How do they know who wins etc in Olympic swimming? Is there something in the wall that records this?

Question

Olympic swimming. There can't just be judges deciding the place of each swimmer. How do the know

Answer 1

Yes, There's sensor pads records hundreds of the second, and you are disqualified if you don't touch it.

Answer 2

There's a "touch pad" at the end of each lane (it's as wide as the lane and goes from the water surface or above, and down about 3 feet). If the pads are white (and match the color of the pool walls) they can be easy to miss on TV. Look for the prominent "Omega" when they show the swimmers at the end of the race -- that's the touchpad.

On the inside, the touch pad is essentially two giant conductors (like big foil sheets). When a swimmer hits the pad, he forces the two conductors together to complete a circuit.

The timing system is automatically started by the official starter using a button. The button starts the clock and activates a horn. There is a horn under every starting block so everyone will hear the sound at the same time. The horn works better than a pistol because the pistol would sound from only one side of the pool and it has a tendency to echo (which would signal a false start).

Before every event, the timing system is programmed for a fixed number of touches. For example, the  200 m freestyle is 4 lengths of a 50 meter pool. The swimmers touch the wall at the starting end twice. The first touch is just a split, but the second touch counts as the final time.

The timing systems are capable of recording to the thousandth of a second (and have been able to do so for about 40 years), but only times to the hundredth are used to determine final times, records, and placing.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Yes everything on the record

thanks - http://swimingsuits.blogspot.com/

Answer 4

There are touch pads on the wall that swimmers touch.  The pads trigger the timer and signal that the swimmer has finished.

Answer 5

Yes. Each swimmer touches a pad at the end of the race that records their time.