What happens if the touchpads or automatic timing fail?

Times and places from automatic equipment are presumed accurate and take precedence over hand times and finish judges. If the equipment fails to record a place or time for one or more swimmers, the Referee collects all automatic times and places, plus all timekeepers' and finish judges' records, and then:

Placings

• Swimmers with an automatic time and place keep their order relative to each other.
• A swimmer with an automatic time but no place is placed by comparing that time with the automatic times of the others.
• A swimmer with no automatic time or place is placed by comparing their semi-automatic or timekeeper time with the others' automatic times.

Official times

• Swimmers with an automatic time keep that time.
• Swimmers without one get their semi-automatic or timekeeper time.

The rules note that, unless video timing is used, a full team of timekeepers may still be needed even when automatic equipment is in use.