Top 5 Advanced Technologies Used at the Olympic Games

MKS 2026 Kış Olimpiyatları are officially underway in Milano Cortina, Italy, following the Summer Olympics held in Paris, France, two years earlier.

More than 200 teams participate in over 400 events across the Summer and Winter Games, forming the modern Olympic Games, which are the world’s largest and most complex sporting event, uniting thousands of athletes and billions of viewers every four years.

The Olympics aren’t just about hosting competitions, though. They are also about making sure that everything from officiating, broadcasting, and logistics to athlete safety and fan engagement operates seamlessly and reliably at such a big scale.

Historically, the Olympics have been a catalyst for technological advancements and adoption. From photo-finish cameras to electronic timing and global satellite broadcasting, advanced technology has either been pioneered or standardized through Olympic use.

In the 21st century, as digital transformation reshapes society through AI, automation, and immersive media, the Olympics have become a live testing ground for mature, production-ready technologies.

From AI-assisted judging and athlete monitoring to advanced broadcasting, smart equipment, and real-time data systems, modern Olympic technology now influences fairness, rule enforcement, athlete performance and safety, operational efficiency, and fan experience.

With that, let’s now take a look at a few prominent technologies adopted at the Olympic Games that form the foundation for how elite sport is officiated, broadcast, and experienced today.

1. AI-Powered Digital Twins

A virtual representation of a physical system, such as venues, infrastructure, or operational workflows that emulate their behavior using real-time data, digital twins offer a new way to leverage AI for productivity and collaboration.

These virtual 3D replicas use data collected from cameras, IoT devices, and environmental monitors, feeding it into simulation platforms to model crowd flow, energy usage, and emergency scenarios to address security and accessibility issues before they occur in the real world.

They are also used pre-Games to simulate peak loads and evacuation scenarios, which helps improve safety and logistics, reduce operational costs, and optimize resources. With this technology, organizers can prepare for any eventuality.

Paris 2024 used digital twins for venue planning and crowd management. They were also used to monitor energy consumption in real time, with operational data captured to support more informed future planning. In partnership with Intel (INTC -6.19%), the Olympics organizers used the concept of digital twinning to forecast where they would need power, where to place cameras, and whether there could be accessibility issues, without being on site every time.

For Milano Cortina 2026, digital twins are being used earlier in the planning process, allowing engineers to virtually visit venues before they’re built. Using NVIDIA (NVDA -0.79%) Omniverse technology, organizers created immersive simulations that combine architectural blueprints with real-time data streams like weather patterns, crowd flow, and security sensor data. This lets them review designs collaboratively, test operational scenarios, and make adjustments during construction instead of waiting until venues are completed. In the future, the technology can expand into athlete training environments and city-scale twins for host cities.

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2. Contactless Biometric Sensing

To monitor athlete performance, the Olympic Games now use contactless biometrics that don’t require physical contact or even wearable sensors. Instead, high-definition cameras, radar sensing, and AI signal processing are used to track an athlete’s movements or physical changes in real time.

These technologies detect micro-movements like variation in breathing or heart rate, or any small fluctuations in skin color, letting fans see the literal stress of a gold-medal moment, making it all even more exciting and influential. This way, the tech allows broadcasters to disrupt those parts of the sports that are invisible to people.

At Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) used contactless vital-sensing technology to provide live, estimated heart rate monitoring.

Working with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Organising Committee and Olympic broadcast partners (RHBs), they placed four cameras near athletes, focusing on their faces and analyzing the slightest of changes in skin colour, which allowed audiences to witness variations in archers’ heartbeat and adrenaline rush experienced by their body as they launch their arrow.

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3. Computer Vision Judging Support (JSS)

Adopted in gymnastics, JSS uses AI to track joint movements and compare them against 2,000 documented skills. The AI-based video evaluation system reduces human error by providing an objective, 3D dataset for judges who might otherwise miss a slight angle deviation in a split second that can make or break a score.

The AI judging system was in use when Croatia’s Tin Srbić won a silver medal at the World Championships, a result that helped him secure qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Computer-vision-based judging support systems, such as JSS, are also being used at the 2026 Winter Olympics as part of a broader push toward AI-assisted officiating that enhances judging accuracy and consistency while retaining final authority with human officials.

The system does not replace human judges; rather, it assists them in making more accurate decisions with the help of 360-degree, computer-generated 3D data.

While early versions of JSS relied on lasers, the system now uses multiple high-definition cameras, with one positioned at each piece of equipment, to capture a 3D view of a gymnast’s performance. The system analyzes joint positions and compares them with the standards for each element in the Code of Points in real time.

Beyond supporting judges, JSS can also be used in gymnastics training to improve performance and enhance the spectator experience by providing enriched content and a new viewing perspective.

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4. FPV (First-Person View) Drones

Drones were first introduced at the Olympics over a decade ago, but now, for the first time, they are capturing the speed and intensity of games in real time.

At Milan-Cortina, advanced FPV drones are being used to capture dynamic close-up footage of events such as snowboarding, luge, and downhill skiing. The use of FPV drones to follow athletes at close range as they compete has led to incredible shots that make the Winter Olympics look like a real-life video game.

These high-speed drones are piloted by professionals and equipped with 4K cameras to deliver immersive, dynamic broadcast angles. These drones feature autonomous flight assistance, real-time video encoding, and AI obstacle detection, offering a new way to tell visual stories.

With this transformative broadcast innovation, we are getting shots that have never been possible before, making viewers feel like they are on the track with the athletes.

By chasing athletes at up to 120kph, whether rocketing through an ice track in luge, carving down a snowboarding course, or arcing at full speed through a downhill ski run, these drones place the viewer just inches behind the athlete, delivering a raw, intense, and immersive experience to the fans.

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5. Smart Starting Blocks

Equipped with built-in sensors and loudspeakers, smart starting blocks are digitally instrumented track blocks that ensure the start signal reaches every athlete’s ear at exactly the same microsecond.

These pressure-sensitive devices are designed to monitor and prevent false starts, as well as enhance sprinters’ performance. These devices measure metrics like force, reaction time, and block angle and deliver all the data through apps for immediate analysis.

This way, these blocks overcome the physical limitation of the speed of sound and ensure the athlete in Lane 8 isn’t at a disadvantage compared to Lane 1.

The technology has been used at the Olympic Games for a long time to measure reaction times and automatically detect false starts. The London 2012 Games featured modern swimming starting blocks with an inclined platform and an adjustable rear kick plate to enable more explosive starts.

More advanced starting blocks now feature sensors capable of measuring time to a millionth of a second, along with onboard memory buffers to ensure a level playing field for all athletes. At the 2024 Paris Games, these smart starting blocks were integrated with quantum-accurate timers for official event timekeeping.

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Investing in Advanced Olympic Tech

One of the most prominent names in this space is Intel Corporation, which boasts a long-standing partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As a worldwide Olympic partner, Intel has been the core provider of AI platforms, computer vision systems, 5G, VR, and drone technologies for the Games.

At Paris 2024, Intel, along with Samsung, deployed an AI-driven talent scouting platform at the Stade De France. By combining Samsung’s smartphones and computer vision technology with Intel’s AI, participants were enabled to try different sports drills and the AI would suggest which Olympic sport fit them best.

As the Official AI Platform Partner for Paris 2024, Intel introduced several innovative AI experiences for fans, viewers, athletes, and organisers worldwide. This includes taking visitors on a journey of becoming an Olympic athlete and supporting OBS through Automatic Highlights Generation, which compiled key moments from various sports into tailored highlights reels to personalize content and engage audiences.

With its hardware and AI platforms embedded in judging, broadcast, and analytics pipelines, Intel offers an attractive investment option.

Intel is a computer chip designer and fabricator that operates through three segments: Intel Products, Intel Foundry, and All Other. The computer chips that Intel designs and develops are used in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, medicine, and automotives, making them critical to national security.

As a result, last year the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in the company through an $8.9 billion investment, making the US government one of Intel’s largest shareholders. Besides the US government, Nvidia and SoftBank also made major investments in the chipmaker last year.

The federal government purchased 433.3 million primary shares of the stock at $20.47 per share. And since then, Intel shares have more than doubled, surging to a new all-time high (ATH) of $54.60 in late January this year.

As of writing, the company shares are trading at $50.22, up 36.15% YTD and 154.12% in the past year. With a market cap of almost $251 billion, Intel has an EPS (TTM) of -0.08 and a P/E (TTM) of -611.94.

When it comes to Intel’s financial position, it recently reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations but offered soft guidance for the current quarter. The chipmaker’s revenue for the period came in at $13.7 billion, decreasing 4% YoY, while full-year revenue was $52.9 billion, recording no growth.

This includes $4.5 billion in revenue from Foundry, some of which is from making Intel’s own chips, while revenue from Data Center and AI sales totaled $4.7 billion during the quarter, up 9% on an annual basis. Chips for laptops, reported as Client Computing Group sales, were down 7% YoY to $8.2 billion.

“Our conviction in the essential role of CPUs in the AI era continues to grow,” said CEO Lip-Bu Tan. “We delivered a solid finish to the year and made progress on our journey to build a new Intel.”

Meanwhile, CFO David Zinsner noted surpassing expectations revenue, gross margin, and EPS even as Intel “navigated industry-wide supply shortages.”

“Demand fundamentals across our core markets remain healthy as the rapid adoption of AI reinforces the importance of the x86 ecosystem as the world’s most widely deployed high-performance compute architecture.”

– Zinsner

Intel’s earnings per share were 15 cents adjusted for the last quarter and $0.42 for the full-year. It also reported a net loss of $600 million, or 12 cents per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $100 million, or 3 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Importantly, the introduction of its first products on Intel 18A has been noted by Tan as a key milestone. The 18A manufacturing technology competes with TSMC’s 2nm technology. Earlier this month, Tan said that 18A “over-delivered” in 2025, suggesting that the technology may soon enter volume production. The company is now “working aggressively to meet strong customer demand,” he added.

According to Tan:

“Our priorities are clear: sharpen execution, reinvigorate engineering excellence, and fully capitalize on the vast opportunity AI presents across all of our businesses.”

Now, for the first quarter, Intel expects revenue between $11.7 billion and $12.7 billion and adjusted earnings per share to break even. This soft guidance is due to the company not having the supply to meet seasonal demand, but is expected to improve in the second quarter.

Sonuç

One of the most powerful collective experiences, the Olympic Games blend athletic excellence, cultural unity, and global cooperation. And as the scale and expectations of the Games continue to grow, so does the role of technology in the competitions, where it enhances fairness, athlete safety, operational resilience, and global fan inclusion.

More importantly, the Olympics aren’t just a place for speculative innovation; they’re an environment that demonstrates the maturity and reliability of technologies for real-world adoption.

This way, the Olympic Games showcase not just the fastest, strongest, or most skilled humans but also what is possible with technology and its responsible integration into human achievement.

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