Bob Martin has covered every Olympic Games since 1998 and is a three-time winner of the prestigious British Sports Photographer of the Year award, among many other accolades – 23 of which he won in 2005 alone. British-born Martin is also the only Sports Illustrated magazine photographer to be based outside the US, following an invitation to work for the American title after the Lillehammer Winter Olympics in 1994.

Martin’s proudest achievement to date is his award for Sports Picture of the Year in the World Press Photo Awards 2005. “I covered the Paralympics in Athens in depth and one of my pictures won the award,” explains Martin. “It was moving to see those guys, with all their physical conditions, out there competing. Emotionally, it was hard – normally I have a very thick skin with these types of things, but that was the first time something like that got to me. It puts life into perspective.”