"With us, there are no ties," we followed those who manage the results of the French athletics championships in Talence.

Until August 3, the Pierre-Paul-Bernard stadium in Talence will host its first-ever French Elite Athletics Championships. The team responsible for collecting, managing, and disseminating the results will be at the heart of the event.

"If we weren't here, the French Athletics Championships could take place, but not in the same way," smiles Christophe Szydlowski. "We'd still be taking results with tapes and manual stopwatches." From Friday to today, this strapping, smiling fifty-year-old coordinates the work of 14 technicians in Talence. A team in charge of everything related to the search for and management of results. He also takes charge of the data transmitted to television in real time.

The crowd at the Pierre-Paul-Bernard stadium doesn't necessarily pay attention, but Talence's sports facility is packed with equipment during these three days. "Cameras, screens, panels, cables," lists Christophe Szydlowski. "We came with a full semi-trailer, and it took us three days to set up."

This equipment comes from the Matsport company, which has already come to Talence for the Décastar. It allows races to be timed with precision down to a thousandth of a second, or to separate competitors with cameras that take 10,000 images per second. "With us, there are no ties. We respond to the rise in sporting performance but also to the economic challenges associated with it. When athletes ask for sponsorships, they need to be able to clearly state that they are among the best."

Maximum accuracy in results and minimal time for their display. This is Matsport's other role, which notably uses the IsoLynx system: a data collection technology during races, thanks to chips placed in the athletes' bibs. "With it, we can track the evolution of the ranking in real time. That's how we create the panels you see on TV."

Managing all of this technology requires solid IT skills, but that's not all. "You also have to be an electrician. We unroll cables. We do soldering. Here, with the rain on the first day of competition, we also worked hard to protect our networks from humidity. But the main qualities for this job are, above all, human. You have to know how to manage your stress. When you only have five minutes to make a repair before the start of an event, it's not ten. Television doesn't wait for us."

Human qualities are also essential for teamwork. In Talence, the days go from 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. "We don't sleep much. We don't eat much. Sometimes we don't eat. And then we move on to other services. We're away 150 days a year. We have to be able to adapt to each other for periods that can last up to three weeks. But we experience some great moments. Having worked on the European Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2018 remains a great memory: speakers of different nationalities, 20 kilometers of cable to unroll, in an 80,000-seat stadium, but we made it." Indeed, in comparison, the 7,000 seats of the Pierre-Paul-Bernard stadium are almost like a holiday camp.