Abstract. The confidence level of citizens, as far as the ability of the organizers to provide security is concerned, is a factor directly impacting their attendance in athletic events. This paper, proposes a system called BioAthletics that implements strong access control, enhancing the safety feeling of event spectators. BioAthletics integrates intelligent biometric access control systems and smart cards for authenticating participants. A pilot version of BioAthletics was deployed and tested in terms oE acceptability, information security and performance.