BEIJING (NEXSTAR) – There are three things you need for sports: athletes, place and someone to keep track of score or time. For the Olympics, the timekeeping team spends three years before each game, making sure everything is clear.
Omega has 300 timekeepers here in Beijing, with 200 tons of equipment distributed across three zones. The goal is to do everything as quickly as possible.
The time of the games is a serious job. But for Omega, this is what they have been doing since 1932. And the stakes are incredibly high.
“We can’t go wrong,” says Omega Timing CEO Alain Zobrist.
Their technology determines who gets the gold, silver or bronze.
“We have photo finish cameras that take 10,000 shots per second of the finish.”
And as you can imagine, technology has changed quite a bit in the 90s when they measured games.
“For the first time, judges have the opportunity to look at technology to help them make the right calls for false starts,” says Zobrist.
In figure skating, they use artificial intelligence to keep track of athletes on the ice.
“Where athletes spend most of their time on the ice, we can measure their jumps and analyze them in great detail. How high they jumped, how far they jumped, how fast they jumped and how they spun, and all this information can be given to the TV audience. “
Every sport is different and creates its own problems. But the goal is always the same – to make sure the right athletes take home gold, silver and bronze.