes you have the narrative of the game. It’s nice when my impression of the game which I’m looking to capture comes together with a moment to give an overall perspective in a single shot.

Steph Chambers

The Paris 2024 Olympics is my second time photographing table tennis. During the Tokyo 2020 Games, I covered all 14 days of competition so I am now quite familiar with the sport and some of the athlete's tendencies, which can come as an advantage when anticipating action. A challenging part of photographing is the backgrounds aren’t always the cleanest. The key is to find a spot where the light falls off enough to create a dark background away from referees, LED boards, and other distracting components. The venue has field of play positions so you can get fairly close to the athletes along the sides of the table. I prefer to sit on the ground instead of designated photo benches because the lower my line of sight is, the cleaner my backgrounds become.

Tim de Waele

This picture turned out particularly well while the female peloton was passing in a big bunch and making the image very colorful in combination with the blue sky and neutral colors of the Louvre Museum—a main landmark in Paris, making this a must have picture. The priority was to get there early to secure the central photo position, which also helped make it completely symmetric with the Louvre building in the background. It’s not every day we get to see such clean image without anything else around, especially in summer where this area is normally overwhelmed by tourists.

Patrick Smith

Being in more than one place at once is physically possible. However, a remote camera, triggered by a radio from another place, allows for this in photography. With Tara Davis-Woodhall of Team USA chasing gold in the Women's Long Jump Final, we placed a remote camera by the sand pit to give an up-close view of the challenge athletes like her face during this competition. In doing so, I was able to cover on track races all while capturing her historic final at the same time. You can see the direct impact of hitting the sand and how much power she exudes in this world-record-breaking moment.

Elsa

I am covering different events each day throughout the Games, including gymnastics, fencing, beach volleyball, breaking, badminton and 3x3 basketball. I shot fencing in Tokyo 2020 and was overjoyed to get a few days of it at the Grand Palais here in Paris, such an iconic and picturesque venue. There is always such great opportunities to capture emotion in this sport, especially of Team Italy celebrating their gold medal win against France in the Fencing Women's Epee Team Final. Their facial expressions and height off the floor say it all.

Cameron Spencer

This image captured Cheptegei on his victory lap after winning the Men’s 10,000m Final. He finished the race and then ran the opposite way around the track celebrating gold. I met him on the back straight using an 85mm lens shot at f1.2–this creates a crisp photograph with a very shallow depth of field. The stadium lights in the background match the Ugandan flag as he looks up in pure joy. I like the fact I haven’t influenced the moment, instead documented his moment as the newly crowned king of the 10k.

Alex Pantling

The Paris Olympics is my first-ever Summer Games, something I’ve been excited about since I first broke into the industry. My schedule has been quite varied, but I’ve had the luxury of covering a couple of days of field hockey. The venue has been great photographically due to the high grandstands which create a unique angle looking down on the athletes, and when the sun is shining (which it has been most days) it can make great graphic images. The other reason I’ve enjoyed working at the venue is due to its history. It’s the same venue that hosted the Opening Ceremony and athletics for the 1924 Olympic Games, exactly 100 years ago. A perk of working at an outdoor venue is the chance of a nice sunset or dark moody sky. As much as the Olympic Games are about covering the action and the pinnacle of the sport, I find that taking wide scenic pictures is such an important thing to do at every venue I visit as these are the pictures that people will look back on when remembering the Games for what they were.

Buda Mendes

This photo was shot with a remote camera. I positioned the camera in this location two hours before the event started. I sought to not only show the sport but the atmosphere surrounding the entire sport in such a beautiful venue. The camera is on the ground with a wide-angle lens close to the obstacle and I shoot each athlete who jumps via radio. I was happy to see that during the jump the athlete looks to the side of the camera and the horse has the perfect jump.

Hannah Peters

This year, the Women’s and Men’s 100m Finals had been early on in the schedule so we had to make sure everything was looking good right from the start. Right before the Women’s 100m Final, the rain started coming down making the track look like glass which made for something a bit different. As the final was happening, I took a quick look up at the TV screen to see if anyone was clearly in front. Richardson was a hot favorite to take out the 100m however I saw Julien Alfred was in the lead. Making a split decision to change and focus on her paid off as she celebrated well over the line with rain bouncing off her and the track. The 100m race is very hard to call from front on as we really have no real idea when it's a tight race who is winning so in that moment you have to make a call.

Ryan Pierse

Throughout the Paris Olympics, we have been working on a creative project, called Parisienne Projections. Each night we’d find a new location to project an iconic Olympic moment and bring it to the streets and buildings of Paris for people to enjoy. You can see this gold-medal moment of Simone Biles projected on this building as people dine at a local restaurant below. It captures the essence and beauty of Paris at night, while also showcasing an unforgettable Olympic moment outside the venues of the Games.

Patrick Smith

Everyone wants to win gold, but they also want to go down in history. Gold medalist Armand Duplantis of Sweden not only set an Olympic record, but on this jump a new world record during the Men's Pole Vault Final. I decided to take a risk and shoot this image wide as I knew other photographers within our team had a look on the jump. We are often trained that 'tight is right' in terms of taking a sports photograph, but giving a sense of place during a historic moment can be more important.

Clive Rose

Tom Daley has now completed his Olympic set. After winning gold at the Tokyo Games, he celebrated his silver medal with his diving partner Noah Williams. Tom had his first Olympic Games in London 2012 and returned to diving before Paris after a two-year break for an emotional reason as his son Robbie wanted to see his father compete at an Olympic Games. It was a special moment for the British athlete that ended in a spontaneous celebration — a kiss after the medal ceremony. Tom and Noah presented their silver medals in their own way. The moment shows all the emotions and feelings released by these high-performing athletes.

Patrick Smith

Light, color and moment are all key elements a photographer looks for. When Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Team Ukraine competed during the Women's Triple Jump Qualification, the assignment was to roam to find compelling images from different vantage points. One often thinks sitting in the 'cheap seats' doesn't make for a great image, but with the light setting quickly, I was able to make a dynamic image, showing the power of the athlete.

Adam Pretty

I was using our new underwater robotic camera to capture this image and am able to frame up to capture a few different boards. It is important to have a basic knowledge of diving as you need to know which direction the athlete will travel when they hit the water. I think this angle really illustrates the speeds and the impact with which they hit the water, usually capturing different shapes and emotions of the athletes underwater.

Hector Vivas

For this composition of the 100m final for a project called “Layers of the Games”, I visited the photo positions that the organization gave us the day before. And I decided that this position on the second floor of the stadium could work quite well for what I had in mind. An elevated position helps me to be able to see the different stages of the competition. The camera has to be in the same location in all the shots, so I fix it with a clamp to some structure in the stadium or the stands. After this comes the editing process where I join the different moments layer by layer to be able to have this result. In the case of the photo of the 100m final, there were only eight photos and therefore eight different layers. But in other sports such as soccer, up to almost 100 different layers were used. The editing work has been challenging because I try to take care of the details and see relevant moments of the competitions. But the fieldwork at the locations has also been important because if I have a good position, it will help the editing to be more fluid and much more interesting when it comes to seeing the details of each photo.

Alex Pantling

Due to the static nature of archery, it’s important to look around your venue as much as possible to try and find alternative angles of the athletes competing as you know where and when they will be in action. This frame was taken from outside of the main competition arena and over on the practice facility at 800mm. It took a lot of time and patience as the picture only worked first thing in the morning when the sun was low. Another factor was a remote TV camera which was constantly moving in front of the shot, so to get this frame eventually felt very satisfying. The Paris 2024 also gives the photo a nice sense of place.

Ezra Shaw

This picture was taken during the first training session when the US team was at the competition venue. The uneven bars always make for interesting, eye-catching images when the women leap from bar to bar. I was able to position myself right in the center of the bars. The venue here also provides a very dark background due to the lighting, which is great for pictures. I captured this photo using a new mirrorless camera being released by Canon in the coming months (the EOS R1). I was also using a new lens that came out earlier this year — a 100-300 f2.8 zoom. This lens is incredible, and the combination of the lens and camera can track the eyes of the athletes like never before and make the picture tack sharp. I was able to focus on Jordan Chiles’ eyes when she jumped from beam to beam to make this image — like she is looking right at us.

Adam Pretty

This is one of my favorite shots from the Games, but I think I might be slightly more attached to it as it was something I have been wanting to try and capture for a long time and have only just been able to start trying, due to the huge advances we have made with our underwater robotic. In this frame, Charlie Swanson of Team USA torpedoes off the start of the breaststroke during the Mixed 4x100m Medley. This was shot at a pretty slow shutter speed of 1/30th of a second. I have tried to illustrate the speed of the swimmers by shooting at relatively slow shutter speeds. I think the slower shutter gives a slightly painterly effect and dreamlike quality. I love trying to capture images that can alter your mood slightly and that you maybe can't digest in the first instant you see it but needs a little longer to sink in.

Carmen Mandato

Marie Eve Gahie of Team France reacts after losing her match at Judo, for this I was just looking to document the athletes’ emotions leaving the mat, whatever it may be, and in this case, the devastation was clear on her face. These athletes train for their whole lives for it to come down to a single moment, and the wave of emotion is overwhelming. I tried to just put myself in their line of exit prepared to document things as they unfolded.

Justin Setterfield

I’d spotted an elevated grass bank at the back of the Canoe Slalom venue which I thought would be good for the finish line in the finals as the sun was in the right position to light the athletes crossing the line and shooting down offered the chance for a clean background. The Canoe is a little unusual as it’s a time trial and athletes crossing the line don’t know they will win until the final athlete has finished his run. Adam Burgess of Great Britain crossed the line and celebrated sitting in the Gold Medal spot with the fastest time but finished with a Silver Medal after being pipped to Gold by Nicolas Gestin of Team France, the last athlete down the course.

Kevin C. Cox

There is a robotic camera set up at the indoor volleyball venue which can be repositioned and focused according to each photographer’s likes and wants. As the Olympic logos under the net had been removed, I asked for the camera to be adjusted over the rings behind the service line. I would fire a remote trigger that is connected to the remote camera when someone was serving over the rings or if there was action that went in that area. There was some great action of athletes who ran back to chase down a ball around the rings as well as this one where Ekaterina Antropova of Team Italy served just on the left side over the rings.

Alex Pantling

Taekwondo can be a great sport to photograph with outstanding action and moments that can happen in seconds. Unless you are concentrating it’s very easy to miss moments like this. Once Taejoon Park had won his gold medal match he appeared to have finished his celebrations but all of a sudden performed a backflip out of nowhere, something that would be easy to miss as it was the final game of the day after being at the venue for almost 12 hours.

Michael Steele

Paris 2024 set many events in and around iconic landmarks and buildings — fencing at the Grand Palais, equestrian at Versailles and beach volleyball got photographers very excited for a sunset frame at the Eiffel Tower. The marathon and race walking events happened away from the main stadium in the city landscape, providing spectators with a free ticket and photographers with good landscape opportunities. I shot the Men’s Walk mainly from the finish area and then headed out onto the course for the Women’s race. Thankfully the race officials were very relaxed about the position we had at a tight turn as the athletes passed directly by the Eiffel Tower. I shot on an ultra-wide 11-24mm lens with the athletes a footstep away from the lens, creating beautiful silhouettes of the athletes, the Eiffel Tower and the bright blue sky.

Julian Finney

Badminton is not as easy as it looks! The athletes return their shots so fast. I was able to freeze this moment of the birdie hitting Yang Lee’s racquet. The looks on the athlete’s faces and their stance show how intense the play was and how they wouldn’t miss this point.

Patrick Smith

Eyes tell the story of a photograph and so do facial expressions and body language. This image of Winfred Yavi of Team Bahrain celebrating winning the gold medal after competing in the Women's 3000m Steeplechase has it all. Seemingly looking directly down the barrel of the lens, it gives viewers a sense of being there as if she was looking at them in shock at her win.

Ryan Pierse

This image of Andy Murray projected in Paris is part of our team's concept — Parisienne Projections. Each night, throughout the host city of Paris, Getty Images has been projecting live imagery depicting the heroics and tragedies of 16 days of Olympic competition. Our team was in a taxi on the way back to the hotel from another shoot and we heard Andy Murray had lost his match and retired from the sport. The night before we had passed the same Scottish Pub and thought it would be a perfect tribute to the Scotsman. We turned the taxi around, and set up quickly and luckily there were many people waiting to get into the pub. A last-minute decision that all came together nicely.

Maddie Meyer

This image was taken the moment the USA Artistic Swim team won the Silver Medal. I love images like this where you have a group of athletes who have trained together can celebrate their hard work paying off. The Paris Olympics were the first games the US Team had qualified since 2008, and they made their mark. It was obvious how much this win meant to them.

Ezra Shaw

It was definitely great to have a full house for Simone Biles and her teammates as they went for the gold in the Team Final of artistic gymnastics. The Olympics were not the same last time in Tokyo when they didn’t allow fans in because of Covid. I was positioned up at the top of the stands with all the fans when the final scores were announced, and the crowd was going crazy. After Team USA won, they were given an American flag and came running across the mat, and that’s when I was able to capture this picture.

David Ramos

This was probably one of the best days of cycling I have ever covered. The atmosphere in the streets of Montmartre was simply spectacular. My task that day was to find a spot in Montmartre, outside of the photographers' assigned positions, that summed up the environment of this area of Paris — narrow streets, small shops and cafes. I arrived at that spot early and immediately realized that this was the place, but I needed some height. I decided to go and buy a small ladder and hurry back to secure my position. I sat on it for six hours until the first runners arrived. The street got more and more crowded and I ended up surrounded by hundreds of fans singing and drinking! The riders did three laps of the Montmartre circuit and when I saw on the phone of a fan standing next to me that Remco had attacked, I knew that the image to get was of the Belgian alone on the last ramp of Montmartre surrounded by thousands of fans. When he arrived, I was able to get three pictures of him between his arms and flags. It was definitely worth the long wait!

Julian Finney

This image shows Arisa Trew of Team Australia getting some serious height. Her pink helmet, skateboard and knee pads contrast well to the white background and really make her stand out and show her action. Trew is only 14 years old yet won gold for Australia, becoming the youngest Olympic gold medallist. While this photo was from prelims, we could tell she was going to be a force in the competition.

Sarah Stier

Leon Marchand is one of the biggest stories in swimming at this year's Olympic Games because of both his success in the pool and that he's competing in France, the country that he's from. The crowd support behind him has been so fun to hear. Last year at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Marchand broke Michael Phelps' world record in this event, the 400m Individual Medley. Because of that, I was expecting a big swim from Marchand, especially competing in front of his home crowd. I knew he would react at the finish, I just didn't know exactly what he would do, so I wanted to be prepared for anything. When he finished, instead of really celebrating for himself, he acknowledged the crowd instead. Obviously, he was the leader of the race, but I think knowing the context of what this crowd means to him, as well as his history competing in the event, helped me fine-tune my approach to photographing his reaction.

Maja Hitij

After the opening ceremony, the Olympic Cauldron was placed next to the Louvre. I heard about it being lifted at night, so I went there since the weather got better after terrible rains on Friday and Saturday. The crowd around was huge on Sunday so I expected this beautiful moment to happen after sunset. I wanted to be a bit behind to show all the people around and to catch some of the phones in front of me of people taking in the moment. At 10 p.m. when the Eiffel Tower started sprinkling, they lifted the cauldron, and everyone started cheering. It was a special moment to be part of and I like the lighting just as the sun lowers and twilight begins as the cauldron lifts.

Richard Heathcote

This Image taken from the Rugby Sevens at Stade de France using a Canon Robotic head with a 100-300mm lens. The logo in the middle of the pitch is quite prominent. I wanted to get some action going through the logo, but sevens is a fast moving sport with lots of breakaway tries. I spent some time watching the two heavyweight rugby nations of New Zealand and Ireland clash, waiting for a breakdown or a big tackle. The Kiwi’s dragged down the Irish player and as he flips over to pass the bal,l I was able to capture the ensuing melee of athletes.

Clive Mason

This picture is one of my favorites from the regatta during the Olympics. Trying to find a different way of shooting sailing is tough, however cameras are so good now that provided you can get your photo boat in the right place, the camera can do a lot of the work for you with regards to focus, exposure, etc.. For this photo, it had to be manually focused and the exposure had to be set manually too. The mirror aspect of the lens creates the “donut “ shaped bokeh which makes the picture stand out and look a little different to the norm.

Clive Brunskill

This is from Carlos Alcaraz’s first round match and in my mind he was playing someone he could beat with relative ease. That said, I started the match down the side to get some early action photos as this was his first competitive match since winning Wimbledon 13 days before. I initially didn’t think Hady Habib would make Alcaraz stretch, but I wanted to get something different so pivoted to shooting from the photo pit position which is directly behind the player. Sure enough, I was on my Canon R3 at 30 frames per second and my 85 f1.2 lens which helps create that beautiful blurred effect on the background. After waiting countless balls, a ball went super wide which Alcarez normally would let go but he lifted off the clay and threw himself at the ball resulting in the image you see here, with the ball compressed against the bracket strings at point of contact.

Buda Mendes

Judo is an intense sport and full of action, with athletes moving very quickly. To get this shot, it was a mixture of choosing the best positioning to highlight the athletes more and the background to be more blurred and trying to get to know the sport as much as possible. The way the athletes are falling and pushing off each other shows the movement of this move and the battle to win.

Tim de Waele

BMX was a newly introduced Olympic sport in Tokyo 2020 and now for the second time present at the Paris Olympics with huge crowds. I was able to capture nice end of the day shadows on the high ramps while the athletes garnered speed to make another air jump in combination with some tricks to score the maximum number of points. I like the above perspective although the picture was taken from ground level and riders were riding on a straight vertical ramp. Argentinian winner Jose Torres Gil was competing without brakes to reduce weight for his air tricks.