Behind the Lens
Heinz Kluetmeier ’65, Th’66, who captured countless iconic Olympics moments for Sports Illustrated, died on January 14. He was 82. At his core, he was a storyteller. Many pictures can show who won a game or race, but Kluetmeier’s offered something more. He was perfectly positioned to shoot the exultation of the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team when it upset the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Games. That one fan happened to be waving an American flag behind the goal was “dumb luck,” he said, “but once I saw it, I made sure it framed the celebration.”
Kluetmeier pioneered the use of underwater cameras and was able to capture Michael Phelps’ minuscule margin of victory in a gold medal race at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Kluetmeier installed his camera 48 hours before the race under the lane where he predicted Phelps would swim in the finals. “I can’t believe [Phelps] won,” Kluetmeier recalled. “I can’t believe we got the moment of the touch to prove it.”
