What it takes to be aquatics’ ultimate timekeeper

Milak began with a startling pace. At 100m, his 51.89 was faster than anyone had gone before. At the 150m mark, he was over a second under his own world record pace. Fighting fatigue, Milak looked to keep his composure together for the final of the four lengths of the Duna Arena pool. 

With the event’s silver medallist – Leon Marchand of France – finishing over three seconds behind Milak, the gold medal was never in doubt. But whether Milak had swam the fastest 200m butterfly of all time was.

Immediately after hitting the touchpad, Milak turned and looked up to the jumbotron above the pool to see his time. The OMEGA scoreboard read 1:50.34. Milak had done it; he had eclipsed his previous all-time global best by .39 seconds.

As the Duna Arena crowd reached a deafening roar, Milak sat on the pool deck, taking it all in. Milak’s performance made for a defining moment in Hungarian aquatics history – one made possible by the fast and accurate timing OMEGA provides for top sports events like the World Aquatics Championships.    

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For a World Aquatics Championship, you basically need three things, starting with a stellar cast of athletes across a range of aquatics disciplines. You need pools and open water as the field of play for the competing athletes. And you need a trusted timekeeper to keep track of the results with speed and accuracy.

Fortunately for the swimmers, divers and water polo players competing at the 20th edition of the World Aquatics Championships, the team taking on the role of Official Timekeeper is OMEGA Timing – the best in the business.

Since 1972, Omega has provided results for all the athletes competing at the World Aquatics Championships – a number that totals over 2,000 in Fukuoka. The Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games since 1932 as well, OMEGA is at the forefront of innovations like bringing motion-sensing and athlete positioning systems into sports.

Here we are on the pool deck of the Duna Arena, which is special because even though the venue made its unveiling at the 2017 edition of the World Aquatics Championships, in just five years the place has become iconic to top aquatic events – particularly swimming.  Do you still carry a special memory or two with you from those World Aquatics Championships?

I was here in 2006 for the European Swimming Championships. That was my first time in Budapest, and it was also my first aquatics event. It’s always special to return.

From either 2006 or 2017, what is one particularly special memory?

The water polo tournament in 2017 was exciting, with Hungary making it to the finals. Whenever the home country played, the crowds went crazy.

I also remember the high diving venue and competition. We got some spectacular shots of all the famous buildings across the city, making for a really beautiful scene.  

Obviously, swimming was also a big occasion. 

Overall, those events were organized by a committee that clearly understands how to create a home-away-from-home for all the visitors. Not only the athletes. It was something we also felt and experienced as timekeepers.

Those are great memories, and I’m so happy to now see the same amazing hospitality and the same crowds on these opening days. We’re seeing the same enthusiasm for aquatic sports in Hungary, and especially in Budapest all over again.

Swimming photo finishes are the best. Since photo-finish cameras made their first appearances, how has the technology evolved?

It’s always been very important to have a skilled team who can operate the equipment accurately. We work extremely hard to provide the right results because there are always very close races in swimming.

We can have athletes sharing the same place, even the same medal, so this is a part of the sport that requires precision. Our cameras are part of an overall timekeeping system that helps guarantee perfect and flawless service throughout the FINA World Championships.

We know the athletes have trained all their lives to compete here. We need to make sure that we're up to the challenge and provide the reliable service they deserve.

Innovation and accuracy are core to OMEGA’s DNA. When one thinks of OMEGA, one may see astronauts, Apollo 11, and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon with a trusty Speedmaster Professional on his wrist.

Whether it was that first photo finish image or introducing touch pads to swimming at the Mexico City 1968 Games, OMEGA has been bringing ground-breaking innovations to sports for years. How do you find ways to introduce innovative technologies when there are so many changing variables at sports events – all while ensuring that there’s always accuracy in the timing and scoring results?

Innovation is a part of the OMEGA DNA. We've been timing competitions for over 100 years, and we’ve always tried to push the boundaries of sports technology. Swimming, in particular, has become a core passion of our brand.

Through that commitment, we’ve often been pioneers in developing the newest timekeeping technologies, which have subsequently helped the sport to grow and develop. 

The touchpads are a perfect example. They came about because of a controversy at the Rome 1960 Olympic Games. Two athletes finished at the exact same time - measured with hand stopwatches by three judges. An aggregate time was taken, and then a head judge made the final call.

One athlete was awarded the gold medal and the other one with the world record. That was obviously very strange, so FINA approached us to develop a technology that would eliminate these human uncertainties.

It took several years to come up with a technology that was accurate enough and that also understood the elements of the sport. Finally, the first touchpads were introduced in 1967 at the World Championships, and then at the Olympics in Mexico in 1968.

This became the first sport where athletes would stop their time themselves. That’s very fascinating if you think about that. We're measuring in hundredths of a second, yet the athletes are ultimately responsible for their own results.

This is just one innovation out of many that we’ve brought to sports and to aquatic sports. With advances in timing for swimming, we have really revolutionized how athletes compete. This has also enhanced how fans around the world watch the competition, either in the stadium or at home.

A starting block in the warm-up pool has been generating a bit of buzz among the swimmers. Want to let us in on what you are prototyping and developing? What’s the feedback from the athletes so far?

Let me start with the innovation. For OMEGA, innovation is always a team effort. We need to involve so many different stakeholders, whether it’s FINA or the athletes themselves because they are ultimately the ones relying on the technology.

It’s therefore a gradual approach. We often introduce prototypes, gather feedback, and then eventually implement devices at national competitions before taking them to international events.

Indeed, we have a new prototype starting block here. Once again, we're gathering feedback from athletes, as well as FINA, so that we can consider all their feedback for further development.

After a new innovation is introduced, we are already working on the next one. It’s important to have that continual rotation of the newest technologies and services.

Innovation takes its own time. Is there a certain target when you look to use these new starting blocks? Is it going to be in Fukuoka or in Paris or is it something we’ll only see when the time is right?

It's a little early to know when we're going to deploy them for the first time. Right now, we're still in the phase of gathering feedback. However, we are very happy with the initial prototype already.

It doesn't change much compared to the current devices, but I think it's amazing in terms of functionalities for the athletes. The information we’re able to gather from this device is far beyond what we have today.

The initial feedback on the starting blocks has been very positive. I expect this will continue until the end of the championships. Our goal is to gather as much feedback as possible and then take it from there. It's still a bit premature to commit to any launch dates.

What goes into being FINA’s Official Timekeeper? What is the size and scale of Omega’s timekeeping presence in Budapest across five aquatics sports?

It's a huge responsibility. First of all, as the Official Timekeeper, we can't allow any mistakes. What we do is fundamental to the outcome of the World Aquatics Championships.

You need the athletes to compete, you need the stadiums or the venues, and you need accurate timekeeping to provide the results. Don’t forget, our services also go way beyond timekeeping. Not only do we process all that information, but we provide broadcast services to make sure that the information is instantly shown to global audiences.

At this competition alone, we have a team of 45 timekeepers split around the various venues, deploying around 20 tonnes of equipment.

Where do these 20 tons of equipment come from?

We try to have a sustainable approach while reducing our carbon footprint as much as we can. Especially when it comes to transporting certain equipment. Some of the equipment here came from Switzerland, and we will then transfer it to other competitions throughout the year. We have different sets in different geographical regions, and then we travel the world as a team to different events where we are needed.

Even after installing all that equipment and technology, a team must run it. There’s the OMEGA team, and then there’s all the volunteers and judges and juries that need to learn how to use the timing and scoring system to deliver the results. That does not sound easy. As CEO of OMEGA Timing, what skills do you look for your team to cultivate?

We always look for the “gems” and we're very lucky to usually find them. They become part of our team and we feel very proud of everyone. The common denominator between us is our passion for sport and our passion for delivering a great service to the athletes.

We all have a special attention-to-detail, and a desire to go out of our comfort zones to push the boundaries of technology.

I think these important values can be found throughout our team, on top of the technical skills that are required to perform the work as a timekeeper, whether these are engineers or electricians.

As timekeepers, we are naturally behind the athletes. You can’t see us, but at the same time, we're close to the action. Close in the sense that the emotions of the athletes are transmitted to us as well, and I think it is extremely rewarding to feel the athletes' emotions after they compete.

We know we are helping them to achieve their dreams. This is extremely powerful and very rewarding for us overall.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, you introduced a few new tech innovations with motion sensors and positioning systems. Now, aquatics athletes can chart their performance at any time through a competition, from start to finish. I imagine the athletes were stoked with this data. Now they are able to measure their performance in between the start and finish of their events against their competitors. This is huge.  What was the feedback that OMEGA got from coaches and athletes?

It's a ground-breaking technology because it allows us to show exactly how the athletes achieved their final results. Where they lost time. Where they gained time compared to other competitors. It’s been extremely powerful. 

Eventually, technology really helps athletes to adapt their training. The feedback from coaches has been great - and that's not only the case for swimming, but for many other sports.

For swimming, I remember a conversation I had with Michael Phelps. He was wishing that he’d had that data available back in his day. It's a real game-changer for the athletes and for the coaches. It’s also improving the experience for spectators because they can truly see the difference in performances throughout the race. We are very proud of it.

With real-time athlete performance data no longer hypothetical, any hints you would like to give us of what could be in store for sports? 

We're working within the element of time, which never changes. But in timekeeping, the arrival of motion sensors and positioning systems are certainly going to evolve our understanding of what is happening through time.

We're collecting so much data. About 2000 pieces per second per athlete – just in swimming.  So the next challenge is to understand all that data and to provide even further insights about what it means.

The measurement of time is also certainly going to evolve. We have to make sure it remains accurate and embrace further new technologies to improve our services overall.

Time is a key element. Nowadays, the competitions are so close. The finishes are so narrow, that in many cases, you can’t see the winner with the naked eye. We need to retain our proven and state-of-the-art technology to ensure the integrity of the results at all times.