Missouri Grand Prix
Oussama Mellouli comes up for air during the second leg of the men's 100-meter freestyle championship final on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011, at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.
I only had the time to cover one session of the Missouri Grand Prix this year, so didn’t have much to work with. I decided to put together a quick edit, more of a sequence really, of just one race, the men’s 100M freestyle final. Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli came off the starting block with one of the higher seeded times. I chose to take a chance and follow his lane the entire race. It paid off.
Short freestyle races are probably the single hardest event to photograph in swimming. Because of how fast the swimmers move through the water, all you really see are splashes — any glimpse of a face is pure luck, and it’s case where trying to time a single shutter release is much more effective than a multi-frame motodrive.
Olympic gold medalist Oussama Mellouli, left, of Tunisia, reacts after placing first in the men's 100-meter freestyle. Richard Berens, right, another Olympic gold medalist, placed second.
Oussama Mellouli was a big winner at the Missouri Grand Prix, tallying five gold medals over the weekend.
A Missouri Grand Prix logo on a scoreboard is reflected in the pool. Image has been flipped horizontally to compensate for the mirror effect.