| All these stages are synchronized. It
means that between data collection, analysis and statistics
only milliseconds are required.
Television, Press and Intranet are the
means of communicating and visualizing the Games to
ATOC managers, Athens 2004 Olympic Committee and Olympic
Games work force. To access the that Intranet Website
for the Olympics it is imperative to fill in as user
name and password using the exact, personalized accreditation
access code.
What kind of training is needed for this job? Though
there is no specific school, a technical background,
such as electronic or mechanic engineering is important,
and naturally, punctuality to the events.
Unknown to the average person, there is another backstage
occupation. Stringers are like a tennis players right
hand. And the job is still an artisan skill that can
only be preformed manually. The association "European
Rackets of Stringer Association" is the regulatory
body overseeing the craftsmen. These artisans are the
key to the perfectly stretched racket. Four to five
stringers work in a specially designated room in the
Olympic Tennis Centre. During the first days of the
tennis tournaments of the Olympics, they finely tuned
approximately 200 rackets per day! An average working
day is supposed to be from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., but in
the first days, when matches are played both morning
and afternoon, days lasted 32 hours. They couldn't remember
if it was night or day.
Why all these rackets to fix? Each tennis player has
from four to six rackets, half for training and half
for the matches and each champion has his own needs
and obsessions. The most of players arrive right before
the match because they want a "fresh" racket,
just done.
Women, however, have only 2 rackets, one to train and
one to compete and aren't as picky about special treatments.
Imagine that the first day of tennis competitions there
were 32 singles and 60 doubles for 100 players, for
this reason it is easy to imagine why the four stringers
had to work 32 hours. The player with the most of rackets
is Mark Philippoussis with nine rackets: two to three
for training and six for competition.
Each tennis player has specific instructions for stringers:
string tension, the kind of string, one single or two
separate, special decorations or details. Nicolas Kiefer,
for example, prefers the racket to be painted with the
logo in the middle, has three chosen colours for decoration,
and pieces of wood at the end of the strings to release
tension.
A stinger must remove old strings, fix the racket on
a stable working plain and manually push and pull strings
from one side to the other of the racket, vertically
and horizontally, regulating string by string the tension
in accordance to the player's requirements.
After that, the details and special requests are carried
out. A particular decoration on strings requires an
spray paint through a paper template to print the drawing.
This occupation can be full-time or part time. Some
stringers sign annual contracts with famous players
and follow them all year round. Others work as occasional
freelancers out of passion for special sports events,
while the rest of the year they are tennis teachers,
retired or freelance in other fields.
Specific training to become a stringer is provided
by the "European Rackets of Stringer Association"
which manages workshops and courses. More info available
at the Association's official web site www.ersa-stringers.com
Most never imagine that so many cables and figures
hides behind a player and that behind each racket is
the detailed work of such expert hands? Only a few know
the real story behind the scenes. For this reason, we
would like to give these teachers of engineering and
creativity visibility and acknowledgement for the essential,
and unseen, support they give.
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