During the Olympics in Rome on August 27, 1960, a highly debated gold medal was presented. In the men’s 100-meter freestyle swimming event, Australian athlete John Devitt and American competitor Lance Larson both clocked the same finishing time of 55.2 seconds. Nonetheless, it was Devitt who emerged as the gold medalist.
Timing for swimming races back then involved three timers per lane, each equipped with stopwatches, and the results were averaged. In situations of a tie, a head judge, like Hans Runströmer from Sweden in this case, was present to make the final decision. Despite Larson technically being one-tenth of a second faster, Runströmer ruled that both times were identical, declaring Devitt the winner.
It was this controversy that prompted Omega, by 1968, to create touch boards for the end of swimming lanes, removing the need for athletes to time themselves and eliminating any chances of human error.
Alain Zobrist, the leader of Omega’s Swiss Timing, the division of Omega overseeing timing, measurement, and tracking in almost every sport, has numerous tales to tell.
For instance, by 2024, the electronic starting gun is now linked to a speaker positioned behind each athlete in races with staggered lanes, like the 400 meters, where athletes in the outer lanes used to hear the start signal slightly later than those nearest to the gun, placing them at a disadvantage.
Moreover, when photo finishes were initially introduced in the 1940s, it took nearly two hours to reach a decision due to the need to develop the film first. Now, with Omega’s new Scan-o-Vision technology, judges can make a ruling within minutes by capturing up to 40,000 digital images per second.
Swiss Timing has evolved beyond simply timing races for a long time now. Despite the Omega brand appearing on every timing device at every Olympics since 1932 (except for instances when Seiko was featured in 1964 and 1992), Swiss Timing’s role goes beyond just recording start and finish times. As Zobrist mentions, “We narrate the race, not just the outcome.” The storytelling aspect for the Paris 2024 games has expanded with more intricate plotlines.
“2018 marked a turning point for us,” Zobrist reveals. “This was when we began incorporating motion sensors into athletes’ attire, enabling us to comprehend the entire performance—everything that occurs between the start and finish lines.”
