Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 Winter Olympics

OMEGA Timekeeping during the ’36 winter Olympics in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany, was relatively simple. As there were no starting gates or audio communication between the timekeepers, times were taken by two OMEGA timekeepers with synchronized stopwatches. A timekeeper at the starting line would write down the start time on a piece of paper, and send it with the athlete down the run.

When the athlete met the other timer at the finish line (there was no finish ribbon yet either), the timer took the piece of paper and wrote the finishing time. The paper was then taken to the race office where times were calculated to the nearest 1/10th of a second. The relay of time slips and calculations meant that athletes and spectators did not know the results of the race for quite some time after the finish.