Perfect Timing: Alain Zobrist, OMEGA, and the 2024 Olympics in Paris

Director of OMEGA timing for the Paris Olympic Games

When I sat down with Alain Zobrist, he was wearing the new OMEGA Speedmaster Chronoscope Paris 2024 Edition. It’s a gorgeous watch with an opaline dial and a 1940s snail design which includes a tachymeter, pulsometer, and telemeter scale. Inside beats the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9908, certified by METAS at the highest standard of precision, performance, and magnetic resistance in the Swiss watch industry. The first thing I thought when I saw it was, if any man deserves to be wearing this watch, it’s Alain Zobrist.

Alain Zobrist, OMEGA, and the 2024 Olympics in Paris — Alain Zobrist, courtesy of OMEGA

Zobrist is the director of OMEGA timing for the Paris Olympic Games—the most important sporting event on the planet. But you wouldn’t know it. Modest, affable, and quietly funny, Zobrist revealed no indication that he was seven days into the performance of a lifetime. If he was stressed, you couldn’t tell.

OMEGA has been the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games since 1932. Zobrist has been present at the last nine competitions. Prior to this role, he was brand Head of Global Sports Marketing.

“I never had any plans or any dreams in that direction. It just happened, I guess. I always wanted to learn and to have fun—which I think is very important for everyone who finds a passion in his job.” Zobrist, who holds a degree in economics and marketing, was also born and raised in Switzerland—home to OMEGA and the centre of the watchmaking world.

Having been present at both summer and winter games, Zobrist admits that there are different challenges. Some are environmental. Extreme heat in the summer, and the opposite end of the spectrum in winter. Nonetheless, he affirms that “our mission is always the same. We want to make sure that we can provide all athletes participating with their results as soon as they finish their competition.”

OMEGA in Paris

When Omega began their role at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, the timing crew had 30 chronographs capable of accurately measuring down to 1/100^th of a second. Things are different now. “We have 550 timekeepers at these games,” says Zobrist, “deploying 350 tons of equipment and 200km of cables.

This year, OMEGA will cover 329 events in 32 different disciplines. “We can’t do the work alone. So we’re working with about 900 volunteers across all different sports.” The timekeepers are divided among the many venues. “We have a team in Tahiti for surfing. We have a team in Marseille for sailing competitions. We’ve got football in seven different cities around France. And then, obviously, the big part of the team is in Paris.”

Homologation—or official sanctioning of the timekeeping—is different for each sport. This means that OMEGA must communicate, and coordinate with, each and every international sporting federation.

While the Paris Games will last 19 days, Zobrist and his team have been hard at work for much longer. Each Olympic Games is three years in the planning for OMEGA. “We have a little team that is present, working closely with the organizing committee, with the local authorities to prepare for the big event. They’re involved in venue construction—making sure that we have the needed spaces to operate cable pathways, or storage areas. Whatever it may be.

“The year before, there are always test events. Every sport runs competitions in the respective venues to test all kinds of things. And, obviously, we’re also testing our deployment there.”

Zobrist is quick to point out that his team is larger than many national contingents at the games. They occupy 35 different hotels and must manage their own transportation to and from the various venues. Everyone must be fed. Laundry must be done. “Yeah, it’s a big, big logistical endeavour.”

While several new sports are making their debut at the Olympic Games in Paris, Zobrist does see this as a particularly difficult challenge. OMEGA has solutions for more than 100 different sporting events. In addition, each of the new events appeared previously in Tokyo as a demonstration sport. However, OMEGA never stops innovating.

This year, for example, they have implemented a new Photo Finish camera. “It takes four times more pictures per second than the previous one: 40,000 versus 10,000,” says Zobrist. “We have new motion sensors and positioning systems, where we also deploy computer vision and artificial intelligence.

“Performances between start and finish, tell the story of the race and allow athletes to understand where they gained or lost time, and eventually where they won a medal or where they lost it.”

OMEGA has also been a pioneer in new technologies for broadcasting. Since 1962, for example, the OMEGA Scope has allowed the running time to appear on television, so that viewers could know in real time what was happening in a race.

Despite the innovations and the logistics, Zobrist’s focus remains singular. “Everything we do is for the athletes. You know, they train their entire life for this particular moment. So, the only thing that is urgent is having a trustworthy partner, providing them with accurate results as soon as they cross the finish line or finish their competition. So, all the innovations that we do, all the services that we provide, is primarily for the athletes, without a doubt.”

With that in mind, OMEGA plan extensively for failure, with up to four backup systems in place for certain sports. “These are considered to be hot backups. So, we can switch from the main system to the backup system at any point in time during competition without losing any data. We run on an independent power source. And in case that fails, we can run on batteries. We’re prepared for any kind of eventualities during competition.”

While most viewers will have a rudimentary understanding of sports timing while they watch the games, it is unlikely that many truly comprehend just how much is going on behind the scenes. In a single event like the 100m dash, a myriad of systems come into play. “There is an electronic gun that starts the race,” says Zobrist, “that triggers the clock. Then there’s the starting blocks—that are absolutely key to the deployment, and in athletics, to detect false starts. Throughout the race, we also measure wind. Too much wind from the back, and the records may not be homologated. Two meters per second is all that is allowed.

“We’re also tracking the entire performance of the athletes. They have a little sensor in their bib number where we measure the biomechanical movements of the athletes. We can count steps. We have their instant speeds—which means that we could have their acceleration or deceleration. We have position. Basically, we can really analyze the full race and explain the result that is then captured through photo finish cameras.

“The official results and all that data is then sent centrally into a dedicated sports specific software where all the data is formatted, treated, and sent out worldwide. And it’s feeding a whole lot of clients.” First among those clients are broadcasters, of course. So, all the graphics that viewers experience in any kind of competition are generated through OMEGA’s systems—including the information provided to scoreboards in the stadium. This information is also distributed to websites and mobile apps. “I mean, you name it. Globally. Everywhere. And that’s just one race.”

A moment in time

Although Zobrist has witnessed many special moments in his association with the Olympics, one that stands out among them is the 2008 Men’s 100m butterfly final in Beijing. The Phelps-Cavic matchup is now legend in sport, having awarded Phelps his all-important eighth gold medal at the games. But it came down to the wire…or, should we say, the touch pad.

Only two events in the Olympics call upon the athlete to stop his/her own time: swimming and speed climbing. To anyone watching that race, it was impossible to tell who reached the wall first. “That was a legendary one,” says Zobrist. “And that showed how important it is to have functioning and accurate technology in place, because what our technology does in general is to measure differences between athletes’ performances that you could not see with your naked eye.”

Today, the athletics portion of the Paris Olympic Games begins. So, if you are watching, consider what you see as the tip of the iceberg. And know, OMEGA has you covered.