Winter Olympics 2026: How one ice skating cameraman is delivering the Games’ best images
· Yahoo Sports
MILAN — Quick, name the skater who’s been on the ice more than anyone this Olympics. No, it’s not Alysa Liu or Ilia Malinin. The skater who’s spent more time on the ice than any Olympian won’t medal at these Games, but he’s nonetheless opening up the image of skating in an entirely new way.
After every skater finishes their routine, Jordan Cowan steps onto the ice to accompany them to the kiss and cry couch. He circles them, capturing their emotions while deftly skating backward to accompany them off the ice. There are plenty of jobs that one can step into with no experience, but “skating cameraman” most definitely is not one of them.
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Cowan grew up in Los Angeles, but fell in love with ice dancing and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to train. He was good, too, joining Team USA as an ice dancer; alongside partner Anastasia Olson, he finished 7th in the U.S. national championships in 2012.
Camera operator and former ice dancer Jordan Cowan on the ice after Alysa Liu of United States performs during the short program. (REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli)REUTERS / REUTERSAll the while, though, he was working with video, making funny clips and enjoying himself. A child of Los Angeles, his first love was film. After he retired from skating, he observed how cameras in ballroom dancing were revolutionizing the viewing experience. Steadicams can move with the dancers, bringing a new dimension of intimacy to shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance.”
And then an idea hit him: What if a camera could move with skaters?
Cowan is a freelance videographer, working in Madison Square Garden filming the Knicks and Rangers. But he knew there was an untapped opportunity for on-ice filming, so he began developing his own Steadicam rig, a hybrid of various systems and equipment tailored specifically to his needs. He founded On Ice Perspectives to provide skating camerawork for TV and national competitions. He’s filmed three U.S. championships, including breakout moments with stars like Amber Glenn:
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The Olympics represent a new level of fame and responsibility. “This is a very traditional kind of sport, filmed mostly the same way for the last 50 years,” Cowan says. “Fans love the tradition of ice skating. So having a camera on the ice is a very important privilege. I respect it a lot.”
In these Olympics in Milan, Cowan enters the rink after the skaters have finished their routines, giving a sweeping, cinematic view of their faces in joy or devastation. He skates in slow, sweeping arcs around them, carrying a camera — he says it weighs about as much as a heavy bag of groceries — out in front of his chest, capturing the spectrum of emotion on skaters’ faces.
“I recognize and respect their emotional privacy,” he says. “I’m trying to bring the audience closer to the story, getting the audience to empathize. The skaters understand that I’m not there to put a camera in their face, but to show them in the best light possible.”
He also tries to remain unobtrusive. Two skaters he’s filmed before — Great Britain’s Lewis Gibson and Canada’s Paul Poirer — were excited to see he was on the ice … but only when they saw him filming other skaters. They hadn’t even noticed him while he was on the ice in front of him.
“That’s the best feedback I can get,” Cowan says. “I’m not taking anything away from the skaters on the ice.”
That’s in part because he blends into the ice. Cowan sports a sharp custom-made white suit, a tribute, he says, to the fashionable host city of Milan.
“Sometimes I’m caught in a wide shot,” he says, “so instead of trying to make a feeble attempt to hide myself, I tried to match the mood of skaters in expensive designer costumes.”
Saturday night will bring the famed skater’s gala, an exhibition of the figure skating medalists and special invitees where Cowan will get the opportunity to shine. “That’s my specialty. I love filming live shows,” he says. “It’s a celebration, a performance to please the crowd.” Freed of the concerns about competition, both Cowan and the skaters will be able to cut loose, enjoy the pleasure of performing, and bring the audience along for the skate.
“Being on ice, getting to film skaters during their tricks, having people at home watch it live and behind the scenes,” he says, “it’s even better than a front-row seat.”