Erin Groll and the Art of Looking Beyond the Finish Line
In a lounge in Durban, a little girl sat glued to the television, completely captivated by the female sprinters at the Olympic Games. They looked like nothing else in her world. Decades later, Erin Groll has made it her life’s work to get closer to that picture, one frame at a time.
“They were so powerful and I loved their nails and their hair, and they just seemed like the most powerful woman in the world,” recalls the Cape Town based photographer, videographer and digital content creator, who has followed track and field ever since.
Her route to the trackside was anything but direct. After studying photography formally, Groll spent years shooting bands and live music, a scene of fast, unpredictable moments and challenging light that became the best training ground she could have asked for.
It taught her to anticipate the moment before it happened, the instinct that now defines her sports work. When the music scene got a bit much, she stepped away, fell in love with running, and did what photographers do, turning her lens on the world around her. Runners replaced rock stars, and the childhood love of track and field came flooding back.
The decisive chapter arrived at the beginning of last year. Watching the international circuit unfold on Instagram from Cape Town, knowing the world of athletics lives primarily in Europe, she made a decision that would change everything, backing herself with her own savings and a two week block in the Diamond League calendar.
“I cannot watch it from the sidelines anymore. I believe that I too could also do this work.”
International Athletics Photographer, Erin Groll
The circuit did not open its arms immediately. She applied for a whole batch of meets and was rejected from every one, a reminder that accreditation remains one of the biggest hurdles in sports media. She persisted, opening her travels at the Kip Keino Classic in Kenya, where Zakithi Nene ran a 400m world lead and Groll captured the shots that travelled the world. The doors began to open.
The moment that cemented her belief came in Tokyo at the World Championships. Without accreditation, Groll was shooting from the stands, seated alongside the parents of Swiss hurdler Ditaji Kambundji.
Janine Anthony, a Global Architect of Women’s Football Firsts
From dreaming of playing like Mercy Akide-Udoh to building Africa’s first all-female WAFCON commentary teams,…
Twenty Years of Making the Story Visible
Twenty years ago Kass Naidoo had one idea, to make the story of South Africa’s…
Carla Mackenzie Wants Women’s Sport Covered All Year, Not Just on Match Day
Across the RSG Sport show, rugby on SuperSport and athletics on SuperSport Schools, Carla Mackenzie…
Boitumelo Matjila Finds Her Voice as the Pioneer Presenter of the 2026 Telkom Netball League
Boitumelo Matjila Finds Her Voice as the Pioneer Presenter of the 2026 Telkom Netball League
From the Pool to the Microphone, Olwethu Zondo Finds Her Calling
Olwethu-Andiswa Zondo turned a lost playing career into a voice behind the microphone, and today…
Para-Cyclist Toni Mould Returns to International Racing and Releases Her First Book
What a comeback for SA para cyclist Toni Mould, who returned to international racing this…
When Kambundji won gold, she ran straight towards her family, and Groll caught the image of a world champion looking at her parents. That frame was soon plastered across train stations in Switzerland, her first e-billboard.
“I can do this, I can be here and I do deserve to be here too,” she says of seeing her work at that scale.
Today her days are spent deep inside the world of high performance. For almost two years she has worked with On Athletics Club Europe, the middle distance team that trains half the year in South Africa and half in Europe, following athletes through indoor, outdoor and off season. The most meaningful stories, she has learned, happen away from race day, in the training camps, the routines, the setbacks and the unseen moments.
Working for World Athletics at the World Relays in Botswana earlier this year brought validation at the highest level, a world class event on African soil with a South African behind the lens. “It ricocheted out of the stadium. It felt like it was thundering. I get goosebumps thinking about it,” she says of a sound unlike anything she has heard in a stadium in her life.
For all the glamour of the circuit, Groll keeps giving back home. With her long time friend Mike Obery she co-founded Community Track Club in Cape Town, named the Coolest Running Club in South Africa by Runner’s World, where elite athletes such as Nene coach fields of more than 300 everyday runners, and which has popped up in London, Vienna and Paris with support from On.
Her live coverage of Carla Molinaro’s Comrades podium run showed that real-time storytelling has a space alongside traditional media, and she supplies South African media houses with content of our athletes from every meet she works. With Sony Alpha South Africa now behind her, she will share her craft in workshops once the season closes.
She has earned all of it in a space that has not always been kind. The gender gap between men and women photographers remains staggering, and Groll has been elbowed and shoved in positions she held with the exact same accreditation as anyone else. What sustains her is the community of women she works alongside.
“We support each other, we applaud each other’s work, we are there rooting for each other.”
Addressing the next generation directly, Groll exclaims: “You deserve to be there too!”
The message lands closest to home with her daughter Evie, who attends events with her own little cameras and for whom a mother in the photographers’ pit is entirely normal. “I really hope that she grows up believing that she can build a life around something that she really loves,” says Groll, who shares the load with her husband Nick.
The road ahead is mapped with intent. She leaves this weekend to work her first European Championships, two years into an Olympic cycle she refuses to let pass her by, with accreditation at the World Athletics Championships in 2027 and the LA Olympics in 2028 squarely in her sights.
“Being someone who’s photographing it would be like an absolute dream come true.”
Every now and again, Evie and Nick catch sight of her on a broadcast, working the infield at one of the great meets of the world. Somewhere in that picture is a little girl from Durban who once sat glued to the television, entranced by the most powerful women in the world, now standing among them, camera in hand.
Main Photo Caption: Erin Groll, the Cape Town sports photographer, videographer and digital content creator carrying South African storytelling onto the international athletics circuit, at work with her camera at an athletics meet. All Photos: Supplied
Photo 2 Caption: Prudence Sekgodiso takes in the scoreboard after her Diamond League race this year, captured by Groll ‘beyond the finish line’.
Photo 3 Caption: Groll co-founded Community Track Club in Cape Town, where more than 300 everyday runners get to share a track with elite athletes.
Photo 4 Caption: One of Groll’s favourite frames from Gaborone: Botswana sprint star Letsile Tebogo soaks in the relief of the World Relays’ final race in his home stadium.
Photo 5 Caption: Groll leaves this weekend for her first European Championships, with the World Athletics Championships in 2027 and the LA Olympics in 2028 firmly in her sights.
Crédito: Link de origem