Hockey is considered to be the iconic Canadian sport. But in many ways, curling is the ultimate Canadian sport. Curling at the Olympics has become the Holy Grail for Canadian curlers.

At international curling events, photographers from the United States seek out Canadian photographers. “How does this game work? Are all the players important? How does the scoring work?”

Canada’s women’s curling team (left to right) Jan Betker, Marcia Gudereit, Joan McCusker and Sandra Schmirler celebrate their gold medal victory over Denmark at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. (Photo – Mike Ridewood/COC)

From Nagano 1998 to Vancouver 2010, I’ve seen the highs and lows in the gold medal curling game.
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Mike Riddle of Sherwood Park, Alberta, competes in ski halfpipe at an FIS freestyle World Cup and Sochi Olympics test event in Rhosa Khutor, Russia, on February 16. 2013. The required piece of gear for halfpipe photographers is crampons. Steep, smooth and very slippery. (Photo – Mike Ridewood/COC)

Sochi is a very different Olympic location. Salt Lake City 2002 had Park City, Torino 2006 had Sestriere, and Vancouver 2010 had Whistler. But Sochi started from nothing.

I spent this past February in Sochi, Russia, shooting Olympic test events for the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). I stayed in Rhosa Khutor in the mountain cluster of venues which includes all the snow events, the sliding centre, and the ski jump venue.
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My last few Olympic opening ceremonies have been photographed from far up in the stadium. Photographers sit in assigned seats, crammed together with their two or three cameras, multitude of lenses and a laptop. At the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, I shot this picture on film (remember film?) with an 18mm lens. Much more civilized. (Photo – Mike Ridewood)

I photographed my first winter Olympics in 1988 as a staff photographer for the Calgary Olympic organizing committee. After those Games, I knew I had caught the bug.

Since 1994, I’ve worked nine Olympics, the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, three Pan Am Games and two Canada Games.

The upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics will be my tenth Games working for the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) as one of its two team photographers. There is really nothing quite like an Olympics in the sports world. It is the most intense and satisfying 17 days you will ever experience.
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We had six hours on Saturday and five on Sunday to complete our stories.

My first day shooting was spent up a tree, deep in the woods, perched on a platform waiting for deer to appear. We had to be very quiet and still which I found very difficult to do. We couldn’t even speak for the six hours and nothing happened. Wi-Fi would have been great.

Tim Hillriedgel, 19, climbs down from a tree stand that he uses to keep himself out of sight when deer hunting in Jeffersonville, New York. Hillriedgel, who primarily hunts primarily with a compound bow, will spend up to 12 hours in a tree waiting for a deer to come within range. (Photo – Jason Prupas)

Unfortunately, I was not able to produce a wide variety of photos because I was confined to one position and not a single animal was in sight. I found out later we never stood a chance since it was a windy day and the deer could smell us from a quarter mile away.
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