At the world championships in Roberval, the races are so close that high-speed cameras – used in rowing, track and other sports are utilized by Powerhouse Timing.

Even with these high-speed cameras (see below), it still takes time for the officials to sort through the finishes where several swimmers often come barreling into the finish all at once.

Above is an example of a photo-finish picture of a solo swimmer from the women’s 10K world championship race.

“The red line is the evaluation line – or the finish time,” explained Jason Moody of Powerhouse Timing. “There are visual distortions. These arise from different rates of speed. The camera is shooting hundred or thousands of lines per second (frames per second). Because swimmer’s the hand is moving extremely fast, it looks distorted. We are able to use these cameras to a general precision of 1/100th of a second or greater.”

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