No athletic event has benefited from advances intechnologyquite like theOlympic Games . Fencers use state - of - the - artsensorsto check that their attacks are the right way recorded ; underwaterrobot camerascapture swimming and diving events .
But runners and cyclists still sport some amazingly low-toned - tech assistance : they get a numeral on a piece of paper that ’s held in place with rubber pins . What gives ?
Technically , jock put on what ’s called a bib — a sheet of thin plasticTyvekthat withstands sweat and is able to move with the wearer ’s trunk . According to Tyvek retailer Running Count , the product is also bust - trial impression , though whether they imply split or literal piquant discharge from a losing elbow grease — or both — is unsettled .
Originally , the numbers game printed on the bibs were used to identify entrant for judges , who are often task with keeping runway of multiple competitors . But with the Second Advent of data processor chips and timer , it ’s become less crucial to slap a number on an athlete . Bibs are now apply in timekeeping . Olympic cart track and field jock wear down bibs containingtracking chipsthat follow each moon-curser ’s position down to the centimeter . They also record the exact sentence contender cross the finish line of credit in races where a hair’s-breadth ’s breadth may mean the difference between amber and silver — like in the Man ’s 100 - meter final examination at the 2024 Paris Games , were American sprinter Noah Lyles edged out the Jamaican moon curser Kishane Thompson byfive thousandthsof a second .
While athletes do n’t get to choose their bib turn or its contents , they can still find significance in it . When gymnast Nadia Comaneci donated her bib to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne , Switzerland , in 2014 , she observe that its number 73 reminded her of the number of perfect 10 scores she take in ( seven ) and the issue of gold medallion clear ( three ) .
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A version of this story was publish in 2016 ; it has been update for 2024 .
