Aquatic timing system

Scoreboards at the University of Minnesota during the 2007 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Finals

The timing office at Grosse Pointe South High School

Aquatic timing systems are designed to automate the process of timing, judging, and scoring in competitive swimming and other aquatic sports, including diving, water polo, and synchronised swimming. These systems are also used in the training of athletes, and many add-on products have been developed to assist with the training process.

Manufacturers

Companies that manufacture aquatic timing systems include Colorado Time Systems, Daktronics, Omega/Swiss Timing, Seiko and Superior Swim Timing.

History

Prior to the 1950s, competitive swimmers relied on the sound of a starting pistol to start their races and mechanical stopwatches to record their times at the end of a race. A limitation of analog timekeeping was the technology's inability to reliably record times accurately below one tenth (0.1) of a second. The invention of automatic timing systems brought more accuracy and credibility to aquatic sports.

• Image Gallery
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  Olympex display at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club
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  Diving template on an Olympex Display
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  Colorado Time Systems wallplate

See also

• Fully automatic time
• Scoreboards

References

• "The Not So Bad Ol' Days", USA Swimming.
• "History - Swimming and Sports Timekeeping", Omega SA.
• "About Our Company", Colorado Time Systems.
• "Olympic Swimming Controversies and Scandals", About.com.