Timing the 2024 Olympic Games: Colossal Technological Challenges

As Paris 2024 approaches, athletes have now entered the final phases of their preparation. A victory at the Olympic Games surpasses any other ambition, and at this level, it is determined by millimeters or thousandths of a second. Far more complex than a simple time countdown with a logo displayed on a big screen, ensuring the official timing of the Olympics involves engineering and computer skills often overlooked by the general public. In this field, OMEGA, the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games since 1932, has been the driving force behind all technological advancements for nearly a century. The latest development by OMEGA Timing is the Real-Time Tracking System, which utilizes a next-generation chip weighing only 16 grams to measure and transmit athletes' intermediate times and speeds in real-time via receivers synchronously.

To understand what lies behind timing, listen to the OMEGA podcast - The Art of Timekeeping

Listen to the Podcast also on:
Buzzsprout | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Amazone Music | Podcast Index | Overcast

In timing, there is, of course, the precision of all measurements during competitions, but also, upstream, years of development of computer programs, new materials, and technologies embedded in athletes. Each sport requires specific technology that must be deployed in real-time on every athlete, in every event, in every stadium or body of water across the national territory where the games take place. Tons of equipment leave from Bienne, Switzerland - the headquarters and Research & Development center of OMEGA Timing – to all competition sites, where hundreds of people ensure deployment.

Luxury Tribune was able to interview the President and CEO of OMEGA (Raynald Aeschlimann), the management of OMEGA Timing (Alain Zobrist), and athlete coaches (Lance Brauman and Louis Heyer) to understand what it means today to be the timekeeper of the Olympic Games, regarding the accuracy of measurements, but also, the evolution of sports disciplines and athletes' performances.