From lockdown to Tokyo

The coronavirus pandemic put an end to countless photography shoots, but also led to new opportunities. Like many other professional photographers, Sam Mellish had most of his planned work cancelled in 2020. However, this quiet time also gave him the chance to develop a project on British athletes training for this year’s delayed Olympic Games. As the saying goes, when one door shuts, another one opens.

‘I’d had the idea for the project quite a long time before Covid and had planned to do it before Tokyo 2020,’ he says. ‘But 2019 was quite a busy year for me and I didn’t have the time to do it properly. Then, when the postponement of the Games was announced I went back to the idea. I just thought it