History
How races were timed 100 and 1,000 years ago: from the ancient Olympics to RFID chips
· 7 min read
In short
- Time was not measured at the ancient Olympics. The winner was whoever crossed the finish line first, and the result was recorded as a finishing order rather than a time.
- Timing in seconds only became widespread in sport with pendulum clocks and, later, chronographs. In 1821, Rieussec built a chronograph with an ink marker for timing horse races.
- A century ago, races were timed with handheld stopwatches. The 1916 Heuer Mikrograph could measure hundredths of a second.
- Chip timing entered mass use at the 1994 Berlin Marathon.
Today, runners routinely see their time within seconds of finishing. A century ago, that would have seemed miraculous; a millennium ago, unimaginable. So how did race timing evolve?
2,700 years ago: a winner without a time
The ancient Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The earliest Olympics featured only a one-stadium footrace of approximately 192 metres. Judges determined the winner, who was recorded by name on a list of Olympic champions rather than by time. There was little point in doing otherwise: no instruments existed that could measure seconds. The same principle still applied 1,000 years ago: sporting results were expressed as finishing positions, distances or point totals, not times.
Clocks that did not know seconds
Water clocks and sundials measured hours and fractions of hours. Mechanical clocks appeared in Europe in the 14th century, while a practical seconds hand only became possible with the pendulum clock built by Christiaan Huygens after 1656. Only then did measuring time in seconds become technically feasible.
The 19th century: the chronograph
In 1816, Louis Moinet built an instrument called the compteur de tierces, capable of measuring 1/60 of a second and intended for astronomical observations. In 1821, Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec unveiled a chronograph that marked elapsed time on its dial with a drop of ink and was used to time horse races. This was the first systematic use of precise timing in sport. We explore horse racing and the technology it inspired in Photo finishes in horse racing.
A century ago: stopwatches and officials
At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, electrical timing equipment appeared for the first time as a backup to handheld stopwatches accurate to one-tenth of a second. The 1916 Heuer Mikrograph could measure hundredths of a second, and the brand served as official timekeeper at the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympics. In 1932, Omega brought 30 stopwatches accurate to one-tenth of a second to Los Angeles. Manual timing remained standard for decades, and its weaknesses are explored in Athletics: false starts and manual timing.
Electronics: photocells, touchpads and photo finishes
At the 1948 London Olympics, a photocell electronically stopped the clock, while a photo-finish camera from the British company Race Finish Recording captured the finish. In 1964, Seiko deployed an electronic system in Tokyo accurate to one-hundredth of a second. Swimming touchpads were used in 1968. The full journey is covered in Breakthrough moments in the history of timekeeping.
Chips and mass-participation races
The first automatic transponder timing systems were created for model cars by Haarlem-based AMB i.t. in 1982. ChampionChip was founded in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in 1993 and developed a shoe-chip system for mass-participation races. It was deployed on a large scale at the Berlin Marathon on 25 September 1994. Since then, chips have become commonplace even at small running events.
What about today?
Today, a phone, an app and inexpensive chips are enough. Passive UHF chips attached to bib numbers can time thousands of runners at once; learn more in How an RFID chip works in running races. TAQIO takes this story one step further by putting race timing in the organizer’s pocket: for manual, QR or NFC timing, all that is needed is a phone.
Frequently asked questions
How was the winner determined at the ancient Olympics?
By finishing order. The earliest Olympics featured only a one-stadium footrace of about 192 metres, and the judges, known as hellanodikai, determined who finished first. Times were not measured, and records in the modern sense did not exist.
When did stopwatches begin to be used in sport?
Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec built the first chronograph with an ink marker in 1821 to time horse races. Before that, Louis Moinet had created a chronograph for astronomy in 1816 that measured to 1/60 of a second.
When did chip timing begin?
ChampionChip was founded in the Netherlands in 1993 and first deployed its shoe-chip system on a large scale at the Berlin Marathon on 25 September 1994.
Where did transponder timing originate?
In 1982, two radio-controlled car enthusiasts founded AMB i.t. in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and developed transponders for model cars along with a detection loop embedded in the track. It was the first automatic timing system of its kind.