There are way more factual errors and just plain bullshit in Gary Black's article than truth. It sounds like Mr. Black reprinted almost verbatim the spin issued by Swiss Timing to cover the fact that ST violated their contractual obligations to FIS during Soelden and engaged in a high-stakes blackmail scheme which they lost. In the European press, ALGE is being hailed as the saviour of the Soelden event after Swiss Timing tried to ruin it.
I was part of the ALGE team in Soelden, so allow me to respond with the facts as I saw them, since I was there.
There IS a worldwide contract in place for DATA, and ST is contractually obligated to provide this service to all World Cups.
There IS NOT a worldwide contract for TIMING. FIS and SWATCH have been trying to push this agenda for years, but many of the countries involved in World Cup, namely the USA, the Austrians, and the Canadians, do not want it, and have not signed it. A quick call to Ken Read or John Garnsey will confirm the fact that they are free to sign a contract for TIMING with whomever they choose.
About 6 weeks ago, the Austrian Federation (OSV) signed a contract for TIMING at 5 of their 6 events, with ALGE. Kitzbuehel was not included, because Kitz already had a separate, long-term contract with ST for TIMING. The OSV had an offer from ST, for their 5 other events, but they chose ALGE instead. Immediately, ST started scheming and threatening both the FIS and the Austrian events that they might not show up to do DATA unless OSV changed their mind about TIMING.
About three weeks before the event, ST finally confirmed they would show up to do DATA, and they asked a favor from ALGE. They asked that ALGE duplicate the ST "ASOP3" protocol out of the ALGE timing equipment, because ST didn't have a programmer available to modify the ST DATA software to accept ALGE's data. ALGE obliged this request.
A data test was scheduled between ALGE TIMING and SWATCH DATA during the FIS Congress in Zurich about 2 weeks before Soelden, but SWATCH did not show up.
Two days before the womens slalom (Wednesday afternoon), a representative of ST called the OSV. He said ST had sent their DATA and TIMING teams to a village 80 km from Soelden, but ST would not continue on to Soelden unless the following terms were met:
1) ST does TIMING and DATA for Soelden.
2) ST pays ALGE's fee, and the ALGE team goes home before the race starts.
3) The OSV signs a deal for the other 4 Austrian events with ST to do both DATA and TIMING.
The OSV refused to cave into Swiss Timing's threats. The OSV came to ALGE and asked what could be done about DATA on two days' notice if Swiss Timing didn't show up, as they were threatening to do. We told them we would put together what we could in the time allowed, but that we had two days. They told us to get cracking, because the odds were that Swiss Timing wasn't coming.
We worked around the clock from Wednesday night until the womens race started on Saturday. The task was to develop a DATA system in two days comparable to the one ST has spent years developing. Sponsor SIEMENS came through with two dozen laptops to run the commentator screens. Albert Vetter from ALGE got on the phone and called in extra technical people from all over Austria to help. Live web timing is FIS's responsibility; we offered them our data feed, but they didn't have the resources to put the necessary software together in the two days that Swiss Timing's breach of contract allowed them. The idea of live web timing was abandoned very early on after it became likely that Swiss Timing wouldn't show up.
A further complication soon reared its ugly head. Swiss Timing's Olympic partner WIGE had been hired by FIS to put together the "look" for the TV graphics (the graphic elements, flag icons, etc). FIS didn't have this artwork, and of course neither WIGE nor Swiss Timing was willing to send it along. SIEMENS saved the day. They had one of their ad agencies work around the clock for two days to develop the artwork from scratch and get it to us in Soelden.
Swiss Timing never showed up in Soelden. With the DATA software still being written, ALGE went on the air, doing both DATA and TIMING. It wasn't perfect, but it went pretty damn well. Contrary to Black's claims about "simplistic timing", the commentators in general actually were happier with our Commentator Screen than with Swiss Timing's because it was presented in high-rez on a laptop instead of ST's video-based system. Easier to read, and no noisy button-pushing required.
Ironically, the few problems we encountered were as a result of circumstances having absolutely nothing to do with Swiss Timing's scheming. For example, the FIS didn't build an exit gate into the course, which is against their own World Cup rules, so every skier who fell or skied out was forced to come through the 50-meter-wide finish. That's what bit us on the ass with Lalive. The skier immediately before Lalive fell, then got up and skied through the finish beams without looking behind her to see Lalive was only a few feet behind her. We got both impulses, but it took a few racers to correct Lalive's time. As to Black's statement about Paerson's time, that is simply false. There was no problem with Paerson's time.
Swiss Timing overplayed their hand, their attempts to ruin Soelden's race and TV broadcast failed. After the womens race, the Director from TV host ORF personally came up into the timing tower to thank ALGE for saving his broadcast. We certainly agreed that our performance had a few zits, but under the circumstances, it bordered on miraculous. ALGE's clients, namely SIEMENS, OSV, and indirectly the race host broadcaster ORF, were very happy.
All racer times were carefully audited by a representative from FIS for accuracy, and approved.
To anyone who watches the broadcast, notice that the TIMING logos are SIEMENS and that there are no DATA logos at all. Since the legal status of DATA was unclear due to Swiss Timing's breach of contract, it was decided by the OSV that DATA logos would not be displayed at all, only timing, since ALGE had a valid and legal contract to do timing only. ALGE stepped in to do DATA only when asked by OSV to save the day.
Black's article is correct in that the events in Soelden do throw the entire World Cup into turmoil. Swiss Timing had a contract to do a job and simply didn't show up because they didn't like the situation. They were taken to task by the European sporting press. Why Black chose to spin events the other way in a question mark. Nonetheless, events holding contracts with Swiss Timing to do TIMING and/or DATA (such as Beaver Creek and Lake Louise) must be wondering what Swiss Timing's last-hour demands will be to show up. Furthermore, even though FIS is riddled with employees loyal to Swiss Timing, FIS has got to be wondering if they want to do business in the future with a company that shows up only when they feel like it.
