Question for the swim fans.

John_D80

Hello swimmers and swim fans,

I'm really enjoying the swimming events in the olympics at the mo, but one thing is bothering me. At the end of each race i've seen the swimmers exit the pool and it looks like each one of them is going to a table where there are 2 officials sat. On the table there are 8 (seemingly identical) cards laid out. This is really puzzling me.

Does anyone know what this is?

Cheers.

ManannanMacLir

Pretty sure they are just the security clearance things they wear around their necks.

AngryHippie

p test?

rabb_lbad

They are the athletes ID cards that give them access all areas of the olympic village and behind the scenes of their respective event venues.
There are barcodes on each one that identify the athlete and when scanned grants them the "behind the scenes" at each venue.

Once the athletes are competing, officials hold their passes so none of the information can be extracted by terrorists, weirdos, etc.

Thats why the cards are treated like trillion dollar bearer bonds.

There was a story in the paper last week about it some athlete put a picture of his ID cards complete with barcodes up on facebook saying he didn't like his picture on it. It had to be taken down and re-issued with new codes so the terrorists can't scan the information and use it to avenge Bin Laden.

John_D80

Thanks for the info folks.