Cameraman gets in the way of 19 runners during Olympic race
An oblivious cameraman wandered into the middle of an Olympic race in Paris today, affecting all 19 runners in the 5,000-metre competition.
Whoops.
With four laps to go in Heat 2, a cameraman looking in the wrong direction began slowly walking across the track. He didn’t seem to realize what he had done until it was too late — he was standing in lane two as distance runners blew by him, to his left and right.
“What a stupid thing to do,” said commentator David Moorcroft on the CBC broadcast. “I cannot believe that the cameraman and the officials allowed that to happen. And that could have been another casualty.”
All the runners were able to successfully dodge the cameraman, but it looked like a few did brush by him.
Canadian Ben Flanagan was in the race, calling it “mayhem” in the post-race interview with CBC.
“It was a chaotic run out there, so I tried to just stay calm,” Flanagan told the CBC’s Devin Heroux.
Heat 1 was also chaotic, with multiple runners falling during the race. Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed tripped and won’t advance to the final. The 33-year-old won silver in the event at Tokyo 2020.