Worlds First: FPV Drone Coverage at Sliding Center during ‘26 Winter Olympics

FPV Drones at the winter olympics of Milano Cortina got a lot of press this year, as the olympic committee fully invested in these drones being present at almost all of the sports. With each venue getting a different drone team to cover it, we got the most difficult one: the Sliding Center (Bobsled, Skeleton and Luge). With the other sports having had FPV drone integration done before in different competitions, these sports had not. So nobody was sure if it was possible to fly an FPV drone behind these athletes, at 80kph though a small course and tight turns. Would it distract the athletes? Would the drones be fast enough? Would it even add something to the broadcast

Testing

We set out to answer all of those questions, by working with the athletes during their training in October and November, making sure the athletes were fully comfortable with us behind them, as well as fine-tuning our custom made drone for this purpose and getting some practice in. The positive test results proved that this is possible, not just to add something to the broadcast but also to execute it safely and consistently.

The Drone

With the high quality demands from the Olympics broadcast, as well as safety and performance aspects, we needed to build a new drone specifically for this job. This was a big challenge, since the broadcasting hardware (COFDM Camera + Transmitter) are expensive and heavy, while the drone needs to remain under 250 grams for regulations. Our engineer Thomas set out to design and build this, with Ralph and Bas helping on the flying and tuning aspect of it. Half a year later we had it: a unique 243g broadcast drone, capable of 120kph as well as outputting smooth and high quality video for broadcasting. Not only that, the camera can be shaded live from the OB truck, even while flying.

The Results

During 3 weeks at the olympics, we followed 1014 athletes down the track during competition, almost all of those shots being used LIVE in the international broadcast feed in Luge, Skeleton and Bobsleigh. Thereby achieving not only a worlds first for these sports as well for the olympics, but also proving that our FPV drones and pilots are very reliable and consistent. Many FPV drones at the olympics got attention, but because it was the first time in this sport and because it was the hardest to fly, many international media came by to talk about the tech and skills it takes to execute this shoot.

‘Beauty Drone’

Besides the FPV drone, we also provided a team with our DJI Inspire 3 drone for the overview / ‘beauty’ shots of the Sliding and Curling venue, giving the director some beautiful overview shots of the venues with the mountains in the background, to use in both the Sliding and Curling broadcasts.

Pre-recordings

The start of something more

With this shoot, we feel we proved that these drones can be operated safely, consistently and with great value for broadcasting. These drones are not the flimsy unreliable and hard to control drones from 10 years ago anymore, but amazing and safe tools for broadcasting. We are convinced this is the start of much more FPV drones during sports on TV!