From 6-22 February, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy will function not simply the world’s high winter athletes but in addition among the most superior sports activities applied sciences in the present day. On the first Cortina Olympics in 1956, the Swiss firm Omega—based mostly in Biel/Bienne—launched digital ski beginning gates and launched the primary automated timing tech of its variety.
At this 12 months’s Olympics, Swiss Timing, sister firm to Omega below the father or mother Swatch Group, unveils a brand new technology of motion analysis and computer vision expertise. The brand new applied sciences on supply embody photofinish cameras that seize as much as 40,000 photos per second.
“We work very intently with athletes,” says Swiss Timing CEO Alain Zobrist, who has overseen Olympic timekeeping for the reason that winter games of 2006 in Torino “They’re the first prospects of our expertise and providers, and they should perceive how our programs work to be able to belief them.”
Utilizing high-resolution cameras and AI algorithms tuned to skaters’ routines, Milan-Cortina Olympic officers count on new determine skating tech to be a key spotlight of the video games. Omega
Determine Skating Tech Completes the Rotation
Figure skating, the Winter Olympics’ greatest TV draw, is receiving a considerable improve at Milano Cortina 2026.
Fourteen 8K resolution cameras positioned across the rink will seize each skater’s motion. “We use proprietary software program to interpret the pictures and visualize athlete motion in a 3D mannequin,” says Zobrist. “AI processes the info so we will monitor trajectory, place, and motion throughout all three axes—X, Y, and Z”.
The system measures bounce heights, air instances, and touchdown speeds in actual time, producing warmth maps and graphic overlays that break down every program—all instantaneously. “The time it takes for us to measure the info, till we present a matrix on TV with a graphic, this entire chain must take lower than 1/10 of a second,” Zobrist says.
A spread of various AI models helps the broadcasters and commentators course of every skater’s each transfer on the ice.
“There may be an AI that helps our computer vision system do pose estimation,” he says. “So now we have a digital camera that’s filming what is going on, and an AI that helps the digital camera perceive what it’s . After which there’s a second sort of AI, which is extra much like a big language mannequin that is smart of the info that we accumulate”.
Among the many options Swiss Timing’s new programs present is blade angle detection, which supplies judges exact technical knowledge to enhance their technical and aesthetic selections. Zobrist says future variations may also decide whether or not a given rotation is full, in order that “If the rotation is 355 levels, there’s going to be a deduction,” he says.
This builds on expertise Omega unveiled on the 2024 Paris Olympics for diving, the place cameras measured distances between a diver’s head and the board to assist judges assess factors and penalties to be awarded.
On the 2026 Winter Olympics, ski leaping will function each camera-based and sensor-based applied sciences to make the aerial expertise extra rapid and real-time. Omega
Ski Leaping Tech Finds Make-or-Break Moments
In contrast to determine skating’s camera-based method, ski jumping additionally depends on bodily sensors.
“In ski leaping, we use a small, light-weight sensor hooked up to every ski, one sensor per ski, not on the athlete’s physique,” Zobrist says. The sensors are light-weight and broadcast knowledge on a skier’s velocity, acceleration, and positioning within the air. The expertise additionally correlates efficiency knowledge with wind circumstances, revealing environmental components’ affect on every bounce.
Excessive-speed cameras additionally monitor every ski jumper. Then, a stroboscopic digital camera supplies physique place time-lapses all through the bounce.
“The primary 20 to 30 meters after takeoff are essential as athletes transfer right into a V place and lean ahead,” Zobrist says. “And each the timing and precision of this motion strongly affect efficiency.”
The system reveals biomechanical traits in actual time, he provides, displaying how athletes place their our bodies throughout each second of the takeoff course of. The commonest mistake in flight place, over-rotation or under-rotation, can now be detailed and recognized with precision on each bounce.
Bobsleigh: Pushing the Line on the Picture End
This 12 months’s Olympics may also function a “digital photograph end,” offering comparability photos of when totally different sleds cross the end line over earlier runs.
Omega’s cameras will present digital photograph finishes on the 2026 Winter Olympics. Omega
“We nearly construct a photograph end that exhibits totally different sleds from totally different runs on a single visible reference,” says Zobrist.
After every run, composite photos present the margins separating performances. Nevertheless, extra tried-and-true expertise nonetheless generates official outcomes. A Swiss Timing rating, he says, nonetheless comes courtesy of photoelectric cells, gadgets that emit mild beams throughout the end line and cease the clock when damaged. The corporate presents its digital photograph end, against this, as a visualization device for spectators and commentators.
In bobsleigh, as in each timed Winter Olympic occasion, the road between triumph and heartbreak is typically measured in milliseconds and even shorter time intervals nonetheless. Such precision will, Zobrist says, stem from Omega’s Quantum Timer.
“We are able to measure time to the millionth of a second, so 6 digits after the comma, with a deviation of about 23 nanoseconds over 24 hours,” Zobrist defined. “These gadgets are continuously calibrated and used throughout all timed sports activities.”
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