Sports
AI comes to the Olympics: In Paris, new tech will change your view of the Games
Follow our Olympics coverage from the Paris Games.
The Olympic Games have come a long way since the age of hand-held stopwatches.
It’s fitting then that during a moment when the mass population has finally come to understand the power (and danger) of artificial intelligence through widgets like ChatGPT that the Olympic Games in Paris will rely on AI to help determine not just who wins and loses but the why and how of those triumphs and losses.
Ahead of the Olympics, The Athletic spoke with Alain Zobrist, the chief executive of Omega Timing. Omega is the official timekeeper of the Games, a role it has played numerous times since 1932, and is largely responsible for every digit of data that gets produced during the Olympics.
Zobrist outlined a series of innovations that will allow viewers on NBC and other telecasts to experience the ebbs and flows of the competition as never before, whether it’s in the pool or on the sand under the Eiffel Tower for the beach volleyball competition.
‘A whole biomechanical analysis’
The most striking innovations, at least at the start of the Games when swimming is at the center of attention, might be in the Olympic Aquatic Center.
Omega has set up four cameras that capture everything happening in the water. The cameras and the computerized brains that operate them, referred to as “Computervision,” have been taught to recognize and analyze certain movements. In real-time, the high-tech cameras can calculate each athlete’s stroke rate and the distance they are covering. It can compare that to how much distance they have covered, how much is left, and to the seven other athletes in the race and figure out the small differences in acceleration and deceleration at key moments in the race that can be the difference between a gold medal and fourth place.
“What we get is a whole biomechanical analysis,” Zobrist said.
Safer diving
One of the most famous images in Olympic diving captured Greg Louganis, the American champion, hitting his head on the board during the 1988 Games in Seoul. Louganis emerged basically OK, even though he whacked his head after completing two-and-a-half somersaults.
He got four stitches and went on to win a second gold medal in the springboard. He also captured the platform gold for a second consecutive time.
Still, the injuries could have been far more serious, and the sport has tried to prioritize keeping heads far away from boards. Judges can deduct two points for a head that passes the board at an unsafe distance. In the past, it’s sometimes been something of a judgment call. Not in Paris, where the computerized camera will measure the distance between the head and the board and let the judges know if they should deduct points.
Divers can be penalized if their heads pass too close to the board. In Paris, new technology will take the decision out of the judges’ hands. (Clive Rose / Getty Images)
The ultimate (for now) photo finish
Winning a gold medal can be a life-changing event. Getting that right is about as important as it gets.
On the athletics track, the decision can be complicated, as officials have to determine whose upper torso crossed the line first. In the past, they relied on a camera that shot 10,000 frames per second. There’s a better camera this time that shoots 40,000 frames per second, with more pixels so the quality will be better as well.
Smart bibs
The track and field bib would seem like a pretty outdated piece of equipment. In the most important event of their careers, athletes pin a high-tech piece of paper to their bodies.
Turns out that bib plays a pretty important role in how viewers experience a running race. Inside the bib is a sensor roughly the size of a credit card that is constantly relaying data about the runner that is similar to the data the cameras collect in the swimming pool.
A series of antennas send information to high-speed computers that are constantly calculating all the athletes’ positions on the track, their steps, their stride rate and which direction those are going in. The antennas send about 2,000 data points per second to the timekeeping room.
This is how we know who’s gaining ground and who’s losing it and who’s leading a race with a staggered start, such as the 200 or 400 meters.
The expansive beach volleyball court requires a lot of movement to cover during a match. We’ll have a much better idea of how much in Paris. (Daniel Leal / AFP via Getty Images)
Running on the beach, quick moves on the tennis court
The first thing anyone who tries to play beach volleyball realizes is how insanely large the court is.
It’s 16 meters long and eight meters wide, or more than 52 feet long and more than 25 feet wide. That’s a ridiculous amount of real estate for two people to cover.
We’ll know how ridiculous this year, as the smart cameras capture and tabulate each movement the athletes make, calculating the distance they cover in each match, the speed of the ball and a data-driven understanding of tactics.
On the tennis courts of Roland Garros, electronic line-calling won’t be used. Players will have to rely on old-fashioned line judges and marks on the clay, which may have cost Alexander Zverev the men’s singles title in June. But a new system will focus heavily on the two most important shots in the game — the serve and the return attempt, the only two shots that happen on every tennis point.
The cameras at Roland Garros will measure the returner’s reaction time to the serve and correlate it to the quality of return to provide a sense of whether the quickest reflexes and the ability to read a serve lead to high-quality returns.
Beyond timing
Zobrist said the overall approach is to try to measure competition without disturbing athletes. This way, they don’t run into problems with convincing athletes to accept their methods.
“This is why Computervision and AI are so helpful,” he said, especially with engineers focusing so heavily on biomechanics rather than biometrics. “It’s another way of how to measure time, how to measure time and explain performance.”
GO DEEPER
Beach volleyball at the 2024 Paris Olympics: U.S. teams, schedule and how to watch
(Top photo of the women’s 100-meter during the Tokyo Olympics: Ulrik Pedersen / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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LAS VEGAS – Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.
While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.
The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”
Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.
WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”
Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.
“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”
Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.
It’s time to reveal memories, laughs and crazy times from Randy Rosenbloom’s 55 years as a TV/radio broadcaster in Los Angeles. He’s hopping in a car next Sunday with his wife, saying goodbye to a North Hollywood house that’s been in his family since 1952 and driving 3,300 miles to his new home in Greenville, S.C.
“When I walk out, I’ll probably break down,” he said.
He graduated from North Hollywood High in 1969. He got his first paid job in 1971 calling Hart basketball games for NBC Cable Newhall for $10 a game. It began an adventure of a lifetime.
“I never knew if I overachieved or underachieved. I just did what I loved,” he said.
Randy Rosenbloom (left) used to work with former UCLA coach John Wooden for TV games.
(Randy Rosenbloom)
John Wooden, Jerry Tarkanian and Jim Harrick were among his expert commentators when he did play by play for college basketball games. He called volleyball at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games for NBC and rowing in 2004. He’s worked more than 100 championship high school events. He did play by play for the first and only Reebok Bowl at Angel Stadium in 1994 won by Bishop Amat over Sylmar, 35-14.
“There were about 5,000, 6,000 people there and I remember thinking nobody watched the game. We ended up with a 5.7 TV rating on Channel 13 in Los Angeles, which is higher than most Lakers games.”
He conducted interviews with NFL Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Johnny Unitas and boxing greats Robert Duran, Thomas Hearn and Sugar Ray Leonard. He’s worked with baseball greats Steve Garvey and Doug DeCinces. He called games with former USC coach Rod Dedeaux. He was in the radio booth for Bret Saberhagen’s 1982 no-hitter in the City Section championship game at Dodger Stadium. He was a nightly sportscaster for KADY in Ventura.
Randy Rosenbloom, left, with his volleyball broadcast partners, Kirk Kilgour and Bill Walton.
(Randy Rosenbloom)
He was the voice of Fresno State football and basketball. He also did Nevada Las Vegas football and basketball games. He called bowl games and Little League games. He was a public address announcer for basketball at the 1984 Olympic Games with Michael Jordan the star and did the P.A. for Toluca Little League.
Nothing was too small or too big for him.
“I loved everything,” he said.
He called at least 10 East L.A. Classic football games between Garfield and Roosevelt. He was there when Narbonne and San Pedro tied 21-21 in the 2008 City championship game at the Coliseum on a San Pedro touchdown with one second left.
Probably his most notable tale came when he was doing radio play-by-play at a 1998 college bowl game in Montgomery, Ala.
“I look down and a giant tarantula is crawling up my pants,” he said. “My color man took all the press notes, wadded them up and hit the tarantula like swinging a bat.”
Did Rosenbloom tell the audience what was happening?
“I stayed calm,” he said.
Then there was the time he was in the press box at Sam Boyd Stadium and a bat flew in and attached itself to the wooden press box right next to him before flying away after he said, “UNLV wins.”
Recently, he’s been putting together high school TV packages for LA36 and calling travel ball basketball games. He’ll still keep doing a radio gambling show from his new home, but he’s cutting ties to Los Angeles to move closer to grandchildren.
“I’m retiring from Los Angeles. I’m leaving the market,” he said.
Hopefully he’ll continue via Zoom to do a weekly podcast with me for The Times.
He’s a true professional who’s versatility and work ethic made him a reliable hire from the age of 18 through his current age of 74.
He’s a member of the City Section Hall of Fame and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He once threw the shot put 51 feet, 7 1/2 inches, which is his claim to fame at North Hollywood High.
One time an ESPN graphic before a show spelled his name “Rosenbloom” then changed it to “Rosenblum” for postgame. It was worth a good laugh.
He always adjusts, improvises and ad-libs. He expects to enjoy his time in South Carolina, but he better watch out for tarantulas. They seem to like him.
Sports
Becky Lynch enters exclusive WWE club with Women’s Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania 42
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LAS VEGAS – Becky Lynch entered an atmosphere no other WWE women’s superstar has ever reached as she won the Women’s Intercontinental Championship over AJ Lee on Saturday night at WrestleMania 42.
Lynch became the first person to hold the Women’s Intercontinental Championship three times after she pinned Lee. She first won the title against Lyra Valkyria in June 2025 and then again against Maxxine Dupri in November.
Becky Lynch celebrates with the belt after defeating AJ Lee during their women’s Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
She dropped the belt to Lee at the Elimination Chamber, sparking a monthslong feud with her.
Lee gave Lynch the chance at the title in the weeks prior to WrestleMania 42. But it appeared Lee played right into Lynch’s plans. Despite arguing with referee Jessica Carr for most of the match, Lynch was able to tactfully tear down a rope buckle and use it to her advantage.
Lynch hit Lee with a Manhandle Slam and pinned her for the win.
WWE STARS REVEAL WHAT MAKES WRESTLEMANIA SO SPECIAL: ‘IT’S THE SUPER BOWL OF PRO WRESTLING’
AJ Lee reacts after losing to Becky Lynch in their Women’s Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
It’s the second straight year Lynch will leave Las Vegas as champion. She returned to WWE at WrestleMania 41, teaming with Valkyria, to win the women’s tag titles. She will now leave Allegiant Stadium as the women’s intercontinental champion.
Lynch is now a seven-time women’s champion, three-time women’s intercontinental champion and two-time tag team champion.
Becky Lynch withstands AJ Lee during their Women’s Intercontinental Championship match on night one of WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Lee’s reign as champion ended really before it could really begin. WrestleMania 42 was her first appearance at the event in 11 years. It’s unclear where Lee will go from here.
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