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The focus of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris is, of course, on the athletes and their excellence and dedication. It’s a rare opportunity for those of us who maybe sprint only to catch a bus or an elevator to track the athletes as they push the boundaries of the human body and spirit. A small number of fortunate spectators will be in France this summer to witness the spectacle in person; the rest of us will follow along at home on our electronic devices.

So, whose focus is on making that spectator event experience a smooth and fulfilling one—both abroad and at home? One of them is Sarah Vickers, Head of the Olympic and Paralympic Program at Intel, who will walk us through the process of leveling up event experiences through technology—the Olympics and Paralympics in particular. She’ll cover Intel’s involvement behind the scenes before, during, and after the Games; the crucial role of data in making decisions on the ground there; and how the experiences of Paris 2024 can inform not only the 2028 Games in Los Angeles but other kinds of entertainment events as well (Video 1).

Can you give us an overview of Intel’s involvement in the Games?

It is the largest sporting event—and the most complex sporting event—on Earth, and it has billions of watchers around the world. So it’s a really exciting opportunity for us to demonstrate the leadership of Intel technology in a scalable way.

We think about integrating Intel technology to help with the success of the Games in a variety of ways. There are the really complicated operations involved in delivering the Games—moving athletes and fans and volunteers around, getting people from point A to point B. That’s complex in itself, but doing that over 17 days across so many sports is even another level of complexity.

There’s also the fan experience beyond the operational ease of getting around, which is more about the time they spend outside of the Games. The sports themselves provide great entertainment, but then there’s all that in-between time. What can we do to help that experience be even better for the fans?

Then there’s the broadcast experience for the billions of people watching at home, which has become more involved when you think about all the different ways people consume media now. So, we work with Olympic Broadcasting Services to deliver outstanding experiences based on Intel technology and applications.

How is that Intel technology being used behind the scenes for Paris 2024?

We start working with the International Olympic Committee—the IOC—and with the International Paralympic Committee and with the specific organizing committee—in this case, Paris 2024—years in advance. We need to really understand what we are trying to solve. Also, how can we take what we’ve done in the past and make it better? So, we’ve taken solutions that emerged from Tokyo in 2020 and improved them. And then, what are the new challenges that have evolved since the last Games?

The Games are also a really excellent grounds to demonstrate the whole Intel idea of “AI Everywhere,” where Intel AI platforms have the opportunity to change a lot of things. One good example is digital twinning, as in having a digital twin of all the event venues to understand in a 3D way what they are going to be like during the Games.

If you think about broadcasters, they really need to understand where camera placement is going to be and how that’s impacted by different things. If you think about the transition from the Olympic Games to the Paralympic Games, there are a lot of changes that need to happen for accessibility for the athletes and things like that. Digital twins make it possible to do those things in advance, rather than doing it as it happens and realizing that certain solutions don’t actually work. There’s also some reduction in travel, because you can work with a digital twin on your PC from anywhere.

“The Games are also a really excellent grounds to demonstrate the whole Intel idea of #AIEverywhere, where Intel #AI platforms have the opportunity to change a lot of things” – Sarah Vickers, @Intel via @insightdottech

Another use case that we’re helping out with from an operational perspective is just understanding the data. There are a lot of people behind the scenes at the Games—the media that’s on the ground, all the workforce—so we’re helping the IOC and Paris 2024 understand the people-movement factor to optimize facilities for them. That could be about having the right occupancy levels in a venue, about making sure people have the right entries and exits, and really using that data to make real-time decisions. That will also help inform the next Games, because those teams will have a base set of data to help them model and plan for the complicated situations involved there.

One final example is on the athletes’ side. This is the athletes’ moment; for some of them it’s the highest moment in their careers. So, what you want to do is make it as uncomplicated for them as possible, so they can focus on their performance and not think about the things that enable them to get to that performance—food, travel, and accommodations.

So, for these Games we’re implementing a chatbot based on Intel AI technology. It’s going to enable athletes to ask questions and get conversational answers about day-to-day things—like food, travel, and accommodations. And that chatbot will continue to get smarter as we get more answers and understand what’s working. I think it’s really going to be a game changer for athletes in Paris.

Walk us through the process of your involvement with the Olympics and Paralympics.

The first thing we say is: “What needs to be delivered? What are we trying to solve? What are we worried about?” There’s a set of expectations for every Games, but then there’s also that set of expectations for what we want to do that’s different from the last time.

And then we do an assessment and ask, “How can Intel technology help?” We work very closely with a number of partners to try to figure out that question. And then we develop a roadmap of solutions. Some of those solutions are delivered in advance: digital twinning, for example. The benefit of digital twinning is not during the Games; the benefit is really months before the Games. Then there are other solutions that obviously are for during the Games. Hopefully, during the Games themselves, everything goes smoothly, and we can just enjoy it and watch our technology shine. But, of course, we have staff on-site to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch.

What about after the Games, what happens next?

There’s so much data involved with the Games, right? There’s all this content—broadcast data, all the highlights. Then there’s all the data that we’re helping the IOC collect in order to understand people movement and things like that. And that data is definitely being used to create models to help plan the next set of Games, as I mentioned before, as well as other kinds of entertainment.

One of the really interesting post-Games use cases we’re working on is with Olympic Broadcasting Services around using AI platforms for highlights of the Games. We’ll be able to create highlights that just weren’t possible before, because they were all generated by people and a limited number of people.

But if you think about how we consume broadcast these days, we are much more demanding in our expectations; we want things that are a little more personalized now. And there are 206 different countries participating in the Games—multiple languages, multiple sports. Some of the bigger countries have traditionally dominated the highlights space, and certain sports are really important in those countries and others aren’t important at all.

So, what the AI highlights will be able to do is generate highlights that are really customized to the people in the places that are viewing them. The models will also learn over time and get smarter, and then the fans are going to get even better and more personalized highlights.

Can the Intel technology that’s used for the Olympics be applied to other sectors?

Almost every application that Intel has for these Games, there’s a use for it at other events but also beyond sport. The way we think about it is: “How does this demonstrate what we can do?” And then: “How does it scale?”

One example is a really fun application of AI platforms called AI Talent Identification. It uses AI to do biomechanical analysis to help fans understand which Olympic sport they’re most aligned with. The fan does a bunch of fun exercises, Intel mashes up that data, and then they get the result. But if you think about what that biomechanical analysis can do, this application can be used in a variety of ways to improve people’s lifestyles—physiotherapy, occupational health. And think about digital twinning: you’re seeing a lot of that in manufacturing, in cities. It depends on the goals, but these types of technologies can definitely benefit many outcomes.

What is the value of Intel’s partnerships and ecosystem during the event?

The Games are going to be a massive event, and in this post-pandemic era I think we’re all excited to see them come back into their glory. It’s very exciting, but it’s obviously very complex. Paris is a giant, complicated city without an Olympic Games or Paralympic Games, and so bringing it all together is going to be hard.

Also, AI—and technology in general—has gotten smarter and become more mainstream, and that has affected what the expectations are around it. But we can use all the data that’s generated by it to build complex and interesting models—the compute is possible now—and there are going to be a lot of different AI applications that Intel will facilitate throughout the Games.

But Intel doesn’t do things alone; strong partnerships are crucial. We really try to understand what the best solution is, and then we work with the appropriate ecosystem to help deliver it—other top Olympic partners as well as partners at the local level. Working with those trusted partners, Intel can help develop the solutions to deliver an amazing Games. We’re really excited to be a partner of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee to help make these Games the best yet.

Related Content

To learn more about technology powering event experiences, listen to Game-Changing Tech Takes Event Experience to the Next Level. For the latest innovations from Intel, follow them on Twitter at @Intel and on LinkedIn.

This article was edited by Erin Noble, copy editor.