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OMEGA’s Timekeeping Highlights - From the Paralympic Games
| 2024-09-09 |    |
Almost two weeks of competition have now ended at the Paralympic Games. With the medals won, the Official Timekeeper OMEGA is looking back on another memorable Paralympic year, and the many highlights that defined this Paris 2024 edition.
OMEGA first timed the Paralympic Games in 1992. At this year’s competition, the brand was once again tasked with measuring every second, which included 549 events across 22 different sports. To fulfill the task, the Swiss brand arrived with 240 timekeepers, 150 tonnes of equipment, and 300 trained volunteers to ensure the operation ran smoothly.
Almost all of the timekeeping technology was the very same that OMEGA used at the Olympic Games, which took place just a month ago. Along with essential equipment, such as the electronic starting pistols, quantum timers, and swimming touchpads, the brand also relied on several unique systems for Paralympic events. These included the Starting Lights for deaf athletes, the Extra Photocell beam in wheelchair racing, and Factorized Timing, which allows athletes from different disability classifications to compete equally against each other.
Amongst these history-making moments were many inspiring gold medal performances, including those by OMEGA’s own sporting ambassadors:
Hannah Cockroft from Great Britain won the Women’s T34 100m and 800m events. The 8th and 9th gold medals of her Paralympic Games career. - Alexis Hanquinquant of France won the Men’s PTS4 Paratriathlon event. His gold medal assured back-to-back victories in this event, following the same win at Tokyo 2020. - Oksana Masters of the USA won the 18th and 19th medals of her Paralympic Games career, when she claimed victory in the Women’s H4-5 Individual Time Trial and the H5 Road Race in Para Cycling. - Jessica Long of the USA won the Women’s S8 100m Butterfly and S8 400m Freestyle events in swimming. This took her to 18 gold medals in her Paralympic Games career. - Marcel Hug of Switzerland won the Men’s T54 Marathon event. This was Marcel’s 4th medal of the Paralympic Games, following the two silvers and a bronze he claimed in other races.
OMEGA will return to its Official Timekeeper duties at the Paralympic Games until at least 2032, when the event will be held in Brisbane, Australia. Until then, Milano-Cortina 2026, Los Angeles 2028, and French Alps 2030 are already on the horizon.
