The race is on. The adrenaline is rising. The final seconds are counting down on the clock. The slope is free and as the gate drops the competitors take off. In parallel snowboarding, a good start is crucial; being just one millisecond slow can lose you the race. If the starting gates do not drop simultaneously, or at all, one athlete has a slower start, which may impact his or her performance and potentially cost them a medal. Equally important, a ‘faulty’ gate casts a bad light on the manufacturer of the gate.

An important factor in snowboard parallel races is that the start gate opens safely and reliably for all participants. This is the only way to ensure a timely start and fair competition conditions for the athletes. For more than 40 years, Swiss Timing has been supporting athletes with high-quality equipment in various disciplines - not only in winter sports. Swiss Timing offers comprehensive and reliable technologies and services for professional timing.

Professional snowboarding is a young winter sport that became an Olympic sport only ‘recently’: in 1998. While its various disciplines - parallel giant slalom, parallel slalom, and snowboard cross – require different skills, they have one important thing in common: an optimal take-off makes the winner.

The rules are similar to those of other winter sports such as, for instance, alpine skiing. The athletes are behind a starting gate. When the start signal is given, the gate drops, and timing starts. To ensure fair conditions for all participants, the gate must drop quickly and reliably every time.

In the parallel race, it is important for both participants to be able to start under the same conditions. This means athletes should not be able to drop the gate manually, and the gate should function perfectly, including at temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius.

When safety and every one hundredth of a second counts

A very undesirable scenario in a snowboard parallel race is the unintentional opening of the starting gate. Manual opening must be prevented in any case to ensure a safe start. 

This demands a smart, fool-proof starting gate with a reliable locking system.

And this is where linear solenoids come into play. High-quality, robust solenoids - such as Kendrion’s RM050 - are used to lock the starting gate, guaranteeing safe and fair starting conditions for every participant.

Another important point for fairness in the race is that the different gates go up and drop down exactly at the same time. Swiss Timing, one of the world's leading sports timekeepers, relies on electromagnetic solutions from Kendrion for locking the gates. Swiss Timing holds the starting gate in position with a cylindrical solenoid that is approved for maximum performance.When the start signal is given, the power supply to the solenoid is simultaneously interrupted. This causes the starting gate to drop down due to its own weight, so the athletes can start the race.