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No sporting event has embraced technological advancements like the Olympic Games. Fencers rely on cutting-edge sensors to ensure accurate attack recordings, while underwater robot cameras capture every moment of swimming and diving events.
Yet, runners and cyclists still make use of an unexpectedly simple tool: a paper number pinned onto their clothes. What's the reason behind this?
In reality, athletes wear what’s known as a bib—a lightweight plastic Tyvek sheet that resists sweat and moves with the body. According to Tyvek supplier Running Count, the material is also tear-resistant, though it's unclear whether this refers to tears from rips or the frustration of a tough race—or both.
Initially, the numbers on bibs were used for identification by judges who had to monitor multiple competitors. However, with the development of computer chips and timers, it's become less necessary to assign a number to each athlete. Today, bibs serve a purpose in timekeeping. Olympic track and field athletes wear bibs equipped with tracking chips that precisely monitor each runner’s position down to the centimeter. They also record the exact moment competitors cross the finish line, crucial in races where a split second determines the winner, such as in the men’s 100-meter final at the 2024 Paris Games, where American sprinter Noah Lyles narrowly beat Jamaican Kishane Thompson by five thousandths of a second.
Bibs also act as prime advertising space for both athletes and their sponsors. According to WIRED, the large areas on the athletes’ torsos are valuable real estate for corporate logos, with companies paying millions to have their logos showcased on international broadcasts.
Although athletes can't select their bib number or its design, some still find personal meaning in it. For instance, when gymnast Nadia Comaneci donated her bib to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2014, she explained that the number 73 symbolized the seven perfect 10 scores she achieved and the three gold medals she won.
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