In July and August of 2023 I had the opportunity to cover the Women's World Cup in Melbourne, Australia for the Associated Press as freelance photojournalist. During my time covering the Group Stage of the tournament I covered matches, match day -1 press conferences and practices, stadium familiarizations, open practices, fan events and media availabilities. I was able to participate in this opportunity through the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Carmical Sports Media Institute. In addition to the more broad coverage of teams visiting Melbourne for matches, I had the chance to cover the Canadian, Jamaican, and Moroccan national women's' teams more extensively as the teams were based out of Melbourne for the duration of the tournament.
For a more detailed look at my photos that were ran on the Associated Press' wire for publication opportunity check out my photo gallery with my photos taken while on assignment!
Victoria Adkins covers an open practice for Canada as part of the Women's World Cup in West Heidelberg, Australia on Monday, July 17, 2023. (Photo/ Mark E. Johnson, www.mejphoto.com)
While covering the Women's World Cup for the Associated Press, I had multiple photos published in AP articles, as well as get picked up by other news agencies around the world, below are links and screenshots of some of these photos that have been run with different stories. While these are not all of the stories and news outlets my photos were published with and on, these are just a few examples of locations where my work was featured. In addition to the online use of my photos, the same photo of Hayley Raso in the below article was featured in the Sydney Morning Herald Sport section on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
Although my time in Melbourne covering the Women's World Cup was short, I gained valuable knowledge and experience in covering an international level tournament and the amount of unseen work that goes into the stories people enjoy reading across the globe. I had the opportunity to see some unexpected upsets during competition, the final World Cup matches of women's soccer greats like Marta and Christine Sinclair and see Jamaica's national women's team be the first Caribbean nation to make it out of the Group Stage of competition. As I continue my career in sports I hope to continue getting to share stories like these with the rest of the world.
