ABSTRACT
The notion of using a camera to determine placing in sports was first conceptualized in the late 1870s and 1880s. Although the resultant photo finishes were being produced as early as 1890, the practice did not gain widespread use or recognition until several decades later. Swiss Timing played a leading role in this regard. Starting in the 1930s, the company was the first to provide comprehensive timing and imaging data for large-scale sporting events and is now the industry standard for sports timing and imaging systems. In the most immediate sense, the purpose of the photo finish is to determine placing in sporting contests. However, from its inception, the photo finish was also promoted as a viable and desirable part of sports media. In fact, in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, photo-finish images functioned less as evidence to determine placing than as a form of entertainment reproduced in news and sports periodicals. More than a hundred years later, photo finishes still serve this function; however, they are also a key part of the live or “real-time” sports viewing experience. Providers such as Swiss Timing must therefore produce documents that are immediately usable to race officials, broadcasters, commentators, and the viewing public. This makes the photo finish a unique piece of sports media.
