Olympic Hopefuls
I looked out the window of the trailer the AP rented to use as a darkroom and workspace for our coverage of the 1987 World Figure Skating Championships in Cincinnati and quickly alerted a photographer that although the preliminary competitions didn’t start for several hours, it was time to make a couple of photos.
Katarina Witt, the woman who would go on to win gold in the championships and later win her second Olympic gold at the 1988 Calgary Olympics was beside our trailer stretching her legs on the guardrail.
I’m sure she wasn’t aware she’d stepped into the photographer’s lair when she attempted to find a quiet spot to prepare herself for the competition. I knew we would have an exclusive of the future champion, but didn’t want to disturb her pre-competition process.
I told the photographer to make it quick, do not disturb her, and return to the trailer. The film was immediately processed, printed, and transmitted to the world, including East Germany, where Witt skated.
Later that day, we made photos of her skating, which also went worldwide.
The next day, at about the same time, she was back in front of our trailer, stretching just as she’d done the day before. Gene Puskar, the photographer with me and Katrina in the above photo, quickly grabbed a couple of photos of her performing that he’d made the previous day.
Together, we took them to her as gifts and asked if she’d sign one for each of us. She obliged and then posed for a photo with the two of us.
I’m telling this story now because I wanted to include Gene in the story.
Gene was the second photographer at the attempted assassination of former President Trump. Evan Vucci was the primary photographer and part of the traveling press corps with Trump.
Gene was assigned as the secondary photographer in a fixed position on a platform facing the stage. That position usually results in photos of waves from the speaker or handshaking before and after the speech. Rarely does it result in the primary photo. The traveling photographer has the more advantageous angle and positioning.
In all the times I’ve been the secondary photographer, I don’t remember having a better photo than the traveling photographer.
Gene and I went on to cover a few stories together. Among the highlights were a newspaper strike, a plane crash, and a prison riot.
But the best day was our day with Katarina Witt.
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