Paris 2024: Creating the Olympic spirit with ISB’s production of the shooting and modern pentathlon

ISB’s full team line up at the Château de Versailles for the Paris 2024 modern pentathlon

“The best thing I think about these Olympics is that the crowds were phenomenal,” says managing director at International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), Ursula Romero. “Every venue was packed all the time, which was really great in comparison to the last few Games.”

Romero and a strong team from ISB were in Paris for the duration of the Games. While Romero was working on quality control at the IBC covering shooting, equestrian, modern pentathlon, rugby sevens, hockey, breaking, 3X3 basketball and surfing for Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), her ISB team produced first the shooting and then the modern pentathlon for the host broadcaster. ISB’s head of production, David Taunton was leading the team of around 30 people that was producing the live OBS feed for shooting and modern pentathlon.

The shooting and modern pentathlon did not overlap, so the ISB team was able to have a day off in between the end of the shooting competitions and the start of the modern pentathlon, but it has a been a tough and long haul, notes Romero.

Romero comments: “The team had one day to break [between shooting and modern pentathlon] because there was a turnover for the venue, which was also quite exhausting for the actual venue team,” she says.

ISB’s Oliver Valente, director for the shooting, Ursula Romero, ISB’s MD, and ISB’s head of production, David Taunton who was leading the team for the Olympic production of the shooting at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre

Olympic spirit

The shooting took place at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre, which welcomed 340 Olympic athletes and is set to see 160 Paralympic athletes competing in shooting events during the Paris 2024 Games.

One of the difficulties for the shooting was the location, comments Romero: “One of the challenges was that shooting is not one of the top sports, and it was in a venue that was quite far away [nearly three hours’ drive from central Paris], so they were kind of isolated, and the whole Olympic spirit wasn’t as palpable as at other venues. I think they were unfortunate; the venue was not very well dressed, so even though OBS tried really hard, I guess the budget was also something to consider.

“Unfortunately, the venue didn’t look very great. So that was a challenge for the team, because, especially in the indoor shooting range, the space is quite tight, there’s not a lot of spectators, and the athletes are all standing very tight together, and [there are] cameras everywhere to try and cover different angles, so it makes it really hard to make it look good [on screen].”

Although shooting is not normally a ‘hot’ sport for the Olympics, at Paris 2024 when Turkish silver medallist Yusuf Dikec went viral globally for his cool stance and casual demeanour, viewers started to pay attention.

Comments Romero on her team’s production of the sport: “I think, not to be sound big headed, but I think we did a really good job with the shooting. We really tried to make an effort to make it look better in the venue and we were lucky also because there was some really nice stories, like the Turkish guy, Dikec. So I think at the same time, maybe we helped the shooting a little bit because it’s not generally one of the favourites.”

Beautiful backdrop

For ISB’s team, shooting at Versailles for the modern pentathlon was a completely different situation, with both space and a stunning backdrop. “Versailles was really spectacular,” says Romero. “We were very lucky with the weather. They used the equestrian venue with a swimming pool at the back of it, looking out through Versailles to the Palace. It was great because everything was easily visible for all spectators, plus you had that beautiful backdrop; it was stunning. The stands were ram-packed, which was also really great.”

The modern pentathlon put 72 Olympic athletes through their paces in five sports – equestrian dressage and jumping, fencing, swimming and laser run – at the Château de Versailles. An arena at Versailles staged the horse jumping and dressage competitions (for both Olympic and the coming Paralympic competitions). The individual and team eventing cross-country section was held alongside the Grand Canal at the Château. Then in a very fast changeround for the venue’s event team, the five modern pentathlon events were also organised at the Château de Versailles.

Romero goes onto the challenges for the team working on the modern pentathlon: “They had the equestrian sports [at Versailles] for a long time, then they had to – in one day – change over the venue completely and set it up for modern pentathlon, which had a different setup from the equestrian side. They had to set up the laser run, they had to set up the stage for the fencing. And then we only had one day of rehearsal.

“So it was challenging for the ISB and venue teams, and also from a technical point of view. There was a lot of camera movements during the modern pentathlon, because obviously you try to use the camera placement efficiently and wisely, because everything is very visible; you don’t want to have the field of play full of cameras. So, there was a lot of camera movements between the different [modern pentathlon] disciplines and it was a hard task for the team to move the cameras and get them into position. There’s breaks between each of the different elements of the modern pentathlon, but it wasn’t a lot, so it was quite hard on the team, but I think the end product looked very good.”

The Olympic women of ISB’s crew take a bow at the Château de Versailles

Diverse team

Gender diversity was a strong theme of ISB’s team at the Olympics, and it is doing the same for the Paralympics. Comments Romero on the Olympic teams: “We were really lucky to find some really cool women that really gave their all. So it was really great. We not only had camera women, we had camera control unit operators, we had a vision mixer, we had an assistant director, producers, we had spotters, we had EVS; in every position we had women.

“We tried to really have a very varied team, which I think did an excellent job,” she continues. “We had this handheld operator, she’s teeny, teeny, teeny, but my god, she was incredible. Then we had one of our camera operators hadn’t had much experience on handheld, but again, she did an amazing job and we didn’t even notice [her lack of experience]. We had a very mixed team from different countries, which I’m also very proud of; we had Americans, we had Canadians, we had Slovakians, we had Australians, we had Chinese, we had Italians, some Germans, some Spanish, we had Portuguese, it was really varied, so it was very inspiring.

“We had everything! So it was very fun.”

ISB is now preparing to send multiple teams back to Paris for the Paralympics, where they will produce the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the para athletics, para track cycling, equestrian, para shooting, para archery, wheel chair rugby, and judo.