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The Olympian Timekeeper
News
The Olympian Timekeeper
It is an important and highly complicated job. And it’s one that Alain Zobrist, the CEO of Swiss Timing, wouldn’t trade for any other.
Swiss Timing, as a company, was founded in 1972, combining Omega Timing and Longines Timing, and the company does the timing across all Swatch Group brands. Omega has the Olympics, while other brands specialise in various other sports (for example Tissot and MotoGP and the NBA, Longines and show jumping, Swatch and volleyball and more).
For timekeeping, it is important that every sport is approached equally. Though TV networks might promote particular events and spectators might prioritise certain events, “every sport is equally important,” says Zobrist. “If you think about the athletes, they are all training their entire lives to go to the Olympics, for that particular moment, and they deserve to get the best services to provide them with accurate results. It’s a lot of responsibility for Omega as well. We are not just a sponsor, we are a partner, which serves the athletes. You can’t have the Olympics without timekeeping and scorekeeping. Omega’s role is very important.
“Omega tailor-makes its technology for the rules of every federation,” details Zobrist. “The sport that is the most complex, which has nothing to do with difficulty, is athletics because a lot of things happen at the same time in the stadium. You’ve got a race around the track while high jump, long jump, hammer throw and more are all going on. We have about 40 timekeepers on site during these events.”
Anatomy of an event: the 100m dash
The 100m has seen tremendous innovation in its timing and scoring systems. The start has been evaluated to make sure it is fair to every runner.
False starts were also examined, Swiss Timing developed an electronic starting block with sensors that can evaluate exactly when a runner pushes off. The governing body of track and field has determined that 0.100 of a second is the threshold for a false start – an athlete who responds to the gun in less than that has committed a false start, and is therefore disqualified.
The finish line is, of course, an area of concern, as winners, medalists and losers can be so tightly packed together that it is impossible to determine positions electronically. So, Swiss Timing developed a sophisticated system that combines photo cells (this year there are four photo cells on each side of the finish line, up from two in London) with the new Myria photo finish camera, which takes 10,000 digital images a second to make an accurate determination possible. The camera also has improved light sensitivity, so the quality of images is about four times better than previous versions.
During the race, wind is also recorded as a world record can only be officially registered if the wind is blowing at less than 2m per second.
This year, Omega introduces a new electronic scoring system for archery. When the arrow hits the target, two scanners run lengthways and widthways to calculate the arrow’s distance from the centre point. The system has 0.2mm accuracy, which is impossible for the human eye to detect. It is also fast, delivering results within one second from the moment the target is hit.
In the past, many of the lessons learned during timekeeping made it directly into the watches – for example the need to time to 1/100th of a second – but that happens less today as the timing and scoring equipment gets more sophisticated, electronic and computerised. “The reason the IOC chose Omega way back in 1932 was because they needed to have one company providing one accurate product for all of their events,” Zobrist explains.
Golf, which returns to the Olympics this year, gets a new scoreboard that along with the player’s name and current score will show live output of the stroke speed, estimated distance and height of the stroke
Rio will be a Games of numbers: 335 sport specific scoreboards, 850 trained volunteers, 79 public scoreboards, 450 tons of equipment, 480 on-site professionals and over 124 miles of cables and optical fibre. There is a lot of pressure to get everything right. Omega’s brand image depends on flawless timing, scoring and reporting, and Swiss Timing takes this incredibly seriously. Swiss Timing will continue to do its job, refining and bettering equipment and systems. As new systems develop, Swiss Timing will incorporate these into the events with which they are involved. For example, Swiss Timing is working on a completely new scorekeeping system for Tissot for use in the NBA, and this will probably be integrated into worldwide basketball, including the Olympics, at some point.
“I don’t have a particular favourite event – what fascinates me most are the emotions of athletes,” he adds. “When you can see the joy when they win, the sadness when they lose, these emotions are actually very close to each other. We are very lucky. With us providing technologies that help them to perform at their best, and then to see these emotions, makes it very special.”
So, there is no doubt that the Olympics are about high technology and state of the art equipment, but there is still one vestige of tradition left: the last lap bells, which are forged, almost entirely by hand, at the Blondeau foundry near the town centre of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the heart of Swiss watchmaking. Last lap bells like these have been part of the Olympics since the games in Ancient Greece and this year they will sound the final lap for athletics, track and road cycling and the mountain bike events.