Kluetmeier, who pioneered shooting with a submerged camera in 1992, used the technique to capture Michael Phelps swimming the butterfly at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where Phelps collected eight medals.

Many photographers jockey for position at the finish line, but Kluetmeier finds compelling imagery in the starting blocks. Here Team USA sprinter Marion Jones takes off at the Sydney Games in 2000. (She was later stripped of her five medals after she admitted to using steroids.)

A shot of a relaxed Mark Spitz, always cool in the pool, landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated prior to the 1972 Munich Games.

At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Kluetmeier entered the stadium ahead of his competition to place a remote camera at the finish line for the 1,500-meter race. It was a perfect vantage point to photograph British runner Sebastian Coe as he won the event.

In 1972 the photographer had to run his own sprint, from the swimming venue to the gymnastics venue, just in time to shoot Russian Olga Korbut as she performed her gold-medal floor exercise.

Kluetmeier snapped diver Greg Louganis in medal-winning form at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. “Many times in sports, capturing an athlete’s emotion is more important than the event,” the photographer says.

Kluetmeier snapped an exultant Bruce Jenner, who realized he had just won gold in the decathlon, at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal.

Kluetmeier’s shot of an airborne Carl Lewis winning the first of his two gold medals in Seoul is artfully composed. “Sometimes luck is involved in getting the perfect shot,” says the photographer.