The electronic lap counters used at the FINA world championships were a hit among the athletes, giving them a new way of seeing how many lengths are remaining in their distance races. <\/p>\n
Omega designed a fully-automated digital lap counter that sits at the bottom of the pool, with each lane having its own device. Though they were designed to replace the plastic placards that officials hold above the pool to count down the number of lengths remaining, the turn judges still used them as a backup in Kazan.<\/p>\n
The devices were at the bottom of the pool, about five meters from the turning end, for the entire world championships. But they were only used for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s 800 and 1500 freestyles, the only events when lap counters are required in short course or long course competition. When the swimmer makes a flip turn and hits the touchpad on the wall, the system automatically changes the number of lengths remaining on that swimmer\u2019s lap counter. The main intent, Omega CEO Allan Zoubrist told journalists during a media tour, is to allow athletes to know the number of lengths remaining without needing to lift their head to see the lap counters on deck.<\/p>\n
The product made its official debut at the short course world championships last December in Qatar, where athletes spoke highly of its use. That continued in Kazan as many experienced them for the first time.<\/p>\n
Katie Ledecky<\/strong> used them four times in Kazan, in prelims and finals of the 800 and 1500 freestyles. She broke the 1500 free world record twice and the 800 free record once. Sharon Van Rouwendaal<\/strong> of the Netherlands had mixed feelings about the lap counters. She would prefer not to see them during the longer distance races, but didn\u2019t mind it for the 800 freestyle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not so good when you\u2019re in the 1500, because when you see the first (number) and you\u2019re, \u2018Oh, I have 29 (lengths) left,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut on the 800, I don\u2019t watch it every time. When I see \u20187\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Ooh, I\u2019m almost there.\u2019 But it\u2019s definitely good to know when you\u2019re not counting that you have it on the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n FINA doesn\u2019t allow anything beyond the number of lengths remaining on the monitor, but Zoubrist said Omega is ready to make the electronic lap counter more interactive for the athletes if FINA changes the rules. The monitors can display split times for any race, for example.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, the rules of FINA forbid this information (being displayed),\u201d he said. \u201cPerhaps in the future. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the lap counters have only been used officially at the world championships, they could be used at any meet. USA Swimming is looking into using them for next year\u2019s Olympic Trials in Omaha.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve put in a request to have them at Trials,\u201d said USA Swimming Assistant Executive Director Mike Unger. \u201cIt\u2019s our hope that we will have them in Omaha.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The electronic lap counters used at the FINA world championships were a hit among the athletes, giving them a new way of seeing how many lengths are remaining in their<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":149671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[51878,53620,28759,184,25313,16544,25031,11333,42883,27568,2690],"class_list":["post-149670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","tag-2015-fina-world-championships","tag-allan-zoubrist","tag-becca-mann","tag-fina","tag-fina-world-aquatics-championships","tag-fina-world-swimming-championships","tag-katie-ledecky","tag-mike-unger","tag-olympic-trials","tag-sharon-van-rouwendaal","tag-usa-swimming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n
\n“I liked the digital lap counters,\u201d Ledecky said. \u201cHaving them in the pool made it easier with my natural stroke. It was a nice added convenience and provides a safety net for my lap count.”
\n \u201cI love those!\u201d said American Becca Mann<\/strong> after using the digital counters during her 800 free prelim swim. \u201cI usually just count in my head, but (I saw) big numbers (on the monitor), so I didn\u2019t have to count in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n