One of the two tickets I had to competitions at the Olympics was to a women's basketball quarter-finals match between USA and Korea. I had amazing seats; second row by the U.S. basket. It was easy to tell which team had more supporters in the audience… every point Korea scored elicited an absolute eruption in the crowd. However I'm very happy to say that even as the U.S. scored their way to victory, the Korean supporters cheered them on. It was heartening to hear — and feel — such universal support. I suppose that's part of what the Olympics are about. Sure we're all there competing for the same medals, but we're also all there to support the players and the love of the friendly — albeit aggressive! — competition.

I was warned against bringing a "big"
lens (i.e. a 400/2.8 on a monopod) into the audience, as I'd likely be
chased away by the media police, so I shot only with a 70~200. Still,
since I was so close I got a few decent shots. Nothing award winning,
but fun nonetheless. One of the advantages of working in the MPC was
having access to dozens of terminals with the entire database of
events, players, results, and venues. This also included some
photo-specific information, like the color temperature of the lights in
the stadium. Too bad they were off by about 1500ºK!