If you were going to name this photo, you might call it “Layers of Happiness.”
In the image, taken by Associated Press photographer Matt Slocum, the Canadian women's Olympic hockey team skates jubilantly across the ice Thursday with their newly acquired gold medals after defeating the United States.
Front and center is Marie-Philip Poulin, Canada's captain. Behind her, the smiles crisscross the frame as the feeling of celebration pinballs across their faces. Each face displays it slightly differently; together, the energy of jubilation jumps from the frame.
Slocum says he was “trying to capture the joy” after Canada defeated the United States for the gold.
“I knew that ... Marie-Philip Poulin would be a big part the story after scoring two goals in the game,” the Philadelphia-based Slocum says. “Photographers had to funnel through the penalty box to get onto the ice for the medals ceremony. I was near the front of the line and then I wasn’t. I ended up in the second row of photographers and had to raise my cameras above my head to get clean photos."
That turned out to be a good thing, he says. "It ended up helping when Poulin skated past with her medal, flowers and trailing the Canadian flag. The higher angle allowed her teammates to fill in the background, their faces echoing her joy.”
