When photographing an athletic event or contest, normally one is focused on freezing the action.  However, by changing your point of view, you will often notice patterns to the action that can be bold, graphic powerful, and revealing.  In the two examples below, the elevated position radically changes the composition and content.

The shot of the New York Marathon was taken atop the Verrezano Narrows bridge and the perspective allows us to see the full size of the field entered in the race in a way that would be difficult at ground level.  The overhead position allows us a perspective by which we can appreciate the size of the event with nearly 16,000 entrants in the race.

The tennis photograph taken at the US Open from the upper rows of the stadium, and interplay of light and shadow gives the viewer a sense of the lonely quest of athletic competition.  The service motion -- even at a distance -- is frozen at the peak moment, when the action literally freezes itself for an instant.  The point at which the ball is at the maximum height of the toss, and the server ready to uncoil.