ORF star director: “This is the 100-meter run of the Winter Games”

All these capricious weather conditions would not be able to… TV broadcast of the men’s Olympic downhill in Bormio to be put in a bad light. But with the immense effort that… ORF starregister and his team for the spectacle on Saturday, the much-praised postcard weather with sun and blue skies would of course be a lottery pick. “These are the perfect pictures that everyone wants to see.”

Focused on biathlon

Michael Kögler had actually focused entirely on Antholz and the biathlon competitions at these Winter Games. The Lower Austrian had already made a name for himself with his broadcast in Korea in 2018 and in Beijing in 2022 TV shooting festival taken care of. But then he was sent to Bormio at short notice by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) to cover the men’s ski races and the Olympic premiere of ski mountaineering.

“The people in charge at OBS said: ‘We want it to look like Kitzbühel,’” says Michael Kögler. “It’s a great honor: the men’s downhill race is something like that 100 meter race at the Winter Games.“

Over the last year and a half, the 61-year-old has conquered the Stelvio piste and, after numerous inspections with an expert eye, identified new camera positions that are now intended to better showcase the challenges of this spectacular descent.

53 Cameras as well as several drones will be used in the Olympic downhill on Saturday, with the focus being on the legendary San Pietro jump. “We have seven different camera positions on this one alone. In one of them, the skier flies directly into the lens,” says Kögler. “It’s about the fight between athlete and mountain, and I want to capture that.”

Of course, in the background there is also the fight between the cameraman and the mountain; the steep Stelvio is an extreme challenge. “You first have to get the cameramen into their positions. They need equipment and sometimes seat belts. It’s an enormous effort that we put in.” Kögler commands an international team in Bormio 126 employeesmost of them have already been to the Hahnenkamm descent in Kitzbühel.

This immense commitment of personnel and resources alone would have earned perfect conditions on Saturday. Namely in two respects. In more adverse conditions, the starting intervals between individual runners are often shortened in order to complete the descent as quickly as possible.

This would make them TV watcher It is inevitable that you will not be able to adequately see exciting and emotional scenes on the slopes and at the finish line. “It takes the downhill skiers almost two minutes to get down here. But at the finish they are so exhausted that it often takes 15 seconds for them to show real emotions. But I really want to show these pictures and also record some super slow motion.”

A start interval of 2:45 minutes is planned for Saturday. Enough time for Michael Kögler to be able to properly stage each skier and create unique pictures.

But beware, a bank of fog appears somewhere. Or some other spoilsport. “That’s our fate. It’s an outdoor sport, so I have to accept that.”

With his next big challenge after the Olympics, he will at least be free of this worry. At the Songcontestwhich Michael Kögler will direct, only a few visitors are in a daze.