Feature10 Mar 2021


Gladys Chai von der Laage: from Olympian to sports photographer

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Sports photographer Gladys Chai von der Laage

Many sports, athletics included, continue to creep ever closer to achieving gender equality, but beyond the field of play, female sports journalists – and more specifically photographers – have their own battle to fight.

One of the leading figures in this field is German sports photographer of Malaysian Chinese origins, Gladys Chai von der Laage, a 1972 Olympian who became one of the best sports photographers in the world.

Her journey as an athlete started at Chung Hua Middle School where her school teacher, who was a famous state basketball player, spotted her talent and encouraged her to start the sport.

At only 14, she won silver in high jump at the 1967 Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand. Three years later, she was voted Malaysian sportswoman of the year.

In 1971, she moved to Cologne, Germany, to take part in a training camp organised for Asian athletes in preparation for the Munich 1972 Olympic Games. That’s when Chai met her future husband, the organiser of the camp, and a renowned sports journalist, Rolf von der Laage. They became inseparable, both in their private life and professional one, until he passed away later in 2006.

On 2 September 1972, Chai von der Laage lined up for the 100m hurdles, the first event of the pentathlon. She completed the high jump and shot put before withdrawing from the Olympic event due to injury.

“The Olympic Games were supposed to be a joyous occasion,” she said. “Munich was set to celebrate a festival of peace. I felt very proud and happy to represent my home country Malaysia. The first 10 days were indeed lively and cheerful.”

Three days later, the 1972 Olympic dream in Munich turned into a nightmare that marked every Olympian that summer, including Chai von der Laage.

On 5 September eight Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic village, killing two members of the Israeli team and taking nine hostages who were later killed. Five of the terrorists and one police officer also met their fate in the attack.

“This happened just a few blocks away from our quarter where Esther Roth’s coach, Amitzur Shapira from Israel, whom I knew, was killed. That was very sad for me. But at the age of 19 only, the Olympic Games were a good experience and a great adventure,” she added.


Gladys Chai von der Laage in action at the 1974 Commonwealth Games

 

Chai von der Laage returned to the South East Asian Games to win the high jump and pentathlon gold in 1973. Her high jump record of 1.73m achieved during the Games stood for 17 years. She repeated the same achievement in 1975 and was the first Malaysian woman to compete in the high jump at the Commonwealth Games where she finished ninth with 1.70m.

She retired from the sport at 26, after winning gold in high jump at the 1979 South East Asian Games, her fifth gold medal at the Games in a 13-year competitive career.

Malaysia waited 39 years to see a female high jumper competing at the Commonwealth Games and 40 years to win gold in the same event at the South East Asian Games; Yap Sean Yee was Chai von der Laage’s successor and currently holds the national record of the event (1.83m).

Chai von der Laage took her first sports shot in 1974 during the Asian Games in Tehran, Iran. Photography was just a pastime up until her retirement from sports in 1979.

“I realised that I wanted to turn my hobby into a professional career,” she said. “I saw it as a calling and an opportunity to stay connected to the sport. I gave up my job as a radio sports reporter at the Deutsche Welle and started sports photography.”

Since the 1980s, the Von der Laages established their own agency ‘ASVOM-Agentur’. They travelled all over the world to report on the lives of world-class athletes such as Carl Lewis, whom they met at the famous Santa Monica Track Club, and Donovan Bailey whom they met in Jamaica for an exclusive home story.

“Rolf told the story with words and I illustrated it with photographs,” she recalls.

Above: Usain Bolt at the 2008 Olympic Games. Below: a long jumper in action. (© Gladys Chai von der Laage)


In 2016, Chai von der Laage was awarded the German Athletics Association media award after more than 20 years in this profession. Although she considered herself an all-round photographer, sport has always been her coup-de-coeur.

“It is the dynamic aesthetic movement and beauty that fascinates me in sports,” she says. “It is always challenging to capture the concentration of emotions of victory or disappointment in a situation at the right moment in time.”

Despite the continued efforts of international sports organisations towards gender equality, the sports photography field remains, to this day, dominated by men.

“You can find more and more female photographers in equestrian sports, gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics, but men still outnumber female sports photographers,” she says. “In popular sports like soccer, motorsports or tennis, you have to use a magnifying glass to find a female photographer in the pool.”

Above: Annu Rani in the javelin at the 2019 World Championships. Below: the men's 1500m at the 2019 World Championships. (© Gladys Chai von der Laage)


Sports photography is a competitive environment where hungry photographers are constantly looking for the best position from which to take the perfect shot. Chai von der Laage describes it as a ‘battle field’.

“Sports photography is a very demanding and competitive job which requires heavy and expensive equipment, long working hours, and duty on weekends,” she says. “Some people perceive it as unfitting for women, making it even harder for female sports photographers to find a job. I hope that the few of us can help to break these prejudices.”

Recently, more and more women are following in Chai von der Laage’s footsteps and most of them are athletes transitioning into sports photography.


The men's 5000m at the 2017 Diamond League final (© Gladys Chai von der Laage)

 

“I am glad that after my active career as an athlete I had the chance to remain on the sports scene for a second career in the stadium,” she says.

“Sport has given me the chance to travel and see the world, to meet new people and athletes from every corner of this planet, and I am very pleased to share their beautiful and emotional moments in pictures. I am so thankful. For me, sports photography was a way to stay in touch with my passion.”

In contrast to an athlete’s career, photography has no age limit. Photographers are constantly in search of their greatest shot, and Chai von der Laage is no exception.

After a 40-year career in sports photography, she admitted that she was “still waiting for the perfect shot”.

The next generation

Chai von der Laage has blazed a trail for other women – especially ones with a competitive sports background – to pursue a career in athletics photography.

These are just some of the women who are following in Chai von der Laage’s footsteps.

Alisha LovrichAlisha Lovrich

Website | Instagram

I’ve been competing in athletics and other sports since I was eight years old. It wasn’t until I went to university to study graphic design where I developed an interest in photography; it was one of the compulsory papers in the first year, but it turned out to be a blessing because I fell in love with the medium straight away.

I only started out doing basic portraits and still life work at university for my assignment, then my athletics photography career started by accident. It was the Auckland Championships (where I live) and I was injured so I decided to bring my camera to the track to take photos of my friends. I fell in love instantly! In time I was approached by Athletics Auckland, and eventually my work got noticed by my federation, Athletics New Zealand. I’ve been their team photographer since 2015, covering two World Championships, and the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Athletics is a beautiful sport to photograph. There are so many lines and curves to play with and a huge variety of events to experiment with a plethora or horizontals, verticals and intersecting curves to provide aesthetic images. Not only that, but the emotion and drama that come along with sport is something I love to capture across all the genres I work with even today.

Throughout my entire photography journey and beyond, it has always been important to have visible role models in the field. In photography you never stop learning and seeing the work of the photographers you look up to helps this. It is also nice to see other women in the field. I just hope I can inspire girls younger than me to become sports photographers as well.

 

Aleksandra SzmigielAleksandra Szmigiel

Website | Instagram

I started out in the sport as an athlete and I represented Poland at the 2007 European Mountain Running Championships. Having that background helps to bring more empathy and authenticity to my work now as a photographer.

In sports photography, I like to search for a moment, a detail, stories that others may not notice, to focus the attention on them, as well as tell athletes something new about themselves. I try to draw attention to the less obvious things that can often go unnoticed in the blink of an eye.

During my career I have worked at World Championships, European Championships and Diamond League meetings. I’ll be covering the Tokyo Olympic Games this year too.

In 2019 I created the ‘(Not) Ordinary Girl’ project, from which an exhibition and calendar were produced. My latest project, ‘Wannabe’, is about young athletes who have the chance to become sports superstars in the future.

 

Christel SanehChristel Saneh

Website | Instagram

My career in journalism started at the age of 16, when I decided to cover my sport because of the lack of coverage in my country, Lebanon. It was a necessity and something I did very naturally. I took my first photography class while pursuing my studies in Illustration and comics. I loved telling stories with visuals and I find it super fun. Since then I always had my camera with me, even when I'm competing. The experience that changed my life was the IOC Young Reporters Program in 2014 which was my first major event as a sports journalist.

My daily work consists of doing everything from writing, social media, videography to photography. It wasn’t until the World Championship in Doha 2019 that I found that photography is something I enjoy so much. I was in my zone, enjoying every bit of it just as I do with jumping. The following year I was shooting at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, and I will be in Tokyo 2020 for my second Summer Olympic Games.

I’m still at the beginning of my career as a photographer; writing about Gladys Chai von Der Laage really inspired me to further grow in this field. It also made me realise that I also have a role to play in a field dominated by men. There are prejudices and barriers that we must break, as Gladys said. Having someone who paved the way to female sports photography is a privilege and a great honour.


Christel Saneh for World Athletics

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