AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
If you've been watching the Winter Olympics on TV or social media, you've probably noticed a dramatic increase in this sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRONE BUZZING)
RASCOE: Drones can often be heard in the background as skiers rocket down slalom courses and bobsleds rattle down icy tracks. So are drones a distraction or a revolution in the way we watch sports? NPR's Brian Mann joins us now from Milan. Welcome.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
RASCOE: So it feels like drones are everywhere these days. How do they work at the Olympics?
MANN: You know, it's actually pretty sci-fi. These drones aren't new at the Olympics. They've been used in a limited way since about 2014, but now there are dozens of drone operator teams. They're led by a chief pilot who wears sort of virtual reality goggles, and they kind of see what their drones see. They say it's almost like they're flying through space around the skiers or the sledders, each pilot accompanied by a spotter who watches the wilder field of play, looking for problems. Yiannis Exarchos runs the Olympic Broadcasting Service, the organization that runs this drone program. He says they've been developing this team for years with the skills needed to pull this off.
YIANNIS EXARCHOS: The pilots themselves are not just very experienced. We train them in the specific sport for a long time. Johannes, the pilot in ski jumping, is a ski jumper himself.
MANN: And whenever possible, Olympic officials are recruiting drone pilots with that kind of sports experience so they can really interact with the athletes in cool ways that are also safe.
RASCOE: Well, I definitely want to talk about safety. But first, I guess, why are drones necessary? Like, what do they add?
MANN: You know, Yiannis Exarchos was asked about that, and he offered this theory. A lot of these Olympic winter sports aren't actually super familiar to a lot of TV audiences. People don't know much about the techniques involved. In many countries, these athletes aren't super well-known. They're not stars. And so what Olympic officials are trying to do with these drones is give viewers a more immediate and maybe more visceral feel of what the competitions are like. Viewers can kind of experience it. Here's Exarchos.
EXARCHOS: It was a great opportunity to really show and make people feel what it is actually practicing these sports at this level, so going - getting very, very close to the field of play.
MANN: And some of these drone shots really are kinetic. It feels like you're shadowing a ski jumper as they fly down the hill. The biggest complaint I've heard is that some of the shots can make some viewers kind of motion sick. It's that dynamic.
RASCOE: So what about safety? What do athletes say about having these tiny drones buzzing around while they're trying to compete?
MANN: Well, so far, it seems to have worked. Olympic officials say there've been no incidents, no situations through these games where a drone somehow got in the way. Some of that reflects safety guidelines. Drones always fly behind the athletes, never in front. And there are teams that stand by to recover drones quickly if they crash, though that hasn't actually happened.
One other important thing - athletes and sports federations were given opportunities to give feedback about the drones. Some athletes actually practiced with drones flying around them, and most say they now start their races and don't even notice the drones. They also kind love the video images that come out. Here's U.S. bobsledder Frank Del Duca.
FRANK DEL DUCA: The skills of those drone pilots is phenomenal. The guy flying it flies it way up in the air, catches scenery, and then times it to zoom in behind skiers going 60, 70 miles an hour. It gets a really unique perspective.
MANN: So they're hoping this will draw in more viewers and more fans.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Brian Mann. He's in Milan and part of NPR's Olympics coverage team. Thanks, Brian.
MANN: Thanks so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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