What it’s like to be one of the few female sports photographers at the Rio Olympics The world will be watching as some of the fittest, fastest sports stars on the planet fight it out to […]

The world will be watching as some of the fittest, fastest sports stars on the planet fight it out to win gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics – but some will be looking more closely than others.

Every race run, punch thrown and arrow drawn will be captured on camera by a contingent of top-flight sports photographers all vying for prime position in hopes of shooting the most arresting images of the Olympic Games.

Among their number is Elsa Garrison. With two decades in the industry, the Getty Images sports photographer is at the top of her game.

“I was told: ‘Girls can’t shoot sports'”

Garrison, 42, is one of just two female Getty sports photographers assigned to cover Rio 2016 – and she is prepared to do whatever it takes in the male-dominated world of sports photography to get the perfect shot.

Being invited to cover the Olympic Games is “every sports photographer’s dream,” says the photographer, who was brought up in Minnesota in the US and is based in New York.

Not for girls

Garrison developed an interested in sports photography as a teenager when she got a job at a small newspaper in her hometown and was dispatched to shoot sporting events at the local schools.

“There’s always a sense of gratification in kicking someone’s ass – through your pictures, I mean”

She went on to study photojournalism at university where a male student informed her: “Girls can’t shoot sports”. Instead of deterring Garrison, his comment had the opposite effect.

“After he said that to me I was like, ‘Oh, really?’ That kind of gave me a little motivation.

“The more I got into [sports photography] and felt like this is what I was meant to do [the more] I wanted to stick it to this guy. There’s always a sense of gratification in kicking someone’s ass – through your pictures, I mean,” she says.

Toughening up

At the start of her career Garrison got “thrown around a lot” beside the basketball court and the football pitch by her male counterparts. She quickly learned to “toughen up” and elbow her way to the front of the pack.

“Tall skinny men are surprisingly easy to knock over”

What Garrison lacks in stature – she is 5’4” – she makes up for in tenacity. Her height can even be a bonus at times, she says, noting that her low centre of gravity makes it harder to knock her over than a “tall, skinny dude”. They are actually “surprisingly easy to knock over,” Garrison notes. She wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing on purpose of course, she adds.

18-hour days

Rio 2016 is Garrison’s second Summer Olympics – she also covered London 2012 – and the Games will test her endurance and stamina.

Her schedule is gruelling: 15 to 18 hours per day, for the whole tournament, without a day off. Garrison doesn’t mind, though: “This is what I’ve worked for,” she says.

“Don’t mess with me – it’s not going to end well for you”

In the first week of the contest she’ll cover everything from basketball and handball to gymnastics and indoor cycling – and she will also have to prove she has the speed to keep up with her editors’ exacting demands.

Don’t mess with me

“The new norm is who can do it fastest,” Garrison says of the rush to secure the best shot and get it out to clients before her competitors.

“We have a lot of tech in place. Half a second after we shoot [a picture] it’s on our editor’s laptop. From shooting a picture to cropping, editing and sending it out to clients our quickest time is 180 seconds – we’ll try and stick to that,” she says.

And if she encounters any sneering at her presence within scrum of photographers? Garrison would never entertain the idea of slinking away to the sidelines. “If some people feel threatened by me that’s not my fault…it’s their problem,” she says.

“The way I carry myself is: ‘Don’t mess with me – it’s not going to end well for you.”

@kt_grant