Gymn from the Midwest from the early 2000s

This weekend, the end of the third weekend in July of 2021, the Summer Olympics Games in Japan have been inaugurated and the first events and medallions have been awarded. There are more and more stories about the gymnastics events that have been held. Apparently many events in that sport have been played out, and the gymnastics have been whittled away to the finalist categories in several events, such as the high jump. So, that prompted me to look for old gymnastics photos I had taken.

I used to attend and photograph collegiate gymnastics events. It was a way to get out of the house and find something to do, while practicing with framing and with split second reflexes to compose and take a shot at the moment of action. I was using very, very modest equipment. To whit, I was using my trusty old Canon T-70 that I had bought back in 1987, with a 200mm f3.5 lens. This was still the age of film, so we didn't have all the fancy and limitless features that we have in the pandering digital cameras of the modern age. I didn't even have autofocus, I was manually focusing all my shots, and using 1000 ISO film. 

Given the dimness of my lens (f3.5), I was at the mercy of the gymnasium lights. Most of these facilities have very, very dim lighting. What compounded my problem is that I had to sit in the spectator seating, and as such, try to get close enough to the action. So, I was far away, and I was manually focussing, and I had only 36 photos per roll, so I might cut out in the middle of a sequence and have to rewind and reload. Plus, my film was really not suitable for such lighting. It was 1000 ISO, and did I mention that the gymnasium lighting was very, very dim? It was not a good setup for me, and yet I shot hundreds of rolls.

Here is one roll which must have been taken at the U of Missouri. The team is the Fighting Illini, but I never got to Chicago until a few years later. From where I was living in the Midwest, it was easier to drive to the U of Missouri, and a long, boring drive it was. But it was also therapeutic, because it got me out of the apartment during the winter months, when the lighting outside and the temperatures were also dim and cold.

Here is one roll. I am surprised at how well I focused, they seem sharp. The scans were done by the pharmacy, back when you could drop off a roll and have them develop and scan it for you in one hour. Now, no such luck. You can still drop off a roll, but they have to send it out to a lab, and it can take 4-5 days to get it back. They look at you and say in their expression, "Hey, dude, this is 2021, get on the program and start using a digital SLR like all the normal people do!". Of course, I am one of the cult of film photographers. 

Well, here goes.