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How Omega Timed the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Omega’s Tokyo 2020 timekeeping combined race measurement, motion-sensor performance tracking and extensive scoreboard and cable infrastructure, according to the company.
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Omega served as the Official Timekeeper for Tokyo 2020, using race-measurement and athlete-tracking technology backed by a large network of equipment, cables and scoreboards. Omega said it could measure every race in microseconds and track athletic performances with motion sensors; that does not mean every result was displayed or recorded to microsecond precision.

What Omega did at Tokyo 2020

Omega described Tokyo 2020 as its 29th Olympic Games as Official Timekeeper. The role covered measuring races, tracking athletic performances and supporting the delivery of results at venues. The figures and capabilities in Omega’s announcement are the company’s published claims, not an independent audit of the deployment.

Omega said it would measure every race in microseconds and use motion-sensor technology to track athletic performances. These are broad descriptions of measurement capability. Omega’s announcement does not establish the precision shown in each event’s published result or explain the complete system used for each sport.

How the timing system worked at a high level

Race measurement

Race timing turns an athlete’s performance into an official result. Omega said its Tokyo timekeepers would measure every race in microseconds. The announcement does not identify the timer or camera model used in each event, explain the event-by-event timing workflow, or say that results were published at microsecond precision. Omega’s Tokyo 2020 announcement supports the capability claim, but not those more detailed device or result-format claims.

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Athlete-performance tracking

Omega also said motion-sensor technology would track athletic performances. The announcement does not specify the sensors, what performance variables they captured, how the data was processed, or how information moved from sensors to officials or displays. Those details therefore cannot be assigned to a particular Tokyo event from the published description.

Results at venues

Timing is only one part of communicating a result. Omega reported providing 350 sport-specific scoreboards and 85 public scoreboards for Tokyo 2020. Its announcement gives these totals but does not describe each board’s location, content, or connection to a particular timing device.

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The scale Omega reported

Omega’s 2021 announcement described the operation as a substantial infrastructure deployment. The figures below are Omega’s own published totals:

Item Omega’s reported figure
Timekeeping equipment 400 tonnes
Sport-specific scoreboards 350
Public scoreboards 85
Cables and optical fibre 200 kilometres

These totals convey the breadth of the operation, but do not provide a full inventory or technical specification. Omega’s release does not break down the equipment by venue or sport, name all components, or document system latency, calibration procedures, or independent accuracy validation. Omega’s 23 July 2021 release is the source for the figures.

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How Tokyo expanded the sports Omega timed

Omega said its Tokyo work extended to new Olympic sports, including karate, sport climbing and surfing. That identifies sports newly included in the Tokyo program in Omega’s account; the announcement does not specify the timing devices or data workflows used for each one.

From stopwatches to electronic measurement

Omega’s Tokyo showcase presented the company’s Olympic timekeeping history as a progression from stopwatches and visual judgment toward photofinish cameras and modern electronic measurement. The company said it began Olympic timekeeping in 1932, timing every event with 30 stopwatches. This is Omega’s account of its history, rather than an independently verified equipment history, and the showcase does not establish which camera or timer models were deployed at Tokyo 2020. Omega’s 22 July 2021 release describes the exhibition and its historical framing.

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What the public information does not establish

The available Tokyo-specific descriptions explain the system’s broad functions and the scale Omega reported, but leave important technical details open. They do not specify the complete device inventory, exact sensor models, calibration procedures, per-sport data pipelines, latency, or independent accuracy validation. Descriptions of equipment used at other Games or of later Omega hardware cannot fill those Tokyo-specific gaps.

IOC President Thomas Bach said in Omega’s 22 July 2021 release: “The Olympic Games is about sports, and sports is about results. Without OMEGA, there are no results.” The statement expresses Bach’s view of the partnership; it is not a technical endorsement of a particular device.

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