Old vs new photo techniques used in Olympics

I assume that people had their fill of really slick digital photos and want something different. What old is new again. Some day, I'm going to be able to buy a Petaval lens

http://framework.latimes.com/2012/07/26/2012-olympians/#/0

The petzval lenses do have a very unique charm and beauty imaging quality to them. soft, swirly, kinda like ice cream haha.

My favorites are of the water polo player, gymnast, fencer and the rowers. Reading through the article I thought it was odd that these were shot on photo paper and not film, and the photographer did not shoot/process film/paper since his high school days, or have an actual darkroom. You can kinda tell there were processing errors, especially in the rower's photo above the paddles, but it adds an interesting look to that photo so i like it.