What does the Technical Delegate at the Olympics do?

Chris Cohen was the first British official to be Technical Delegate at an Olympics and a World Championships. It is not a common role as it's generally reserved for major international events, but as a start to our new series of Competition Management roles (many of which are in place at England Regional Level and above), Chris was kind enough to give a general rundown of what the TD does. There are lots of other smaller parts to it but this article should at least give a flavour of it. 

"The simple description of the role of TD is that the buck stops here!"

Coordinating the competition

The TD role involves working closely with the local organising committee to make all the technical arrangements for the competition so that everything fulfils the rules of World Athletics and that the facilities are fully in line with the requirements of a major competition.  This isn’t always simple.

This year in Paris for example, the Rugby 7’s competition precedes the athletics and so some compromises had to be reached with regard to the field of play that wouldn’t have happened had that not been the case. This also involves ensuring there is a suitable warm-up area for events as well as suitable training facilities available for athletes.

It's all in the timing

One of the early tasks is to write and gain approval of the timetable for the competition. This has to go through lots of proposals, changes and further changes as different groups of people get involved, from those who will sell the tickets, to broadcasters who want to show the most important events at peak viewing times – so for Paris, not just in France but in Japan, in the USA and across the rest of the world. Then the timetable has to work for those in the stadium, both spectators and, of course, athletes.

"This year an added complication was that the organisers wanted to sell seventeen sessions of athletics to ensure the highest possible income to pay for the costs involved but just staging a normal programme such as we had last year in Budapest at the World Championships would only fill fifteen sessions of about three hours."

The solution was the introduction of the repechage round so that everyone who didn’t qualify for the semi-finals gets another chance to do so, similar to what happens in rowing and other sports.

There are lots of complexities in writing a timetable, from ensuring athletes who want to run the 100m, the 200m and the relay can do so, but doing the same thing with several other possible combinations such as Long Jump and Triple Jump, 800m and 1500m, 1500m and 5000m, 5000m and 10000m and so on. Not always easy as top athletes may even want to do combinations we never normally see. It’s also important to ensure rest time between heats, semi-finals and final for athletes as required and likewise between qualifying and finals in field events. These aren’t the same for every event!

Matching statistics to standards

The entry standards have to be approved, although the professional statisticians who work with World Athletics make that much more of a formality. The more complex part comes when the countries with no qualified athletes apply to have an athlete entered into one of the permitted events. This is to fulfil the universality concept that every country at the Olympics can be represented.

"Once standards are set, the TD has to control the entries and ensure all athletes fulfil the requirements. For example, was the performance done at an accepted competition under correct standards."

Throwing it all out there

Obviously, in the throwing events, there needs to be a list of throwing implements selected and approved. This is done by looking at the most used implements at previous major events and then asking the organisers to provide enough of them for training, warm-up and competition.

At previous Games, if an athlete normally threw an implement that was on the list of provided items they had to use those and couldn’t bring their own. For javelin and discus especially, this isn’t ideal, having to throw a brand new implement that’s still shiny and smooth. For that reason, this year for the first time, athletes can bring their own, even if it is already provided. Obviously, it has to fulfil all the regulations and weight, size, etc. [NOTE could others use it?]

An international jigsaw

Once entries close, the events have to be put together so that the first rounds are equal in standard, with a chance for the best athletes to reach the next round and the final.

"Athletes from the same country shouldn’t compete against one another in the early rounds, so, if there are two heats, they can’t be in the same heat, unless there are three of them!"

All of that needs to be done on an ongoing basis, each day, as teams confirm who is taking part the following day in each event.

All the field events have a qualifying round, usually with around 16 athletes in each group, so the TD has to decide on the qualifying height or distance to reach the final. That also relies on statistics so that the standard isn’t set so high that nobody or only one or two reach it but not so easy that more than twelve reach it. Usually three or four will reach it in the first of their three attempts (and stop competing at that point), some more in the second round and one or two more in the third and final round.

"If you can get around eight or nine qualified to the final by reaching the standard it’s a good day!"

Fitting it all together

Usually the day before competition starts there will be a meeting of all the teams, where they will receive final information about the competition, starting heights, qualification distances for field events, reminders about things they should know but have probably forgotten, like size of spikes in shoes, advertising on kit and so on, which is more strictly controlled at the Olympics than other events because there shouldn’t be any sponsor signs infield apart from kit manufacturers.

There is also a rehearsal of some sort, which is sometimes a proper competition and sometimes just an opportunity to make sure the TV cameras point in the right direction, officials and athletes don’t get in the way of good pictures (remember that over a billion people may be watching on TV around the world) and the Event Presentation team can structure the event in collaboration with TV and competition so that it all fits together seamlessly.

Setting the scene

Before the start of competition there are several walks round the stadium to make sure everything is as planned and that nobody has put something somewhere that wasn’t agreed. That can be anything from TV cables to athlete benches in the wrong place to vaulting pole stands being in the way of TV cameras to officials’ stools being in the way of photographers’ positions.

"The final check happens every morning before anyone appears on the track, often before 7am!"

Keeping it fair

During the competition you are constantly watching the competition, not just to see the results, but to make sure nobody has moved anything, or someone has gone infield that shouldn’t be there, which could be officials, photographers, TV camera operators.

There may also be things happen that aren’t covered by the rules, so decisions may need to be made as to how to overcome those challenges. These will usually require good cooperation between the TDs, the Referees and the Competition Director, as well as broadcasters.

"The first priority always is to ensure the competition is fair for everyone taking part, whether they are the likely winner or last placer."

You are also watching the software outputs to make sure the start lists, the results, the field event boards, and the Commentator Information Screens are working, are accurate and conform to the rules.

Out and about

For the Olympics, there are also the out of stadium events to plan and control. The organisers will propose a race walk course and a marathon course that, you hope, showcases the city but it has to be approved as safe and televisual as well as allowing spectator access to make it exciting.

"Paris is fortunate in having so many amazing buildings and the race walks took place directly below the Eiffel Tower, while the marathon went out of the city to the Palace of Versailles and returned by a different route. "

It’s an incredibly tough course, with several steep hills and will test the best runners, especially if it is hot on those days. Fortunately, we have a specialist in road races as one of the TDs so he will take care of most of that aspect of the competition, leaving me to concentrate on what happens in the stadium.

The difficult decisions

Occasionally, (you hope never) something may happen that requires a decision whether to delay competition or even postpone events, due to weather, technical problems or other issues. Again, as TD, you have to lead discussions and bring together everyone who can contribute to decisions so that a quick and good decision can be made and communicated.

• Download World Athletics rulebook for summary of TD role (Rule 5)
• Download Technical Delegate Guidelines (World Athletics)