VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Abbie Parr is a Minneapolis-based photographer for the Associated Press. This is her third time covering the World Cup. Parr has also covered four Olympic Games and other international sporting events in her career.
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Despite Thursday’s Canada-Qatar matchup being an historic game for the Canadians — they scored six goals and won their first ever World Cup match — the injury to Ismael Kone was the story. My job as a sports photographer is to cover all elements of the game, and this was a time when the final score was not what would be most talked about after the final whistle. There are times when I have to cover heartbreaking moments outside of sport action that show the true emotion and grit players bring onto the field with them, and this was one of those moments.
As soon as I saw the reaction from Kone after the collision, I knew it was a serious injury and stayed focused on him. This was an incredibly tough moment to cover seeing the extent of the injury and the pain on Kone’s face, but I kept my camera on him using a 400mm lens until he was stretchered off the field.
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This photo works because of the emotion in Kone’s face and the severity of the injury shown in the frame. This was a difficult moment, and something I never want to cover as a sports photographer. It was uplifting to see players from Team Canada come together after to show so much support for their teammate.
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
