The PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which began on Friday, February 9th, concluded on Sunday, February 25th. According to Omega, which served as the official timekeeper of the Games for the 28th time, approximately 800,000 timing data points were recorded during the Games, including three new world records and 25 new Olympic records.
At the Olympic level, athletes compete within tenths of a second or even less. This demands even more precise timing from Omega. To that end, Omega has made this possible by introducing photocells (optical timing devices) capable of measuring time down to 1/1000th of a second, Scan-O-Vision Myria, which can take 10,000 digital images per second, and flash guns and sound generation boxes that signal the start of the race and simultaneously begin timing. Following the conclusion of the PyeongChang Olympics, Omega released highlights from the timing data obtained by these devices, highlighting scenes that required particularly high-precision timing. Here are some highlights.
In the men's two-man bobsleigh event, both the Canadian and German teams won gold medals with a time of 3 minutes 16.86 seconds. At the Olympics, the number of decimal points used varies depending on the event, and in bobsleigh, records are valid down to 1/100th of a second. If bobsleigh had been a sport where times were measured down to 1/1000th of a second, this unusual incident might not have occurred. This just goes to show how important timing is in speed sports. OMEGA's high-precision timing is one of the backbone supporting the Olympics.
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