AP PHOTOS: Olympians in motion from above and below

Above and Below Photo Gallery (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Olympic athletes can be enthralling from many angles. Some perspectives say more than others.

Like an overhead shot of Chinese divers Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi entering the water. Only their feet remain above the surface, equal in height at the end of a near-perfectly synchronized performance.

There’s U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee leaping off the balance beam, her face pointed toward the ceiling — no eyes on her 4-inch-wide landing target.

Or the popping lat muscles that propel Tatjana Schoenmaker’s breaststroke, taken days before the South African set a world record in the 200-meter.

The Associated Press is using 13 robotic cameras and over 30 remote devices to capture images at the Tokyo Games. Some are suspended from trusses built into venue ceilings. Others are weighted to the bottom of pools. They’re at sport climbing and weightlifting, basketball and boxing.

Using joy sticks and remote viewing monitors, AP photographers can capture the precision required to clear the high bar, the speed at which divers fall toward the water or the agony of a lifter who failed to raise her weight.

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