US Men Relay photo of finish? How do they figure out who touches wall first in swimming in the Olympics?

Question

Can anyone link a photo of the finish showing the US winning the race? The US Men's Relay win over France was an awesome win and comeback, but how do they figure out who touched the wall first in these events? Do they have some sensor on the wall that the participants touch? It seems like it's almost impossible to look at this race with the naked eye and say who won. I doubt even the judges can see a difference as small as less than 0.1 second as it was in this race.

Answer 1

Alan,

Almost all major events in the past 30 years have used touch pads on the walls for swimming races. There are no 'photo finishes' as the timing system determines the winners.

In major events they only go to hundreths of a second. If it's closer than this the pads can determine the winner but FINA (the international governing body of swimming) will not break ties that are less than .01 second.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

There's a touch pad system in the water, extra sensitive when the swimmer touches the time for the pad stops, also there are two timers for each lane to time as well.

Answer 3

At http://www.nbcolympics.com you can view the race.  As others have said the Colorado timing system touchpads are used.  And you are correct, the naked eye can not detect closer than 0.20 seconds in real time.