This year’s Winter Olympics have been some of the coolest to watch, thanks to some talented drone operators providing viewers at home and online with awesome shots of some of the Games’ fastest events.
Drones with cameras have been used to record sporting events for over a decade now. But due to a dangerous near-miss incident in 2015, drones have basically been banned from most skiing and snowboarding events for years. However, the tech has come a long way since that moment, and drones are smaller, more reliable, and safer than ever before. So the tech is a big feature of this year’s Winter Olympics presentation on NBC and other affiliated networks. The end results are truly stunning to look at.
The greatest new use of tech for the Olympics is this drone view behind the women’s downhill skiers. The intensity and speed, can’t be grasped from any of the other cameras we’re used to. Excellent.
Now give me that in Apple Vision Pro. pic.twitter.com/EtqgTkeYFq
— Lee Parayno (@leeparayno) February 9, 2026
You don’t really understand how fast these athletes are going when you see them from a static camera angle as they rush down a mountain or skate across ice. But when a drone is flying right behind them, keeping up, it provides an incredible new look at these turbo-charged winter sports. Like, look at how fast this snowboarder is flying down the mountain!
Drone Winter Olympics 🙌 pic.twitter.com/qTjwMpiNIq https://t.co/aniABheDmR
— Eric Njiru ⚽️ (@EricNjiiru) February 8, 2026
Or look at how quickly these speed skaters zip around the ice.
I’ll admit that I was nervous that the drones might cause problems for the athletes, but according to many, they don’t notice the buzzing noise, and as long as they stay safely away, they don’t cause any issues. These drones are also operated by skilled pilots who work alongside a dedicated technician and director to ensure the athletes’ safety while capturing these jaw-dropping views.
“When a camera is chasing the athlete down the hill — right in front of them or right behind them — you truly get the sense of how fast they’re going,” said Michael Sheehan, the coordinating director for NBC’s Olympic coverage. “That’s virtually impossible to capture with a wide shot shooting from the side. The drone coverage takes us to a place we’ve traditionally never been.”
All I can think about while looking at these clips of drones speeding behind athletes is: I want sports games that look like this, please!
