16.08.2024
ČTK reporters Kamila Nešporová and Jiří Polák were present at all the medals won by Czech athletes at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. The medal wins and successes as well as failures of this year's Games were also recorded in Paris by photographers – Ondřej Deml, ČTK’s regular photojournalist, and Jaroslav Svoboda, the agency’s external collaborator. The ČTK released over 2,000 stories, 120 flash news, 670 headlines and 40 profiles with the keyword "Olympic" during the Games. It also produced over 1,400 photos, 1,100 of which were taken straight in Paris.
According to Nešporová, the Paris Olympics were less stressful than the previous Games in Tokyo, Japan, which were held under strict anti-COVID measures. "We didn't have to worry before we left whether we would pass the tests, and after we arrived, we had no worries about whether we would end up in a hotel or in isolation. We didn't have to get registered for the venues, so last-minute planning was possible," said the journalist, who had made her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago.
According to her, a huge difference in the atmosphere could be felt on the sports venues themselves. "The stands were packed at every venue and everyone was cheering. We were free to move around outside the Olympic grounds," the sports editor added.
ČTK’s Olympic team. From left to right: Jiří Polák, Ondřej Deml and Kamila Nešporová (ČTK, 2024).
The opening ceremony on the Seine River was a unique idea, but it paid off especially for those who watched it on television, she said. "The situation on the spot was hellish. The embankment was closed to tourists several days in advance for security reasons, barriers stood everywhere, and everybody, including us journalists, was triple checked. And in the end, no one could see the entire ceremony. The people along the Seine saw only the passing boats withthe countries’ Olympic teams, while the journalists and spectators at the Trocadero could only see the TV coverage on big screens," she described the unusual start of this year's Games. "And all this in heavy rain on uncovered stands, so everyone was soaked despite raincoats and umbrellas. A truly unforgettable experience," said Nešporová, adding that she would have preferred a traditional opening at the stadium.
Opening ceremony on the Seine River (ČTK/Ondřej Deml, 2024).
The team of ČTK reporters and photographers in Paris focused mainly on the sports in which the Czech Republic was expecting medals. In the end, in terms of medal-winning, this year's Games were the worst Olympics in the history of the independent Czech Republic. The ČTK crew were thus more often present at Czech athletes’ failures. Jiří Polák, for example, focused on the complete programme of the water slalom, in which neither Jiří Prskavec nor Lukáš Rohan succeeded in the end. Nešporová, in her turn, attended not only the tennis mixed doubles match, which brought a golden medal for the Czech Republic but was also present at the "sloppy" end of men's and women's tennis doubles.
„The girls in particular mourned the fourth place. They eventually got up to talk, even though they didn't feel like it at first. I am still shaking my head over Jakub Vadlejch's fourth place, on the one hand, and Nikola Ogrodníková's bronze, on the other hand. Sport has sometimes unexpected plots," said the sports editor.
From the left: Karolína Muchová and Linda Nosková in a match for Olympic bronze in women's doubles (ČTK/Ondřej Deml, 2024).
The services and conditions for journalists were good, the ČTK team said. After some initial issues with accommodation, they eventually got a hotel with a good location close to various transport options. "For example, tennis and swimming were literally around the corner. Since I was the only woman in the three-person team staying alone, I can't complain about the room," Nešporová said.
The journalists used regular transport to move around the city. "We were given a card for transport in Paris and its surroundings. The centre wasn't as crowded as we had been warned before the Olympics, but it posed other challenges. Several times I experienced that the official transport app showed us a bus that didn't arrive at all or ran from a different stop. Especially at night, it was quite adventurous to find another solution by combining Google Maps and the Olympic app," said Nešporová, and photographer Deml agreed with her.
"The transport was complicated, but we were rewarded with photogenic sports venues located in the centre of Paris," said the photographer, who sent 660 images from the Games. Svoboda, the external collaborator of the ČTK, published 444 photos in the ČTK Photo Bank. In addition, the national agency offered subscribers tens of thousands of sports images taken from global agencies through its Profimedia photo library.
Gold medallist Ariarne Titmus of Australia, silver medallist Summer McIntosh of Canada (left) and bronze medallist Katie Ledecky of the United States (right) pose for photographers after the women's 400m freestyle final (ČTK/AP/Ashley Landis, 2024).
In Paris and the surrounding area, the venues were not as far apart and the travel between them was not as long as in Tokyo, so the journalists did not have to get up as early. "I usually managed to sleep for almost six hours. I only got under five hours once," Nešporová noted. While she was not able to enjoy French gastronomy much, she had a chance to test the hotel breakfasts and media restaurants at the main sports venues. "There were no frog legs, snails or wine. There really wasn't time for an evening friendly get-together either," she said.
The services for journalists was provided by the Czech Olympic Committee, among others. "We used especially the rich audio material from the shooting range in Chateauroux, which was about two and a half hours by train. They sent audio recordings for all the competitions," Nešporová said. Voices from interesting sporting venues, which the ČTK team could not cover due to the two-person writing team, were gathered from colleagues from more numerous teams of other media. "The inter-editorial collaboration was excellent as always," said Nešporová, who believes that the Paris Olympics were a success. "From a working point of view, it doesn't really matter where the Olympics are. We're in a bubble anyway, riding from one sports venue to another," she concluded.