The Paris 2024 Olympics may have come to a close, but we’ve got plenty of images and video footage to remember it by. From the dressage at the Palace of Versailles to the beach volleyball beneath the Eiffel Tower, these games were a feast for the eyes before the competition had even begun.

But once it did, there was more spectacle to enjoy. And the responsibility for capturing all these incredible images fell to an army of sports photographers and camera crews who were able to get up close and personal with the athletes.

One such person was Naomi Baker, a sports photographer for Getty Images. One of the agency’s 60-strong fleet of editorial photographers, Baker’s primary task in Paris was capturing the drama inside the Bercy Arena – home to the Games’s gymnastics events. Over the last two and a half weeks, Baker has photographed everyone from all-round Olympic champion Simone Biles to Team GB’s Bryony Page and Harry Hepworth – and the result is a portfolio of extraordinary pictures.

So, as we look back on the excitement of the Olympics, we asked Baker to talk us through five of her most standout photographs from Paris.  

Simone Biles balancing on the beam during the women’s balance beam final, 5 August 

“This was my sixth time photographing Simone [Biles] on the beam out here in Paris, so I was trying to think of ways to capture her that I hadn’t yet. 

“With this picture, I wanted to show all the details – how thin the beam is and the strength she needs in her legs to stay balanced. It provides a different perspective of the sport, so when I look back over my photos from the event, I can say I’ve captured it from lots of different angles.

“I take a sequence of photos for each moment I want to capture – this sequence was around 20 – then choose the final image from those. For this picture I selected the one where her calf muscles were the most defined, to really show that strength. I always try to choose the photo that best represents the athlete and their skills.” 

Team GB’s Harry Hepworth celebrates after his routine on the rings in the men’s team final, 29 July

“Capturing a moment like this can be trickier than capturing an athlete in the middle of a routine or movement, because it’s so unpredictable. During the routine I know where they’re going to be and where they’re going to face at any given moment, but when an athlete is celebrating they can move around and face their coaches, for example.

“The key is just being as prepared as you can, but sometimes you will miss those moments or not capture it as clearly as you wanted. But that kind of makes it more rewarding when you do get shots like this one.” 

Team GB’s Rebecca Downie mid-routine in the women’s uneven bars final, 4 August

“For this photo, I chose to position myself to the left of the bars. Most photographers want to go right down the centre, but I like to be able to show a bit more of the form of the gymnast as they jump between the two bars. One of the best moments to capture in a bars routine is when the gymnast comes up from the low bar to the high bar, because you get a moment like this.

“They usually do a couple of rotations on the low bar and then they come back up, so I just try to lock onto them once they’re down on that bar and hope I’m able to capture that jump moment. It’s hard with some of the athletes, like Simone [Biles], because their coaches stand in the way to help if they fall. So getting this photo was quite a nice feeling because it was a challenge to capture it.

“When I’m photographing members of Team GB I’m still focused on the task at hand, but behind the camera, I’m also cheering them on. It’s nice to witness when they finish the routine and the whole arena erupts – I’m just super proud. And Rebecca is such an incredible athlete with such an incredible story, so it’s amazing to photograph her.”  

Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bow down to gold medallist Rebeca Andrade after the floor exercise final, 5 August

“Before this moment happened I could see Jordan mouthing ‘Let’s bow’ to Simone, so I zoomed out my camera as quickly as I could because I could sense they were going to do something. But it all happened so quickly. It was one of those moments where I’ve never really seen someone do that before, so it was really cool to be there.

“When something like that happens the photographers all tend to go quiet because everyone’s concentrating on capturing the moment or looking at what they’ve got. And then when you see a photo like this on your camera before you send it in to the Getty team, you have that moment where you know you’ve captured a special photo. So that’s always a really nice feeling, when you’re the first one to lock eyes on it.” 

Flagbearers Tom Daley and Helen Glover pose onboard the Team GB boat during the opening ceremony, 26 July

“Getting the chance to be on that boat with the athletes was crazy – such a ‘pinch me’ moment. When I got told I was going to do it I called my parents straight away. Even though it rained throughout the ceremony, I think that added to the atmosphere, and it was just so surreal to be with the athletes during that moment of celebration.

“Tom and Helen actually suggested this Titanic-esque moment because everyone was talking about Celine Dion with all the rumours that she would perform at the opening ceremony. So they were like, ‘Let’s have a Titanic moment’. I think sometimes when you go into these things you don’t really know what you’re going to come out with, but that was such a nice moment to capture and everyone was so accommodating.

“There were points in the ceremony where I had to duck down because the boat was on TV, and they didn’t want me to be seen among the athletes. But otherwise I got to take the whole journey down the Seine with them – about 40-45 minutes.” 

Images: Getty