- Title: On-ice cameraman brings new Olympic angle
- Date: 19th February 2026
- Summary: MILAN, ITALY (FEBRUARY 18, 2026) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FIRST ON ICE CAMERAMAN FOR FIGURE SKATING AT OLYMPICS, JORDAN COWAN, SAYING: “I grew up training with some of the top athletes out there on the podium. And getting to see my generation who've still been training for the last 14 years since I retired, to see them have their final Olympic moment on the ice and
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Milano Cortina Olympics Winter Olympics broadcast cameraman figure skating ice rink
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Europe,Olympics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001691919022026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: When figure skaters finish their Olympic routines, the most private seconds often come next: the deep breath after the music stops, the quick look to the boards, the tremble of relief or disappointment before they face their coaches in the kiss-and-cry.
At the Milano Cortina Winter Games, those moments are being captured in a way audiences have rarely seen - by a former competitive ice dancer skating alongside the athletes with a camera rig he designed himself.
Jordan Cowan, who grew up in Los Angeles and once competed internationally for Team USA, is working on the ice as a roaming camera operator, filming skaters from the end of their routines through their exit, a gap in coverage that he calls "unexplored territory" in figure skating broadcasts.
"It's special. This is the first time it's been done. It's my first time at the Olympics, and I couldn't have asked for a better first experience," Cowan told Reuters on Wednesday (February 18).
Cowan began skating as a child partly because an ice rink felt exotic in Southern California. He approached the sport like an experiment, determined to understand how it worked. His training eventually took him to Michigan, where he pursued ice dance at an elite level before retiring.
After competition, he said he struggled to choose between long-time interests in film and science, until he realised he could combine them.
His entry point came almost by accident during an ice show filmed for a PBS special in Sun Valley, where he recorded behind-the-scenes footage on a phone and a small gimbal.
Producers later used some of the shots in a documentary, impressed by the sensation of a camera "floating around the ice," he said.
Since then, Cowan has steadily evolved his equipment - moving from an iPhone to action cameras and then to heavier, cinema-style setups - while refining an approach that borrows from traditional filmmaking.
He now works with manual focus and zoom, arguing that live broadcast can benefit from techniques more associated with movie sets, where focus itself becomes a storytelling tool.
“What I love about it is it's, the way I film now, it's kind of trying to create a more timeless look than a trendy look. So the rig that I shoot with now is like my maximum way of storytelling on ice,” said Cowan when describing how to shift focus between athletes and their surroundings to guide viewers' attention without breaking the flow of a performance.
Cowan said his presence on the ice can also change the emotional dynamic for athletes in difficult moments. Some skaters, he said, have told him that having a fellow skater nearby makes the experience feel less isolating.
“I don't want them to be afraid of the visibility. Like it's either my camera or a really long camera. And at the very least being closer, I can show the audience, I can show their environment,” Cowan said.
Rather than using a long lens that separates an athlete from the crowd, he said he tries to show the arena's support, including the standing ovations even after mistakes, while keeping enough distance to avoid intruding.
“When you see everyone around them standing up, cheering and clapping, despite not their best skate, it's there to kind of remind them that there's this whole world of people that just want to support the athletic journey, from the highs and the lows, like their fans are there. It's not just a long lens isolating them with a nondescript background. It's they're surrounded by support.”
Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), which provides the Games' host coverage, has pushed to expand visual options at these Olympics, Cowan said, pointing to drones and overhead systems that have become increasingly common.
He said lighter cameras and improved batteries are reshaping sports production but argued there will remain a place for larger rigs and classic cinematic techniques.
For Cowan, who never competed at the Olympics, the work represents an unexpected path onto Olympic ice - and a chance to help build what he hopes will be an enduring archive of the sport.
"It's going to be in the archives forever," he said. "I hope that people watch my videos 30, 40 years from now.”
(Production: Irene Wang, Rory Carroll) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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