Congo players – After Congo beat Uzbekistan on Saturday, Mike Stewart photographed the team and staff gathering in prayer on the field—an uncommon moment of faith captured in the middle of a professional sporting celebration.
ATLANTA — Mike Stewart was still in the middle of his coverage when he noticed something he hadn’t come across in his nearly four decades of photojournalism.
Stewart, a chief photographer in the Southern U.S. for The Associated Press and a 2021 Pulitzer Prize winner based in Atlanta. had been shooting Congo’s victory over Uzbekistan on Saturday. He spent the time after the final whistle standing in the tribune or in an overhead position. trying to capture the full sweep of the moment—jubilation first. then whatever came next.
What came next wasn’t another flash of celebration. After the team’s Congo victory, the players and staff gathered on the field for a prayer. Stewart saw it and took the shot—using a 400 mm lens on a Sony A9 iii.
Stewart said the photo stands out because it is rare: “It’s something that people don’t see every day.” For hundreds of millions of people, he wrote, the power of prayer is immediate and powerful—especially when it appears in a setting that most viewers expect to be purely about sport.
The photograph’s impact, in his telling, comes from the contrast—professional competition followed by a shared moment of faith, captured at the exact point where the celebration settled into something quieter.
Congo Uzbekistan World Cup prayer photojournalism Associated Press Mike Stewart Pulitzer Prize sports